Brussels, 8 august 2013
The World Customs Organization participated in the culmination of the program conducted by the Department of Commerce of the United States, through the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas initiative. The event, held in the city of Santiago, Chile on 25th and 26th July 2013, made an evaluation of the program that began in 2011 with Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras and exposed partnership mechanisms between the private and public sector for customs modernization and its impact on foreign trade facilitation, resulting in competitiveness and economic development of nations. It also outlined the challenges and successes in implementing modernization projects of border management and security of the supply chain where the strategic partnership between the private sector and customs has been essential.
As a result of the conference, the advantage of maintaining the partnership between customs and the private sector on issues of modernization of customs and border management was materialized with examples from El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Chile.
The event additionally became an opportunity to share experiences, lessons learned, and best practices through participation and dialogue. The forum, also determined the importance of the rapprochement between the different entities operating in border management. Advances in Single Window projects and programs in the participant countries demonstrated the active participation of the region in the border management coordination.
The World Customs Organization coordinated the workshop on Risk Management and AEO, proving the security of the supply chain benefits, reflected in the SAFE Framework.
The AEO programs progress of the participant countries are good indicators of the optimism in the region.
In conclusion, the event reflected the existing interest in the region for the change and transformation of the productive sectors. Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Peru and Nicaragua are the new countries within the program and also noted their desire to continue with these initiatives, where the discovery of the benefits of joint public-private sector strengthens national competitiveness strategy.