The ad hoc Working Group on Globally Networked Customs undertook a comprehensive analysis of the potential to rationalize, harmonize and standardize the secure and efficient exchange of information between WCO Members; produced a conceptual model to achieve that; and has now handed responsibility for piloting the model to the PTC.

WCO Globally Networked Customs Concept

Strategic Value

Customs in the 21st Century

Globally Networked Customs (GNC) is the first building block of the Customs in the 21st Century vision approved by the WCO Council in June 2008. To make this vision a reality, an Ad Hoc Working Group on Globally Networked Customs was set up to undertake “a comprehensive analysis of the potential to rationalize, harmonize and standardize the secure and efficient exchange of information between WCO Members”.

Multi-Stakeholder Benefits

Between 2009 and 2012, the work of the Ad Hoc Group has reinforced for WCO Members the importance of ‘connectivity’, and confirmed that the maximum benefits of Customs-to-Customs cooperation can be more effectively delivered by streamlining exchange of information processes which can benefit other stakeholders as well.

Standardized Approach

A standardized approach, using generic templates and blueprints, facilitates and enhances these processes by speeding up the drafting and implementation of information exchange agreements. In addition, the compilation of a catalogue of documented arrangements in a standardized form, each of which can be replicated with minimum effort, allows for the scope, growth and reach of Customs networks to accelerate.

Philosophy

At bilateral, multilateral, and plurilateral levels, Customs administrations continue to work toward arrangements and agreements that fully allow for sharing of information in the most effective way possible. Already firmly embraced and growing in the enforcement/intelligence sharing domain, there is an increasing need to upscale in the transactional sharing domain, often between multiple Customs administrations and/or Customs and business stakeholders.

Conceptual Framework

GNC, which is underlined by enhanced Customs cooperation, provides an overarching framework through which WCO members can apply a common, disciplined and coordinated methodology to develop and perfect strategic and operational blueprints based on WCO tools and instruments. These blueprints will facilitate inter-connectedness among Customs administrations through exchange of information arrangements. This principle can be applied across all aspects of work undertaken by WCO committees and the Secretariat.

Enhanced Connectivity

Using already available expertise and resources of WCO Members, global standards can be developed to be re-used many times and allow for an industrialized and economized approach to exchanging information. The ‘connectivity’ between individual WCO Members through automated systems at the technical level, in the international realm, can be significantly enhanced through this common and ‘scaled up’ global approach.