The World Customs Organization (WCO) participated in the 2025 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development and Preparatory Committee meeting for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). The WCO was represented by Deputy Secretary General Ricardo Treviño during the meeting held at the UN Headquarters in New York.

During his intervention, Mr. Treviño stressed that Customs administrations, through their enforcement of economic, trade, and social protection policies, are instrumental in both revenue generation and facilitating international trade. WCO Members - 186 Customs administrations - play an integral role in domestic revenue mobilization, one of the key outcome areas expected from the FFD4. This is especially true in many developing countries, where Customs contributes between 40% and 60% of total tax revenues—a figure that underlines their foundational role in domestic resource mobilization, a key pillar of the FFD4 agenda.

WCO Members are also responsible for managing more than 98% of world trade. International trade as an engine for development, another expected outcome from FFD4, therefore cannot succeed without Customs serving as an effective implementing agency. Helping Customs administrations implement key WCO instruments such as the Harmonized System and Revised Kyoto Convention are vital to the rules-based multilateral trading system needed to sustain economies.

The WCO will continue to follow the preparations and highlight the importance of Customs in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals when it attends the FFD4 Conference to be held 30 June - 3 July 2025 in Seville, Spain.