CITES Secretary-General delivers keynote remarks at WCO Enforcement Committee
Brussels, 21 March 2011
Report
On the occasion of the 30th Session of the WCO Enforcement Committee, CITES Secretary-General, John E. Scanlon, was invited to open the Committee’s deliberations at WCO headquarters.
During his keynote remarks, John Scanlon stressed that CITES and the WCO share common objectives, namely, facilitating legal and sustainable trade, whilst ensuring that illicit trade can be identified, intercepted, and responded to appropriately.
In referring to the links between CITES and the WCO, he highlighted the following points:
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The working relationship covers a number of key areas: capacity building, collection and sharing of seizure data and intelligence, assessment of national trade controls, participation in enforcement task forces and collaboration in the development of tools.
In conclusion, the CITES Secretary-General said that he could think of few better examples of successful collaboration than that which exists between CITES and the WCO, stressing that there are few international treaties that are better served by Customs than CITES.
This was the first visit by John Scanlon to WCO headquarters since assuming the post of Secretary-General in May 2010.
View CITES Secretary-General's remarks: [en] [es] [fr]