The World Customs Organization (WCO) is profoundly saddened by the news of the devastating and tragic earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria, two of our Members, causing an increasing death toll, the collapse of hundreds of buildings and substantial damage to important infrastructure in both countries.
As the first line of defence at the borders, Customs has an important role to play, especially during crisis situations, to ensure that high volumes of life-saving supplies and equipment reach the impacted communities in a timely manner. Such goods are critical for the very survival of affected communities and to equip rescue workers and humanitarian aid operators.
Supporting Members in a comprehensive and agile manner has always been a priority for the WCO, even more so during natural disasters like the present one. Customs administrations can rely on several instruments and tools that can help them in making their emergency responses more effective in order to streamline border procedures and facilitate the cross-border movement of relief consignments in a fast, efficient and legitimate way.
To support Members, a web page on natural disaster relief is available on the WCO website, designed for Customs administrations to rapidly identify, access and examine several technical texts relevant to this area of work such as the Revised Kyoto Convention, Specific Annex J, Chapter 5, the Resolution of the Customs Co-operation Council on the role of customs in natural disaster relief (June 2011) and the WCO Guidelines on disaster management and supply chain continuity to name few.
The relevant WCO instruments and tools prescribe that the clearance of relief consignments for export, transit, temporary admission and import shall be carried out as a matter of priority, as well as specify the facilitation measures that Customs should implement for of relief consignments. The facilitation measures include the lodging of a simplified Goods declaration or of a provisional or incomplete Goods declaration subject to completion of the declaration within a specified period; lodging and registering or checking of the Goods declaration and supporting documents prior to the arrival of the goods, and their release upon arrival; clearance outside the designated hours of business or away from Customs offices and the waiver of any charges in this respect; and examination and/or sampling of goods only in exceptional circumstances. Furthermore, clearance of relief consignments should be granted without regard to the country of origin, the country from which arrived or country of destination.
The June 2011 Council Resolution invites Members to manage borders in an efficient, simplified and coordinated manner, including sharing of information, with the other national authorities involved in the handling of relief items, while using existing clearance systems in order to provide for rapid, efficient and centralized processing of these consignments.
The WCO will continue to monitor the situation and provide support to its Members. We commend Customs officers who, at this very moment, are on the ground in the impacted regions and our hearts and condolences go out to the grieving families and their loved ones.