In an effort to maintain a close cooperation and unity amongst RILOs, on the 8th of October 2020 the Global RILO Network met virtually for its second informal meeting. All 11 RILOs attended this event as simultaneous interpretation was provided in the two official languages of the WCO.

In the opening remarks of the meeting, the WCO Deputy Director of Compliance and Enforcement, Mr. Stefan Kirsch, underlined that in today’s global situation of uncertainty, it is vital to underline the relevance of WCO regional structures, and provide more visibility to their activities.

The WCO Secretariat continuously works on promoting the Global RILO Network and the important role that the RILOs play in their regions, not only as intelligence hubs and providers of capacity building, but also as a Global Network supporting the Customs community with all aspects of its enforcement activities.

With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the world, our workplace and ways of the cooperation are evolving. The organization of these types of virtual meetings provides stability in the daily cooperation between the stakeholders, and ensures that the WCO Secretariat and the Global RILO Network remain attuned to ways of supporting each other and the wider Customs community.

The meeting was marked by an interesting and practical exchange of views on the improvement of the Illicit Trade Report, and the importance of data quality. RILO’s hold a responsibility as front line actors in encouraging Members to input data and ensuring the quality of the submitted data in CEN. In other topics the key role that RILOs play in the maintenance and promotion of the WCO’s Regional Illegal Wildlife and Timber Trade Risk Matrix was examined, as well as the engagement of RILOs in upcoming WCO Meetings such as the 14th Meeting of the Global Information and Intelligence Strategy (GIIS) Project Group, the 17th Meeting of the WCO Counterfeiting and Piracy (CAP) Group, and the 7th Meeting of the Working Group on Revenue Compliance and Fraud. The organizational matters linked to the upcoming 28th Global RILO Meeting were also discussed.