Secretary General of the WCO meets Luxembourg Minister of Finance

30 November 2009

Secretary General of the WCO meets Luxembourg Minister of Finance

27 November 2009

Report

During a visit to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 27 November 2009, Secretary General of the WCO, Kunio Mikuriya held talks with Minister of Finance, Luc Frieden and Director of Customs and Excise, Alain Bellot. Their discussions included issues of mutual interest to  the WCO and the Government of Luxembourg.

Minister Frieden assured the Secretary General that Luxembourg would continue to support the global Customs community through the work being done at the WCO. Mr. Mikuriya in turn expressed his appreciation to the Minister for Luxembourg’s contribution to the WCO especially the role that it was fulfilling as current Vice-Chair of the WCO for the Europe region.

The Secretary General also had the opportunity to view, at first hand, the operation of a fully mobile self-contained vehicle testing station that was developed in Luxembourg. Designed with a full range of testing equipment, the station can be deployed in 20-30 minutes and was able to lift any roadworthy vehicle carrying a full load. The technology is aimed at improving road safety and protecting the environment (testing for emissions, for example), and is used to undertake roadside inspections of vehicles circulating within Luxembourg’s territory.

Secretary General Mikuriya was particularly impressed by the fact that government agencies, including Customs, worked together in implementing roadside checks. He said that this was an excellent example of coordination between agencies at the national level.