Fifth World BASC Congress
Lima, 9-10 March 2011
Report
The Fifth World BASC Congress was held on 9 and 10 March 2011 in Lima, Peru. It brought together business and government agencies to look into supply chain management issues under the theme “Security and Facilitation: Today’s Theme in International Trade”. The Congress attracted BASC certified companies, senior officials from governments (Customs administrations and trade ministries) as well as international organizations, including the UNODC and the WCO.
Erich Kieck, the WCO Director of Capacity Building delivered a keynote speech on “Customs in the 21st Century, AEO Programmes and Implementation through Capacity Building”.In his address, the Director recognized the efforts that have been made by both Customs and business to facilitate the movement of goods through secure supply chains, including through initiatives such as BASC, and the progress made by many administrations in Latin America, working closely with the WCO, to implement AEO programmes. He also shared the progress that had been made at a global level with AEO programmes and provided a review of AEO mutual recognition programmes and some of the issues to be considered in moving in this direction.
The opportunity was also used to meet with the senior management team of the Peruvian Revenue administration (SUNAT) and to discuss progress made with their Customs modernization programme as well as support by the WCO Secretariat.
The Business Alliance for Secure Commerce (BASC) is a private sector organization that was created in 1996 with the mission of promoting world trade by establishing and administering global supply chain security standards. The WCO and BASC signed a MoU in 2007 and have worked closely together on anumber of initiatives including AEO Conferences in a number of countries in Latin America.