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29 May 2020
Recognizing the specific challenges faced by Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), on 29 May 2020 the United Nations High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (HRLLS), Ms. Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu, and the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, issued a joint statement calling upon LLDCs and transit countries to maintain the continuity of international and regional supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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29 May 2020
The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 disease has had an impact on the physical delivery of capacity building activities by many international organizations. However, both World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have shown their resilience and capacity to adapt to this unique situation by organizing online trainings, the latest being the successful delivery of a five-day PITCH (Prevention of Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Heritage) training from 25 to 29 May 2020.
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27 May 2020
The first virtual working session of the WCO’s technical assistance on accession to the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) took place on 19 May via videoconference. This meeting initiated the WCO’s support that will be provided to the Customs Administration of Guatemala, within the framework of the light-touch interventions of the SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP), which has the long-term goal of strengthening Guatemala’s capacity to address international trade challenges through accession and compliance with RKC.
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25 May 2020
Since the beginning of this challenging period with travel bans and quarantine measures, the UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP) was seeking to continue its support to and the cooperation with the Port and Airport Control Units in the 51 participating countries across the globe.
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20 May 2020
The SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP) will provide technical assistance to the Customs Administration of Guatemala on the accession to the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC). This support is part of the GTFP’s light-touch interventions consisting of short-term assistance based on identified needs on specific trade facilitation areas.
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20 May 2020
In order to pursue its efforts to develop its mechanisms for enforcement against organized crime and improve its border security, Benin is currently hosting a national COPES workshop.
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20 May 2020
The Air Cargo Control Unit in Phnom Penh airport, Cambodia, established in the framework of the UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP), detected a shipment containing around 100 fake COVID-19 test kits. Upon its arrival from Hong Kong China, the shipment was falsely declared as ‘Test Paper Sample’.
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20 May 2020
On Friday, 15 May 2020, as part of the actions taken by the World Customs Organization (WCO) in response to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the WCO Secretariat launched its first document-based meeting.
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20 May 2020
The WCO-led operation ALAMBA 2020, organized under WCO’s Global Shield Programme, took place from 7 to 17 March 2020 with the participation of 14 Member countries from West and Central African (WCA) region. The Customs administrations targeted commodities that were misused by terrorists, in particular those diverted for the manufacture of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for use in attacks in the region. A total of 119 seizures were recorded, including: approximately 39 tons of cyanide; 7.8 tons of explosive components; 5,200 metres of detonating cords; 1,052 litres of nitric acid, 660 parts of igniters; and 220 litres of hydrogen peroxide.
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19 May 2020
In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, characterized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic on 11 March 2020, countries around the world have been adopting a series of trade and border protection measures to try to contain the spread of the disease across borders. Such measures have had immediate and severe impacts on economic activities and caused major disruptions in supply chains. Given that trade facilitation is a key policy tool that can help countries mitigate some of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WCO has partnered with the WTO, UNCTAD, the CSSO, the GATF, IATA and ITC to develop a COVID-19 Trade Facilitation Repository in which all these actions are consolidated.
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19 May 2020
As part of the WCO BACUDA (Band of Customs Data Analysts) project with the Institute of Basic Science (IBS) and the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), WCO has developed a Dual-Attentive-Tree-aware-Embedded (DATE) neural network model to assist Customs administration to better detect transactions presenting risks of fraud.
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15 May 2020
The heads of the World Customs Organization (WCO), the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the Organisation for Co-operation between Railways (OSJD) issued a joint statement on 15 May 2020
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14 May 2020
The WCO and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) strengthened their partnership recently to further facilitate the exchange of information in a harmonized way by updating the IMO Compendium on Facilitation and Electronic Business and mapping it to the WCO Data Model . The updated Compendium, which is a set of standards on the submission of maritime related data, will enable the integration of Maritime and Customs Single Windows and allow closer coordination between Customs administrations and Maritime authorities.
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13 May 2020
In the response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, a number of Members designated priority lanes and introduced facilitative measures with regard to the cross-border movement of essential goods. However, there is no internationally recognized definition of essential goods to support those Members that are yet to consider providing priority treatment and facilitative measures to such goods.
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12 May 2020
The heads of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the International Road Transport Union (IRU) Secretariats issued a joint statement on 8 May 2020 and jointly called on Customs administrations worldwide to ensure coordinated cross-border interventions in cooperation with other national border agencies and implement international standards such as the TIR Convention, as appropriate, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and agreed to coordinate efforts.
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06 May 2020
More than 19,000 archaeological artefacts and other artworks have been recovered as part of a global operation spanning 103 countries and focusing on the dismantlement of international networks of art and antiquities traffickers.
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06 May 2020
The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) step up their joint efforts to fight fraud through improved information sharing. As a result, Customs administrations worldwide will have access to non-personal data on tobacco smuggling within 24 hours of it being shared by their counterparts in the EU Member States.
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04 May 2020
INTERPOL and the WCO have signed an agreement granting the WCO Secretariat access to the global INTERPOL database on illicit firearms.
The agreement further strengthens the longstanding cooperation between the two organizations in the fight against trafficking, organized crime and terrorism, thus leveraging on WCO’s mandate to assist Members to identify and cut off the flow of illicit weapons.
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