The Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Dr. Kunio Mikuriya and the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Dr. Fang Liu issued on 2 February 2021 a joint statement calling for efforts to ensure safe, secure and efficient transport of COVID-19 vaccines and associated equipment across borders.

“Through digitalization and flexibility of the export, transit and import processes in air cargo operations, including robust risk management mechanisms, our two organizations seek to significantly increase the speed at which vaccines can be delivered to the end user, whilst minimizing the risk of distribution of unsafe and counterfeited medical products”, the two leaders indicated in the joint statement.

The WCO and ICAO Secretariats are collaborating with each other, as well as with the involved stakeholders to develop and execute needed plans intended to facilitate safe, secure, and efficient vaccine delivery.

The joint statement outlines a number of measures to be implemented by Governments with the objective of expediting air cargo transport and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The full text of the statement is available below.