The World Customs Organization (WCO), present under its official UN designation as the Customs Cooperation Council, reinforced the essential role of Customs in international development during the 4th United Nations Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). Held in Seville, this high-level forum convened global stakeholders to address the future of development financing and to strengthen international cooperation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Customs’ Multifaceted Contribution to Development
Speaking at the Multi-stakeholder Roundtable on “Upholding the multilateral trading system, and harnessing the potential of science, technology and innovation,” Secretary General Ian Saunders underscored Customs’ multifaceted contribution to development as a collector of public revenue, a facilitator of legitimate trade, and a protector of society at national borders.
Demonstrating the link between Customs and development goals, Mr Saunders said, “The WCO not only maintains standards that support international trade. It supports Members from all levels of development that strive to implement them. We know the economic and social benefits of standards are realized through implementation. And my organization works around the world to this end, as it is essential to Members' effective integration into the rules-based multilateral trading system.”
Recognition in the Outcome Document
The final FFD4 Outcome Document, which will shape global donor and policy priorities, contains three specific references to Customs:
- Capacity-Building for Fiscal Systems (Paragraph 27): It commits to scaling up demand-based institutional, technological, and human capacity-building support for domestic resource mobilization, including the strengthening of Customs administrations.
- Combating Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) (Paragraph 29): It acknowledges the critical role of Customs in detecting IFFs at borders and calls forenhanced capacity in this area.
- Integration into Global Value Chains (Paragraph 44): It encourages Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to accede to the WCO’s Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) and calls for support to contracting parties in its implementation.
These acknowledgements also reflect the WCO’s contributions during the FFD4 Preparatory Committee meeting in New York earlier this year.
Aligning Standards with Development Objectives
The WCO's Seville Platform for Action Initiative was also launched during the Conference and spotlighted as a strategic framework to deepen the implementation of Customs-related standards. The WCO initiative seeks to align development finance with proven Customs tools that directly support domestic resource mobilization and trade facilitation, two of the main pillars of the FFD agenda.
The WCO emphasized the relevance of its instruments, such as the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) and the Harmonized System (HS), to development goals. The HS is used by over 200 countries and economies, underpins global trade classification, revenue collection, and statistical reporting. The WCO RKC, which currently has 162 contracting parties, more than half of which are developing countries, is a critical instrument for trade facilitation and economic development.