On 3 October 2022, the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, and the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, launched the second edition of the WCO/WTO Study Report on Disruptive Technologies. The first edition was published in 2019 and earlier this year both organizations also partnered for the publication of a joint publication titled, “The role of advanced technologies in cross-border trade: A Customs perspective”.

Around 900 participants from around the world, including Customs, the private sector, academia, government agencies, and international organizations registered for this event.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Mikuriya highlighted that the two organizations decided to jointly assist their respective Members’ digital transformation journeys in a complementary and inclusive manner by bringing all relevant partners at the same table. He added that the Report reflects a high level of Customs interest and activity in the testing and implementation of three groups of technologies, in particular, blockchain, internet of things, and data analytics / artificial intelligence.

The Secretary General also pointed out that the Study Report aims at helping Customs implement international rules and standards in ensuring connectivity at borders, such as the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala expressed her appreciation that the WTO had an opportunity to work with the WCO in drafting the updated Study Report. She stressed the importance of the Study Report for developing and least developed countries (LDCs) in implementing the WTO TFA, and emphasized the role of technologies in this process.

In addition, the WTO Director-General underlined that the benefits from the deployment of the latest technologies for Customs could be undermined if other agencies continue to rely on old-fashioned working methods.

The WCO and the WTO Secretariats jointly presented the key findings of the Study Report. The first part of the report focuses on seven technologies, namely: blockchain and distributed ledger technology; Internet of Things, big data, data analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; biometrics; drones; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; and, 3D printing. The second part includes forty two case studies from Customs administrations, the private sector, international organizations and other stakeholders. The Study Report also provides recommendations and lessons learnt, as well as WCO and WTO initiatives in this area.

Argentina, Korea, the Netherlands and Niger Customs Administrations presented different examples of how Customs leverages disruptive technologies to improve its processes and impact on cross-border trade processes and supply chain operations.

The Study Report will remain a living document and will be updated on a regular basis to reflect further advancements and trends in the application of disruptive technologies by Customs.

The publication can be found here.

The recording of the webinar is available here.