At the invitation of WTO Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya met with her at WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday 26 April 2021. They agreed on further cooperation between the two Organizations in a wide range of areas.

Dr. Mikuriya congratulated Dr. Okonjo-Iweala on her recent appointment and expressed his eagerness to work with her, noting that she had acquired a good insight into Customs during her professional career, including her tenure as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance. He discussed the long-standing and successful cooperation between the two Organizations and expressed his wish to continue the good working relationship.

Director-General Okonjo-Iweala expressed her appreciation and thanks for the useful recommendations provided by Secretary General Mikuriya during a recent WTO event, and also shared her desire to further enhance the cooperation between the WTO and the WCO.

The two leaders touched upon a number of broad areas of mutual interest, including the traditional fields of Harmonized System, Valuation and Origin, as well as Trade Facilitation and E-Commerce. They also explored ways to jointly address the urgent challenge of facilitating the cross-border movement of COVID-19 vaccines while monitoring and securing global supply chains in order to combat the circulation of dangerous, sub-standard or counterfeit medicines and vaccines.