Enhancing cooperation with Romanian Customs
Bucharest, 19-20 November 2012
Report
The Secretary General of the WCO, Kunio Mikuriya, visited Bucharest, Romania on 19 and 20 November 2012 to explore further cooperation between the WCO and Romania, at the invitation of the Vice President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and Head of the National Customs Authority, Dorel Fronea. Secretary General Mikuriya was briefed by the Romanian Customs management team on their three priorities, namely the fight against illicit trafficking in cigarettes, the fight against counterfeits and the enhancement of integrity.
In the area of cigarette smuggling, Romanian Customs has established a Task Force to set up special mobile and canine units, to strengthen cooperation with Customs administrations of neighbouring countries, to enhance coordination with other agencies, to build partnerships with tobacco companies to gather information and to introduce new legislation to empower Customs. As a result, the share of illicit cigarettes in the market has dropped significantly from 36% in 2010 to 14% in 2012.
The Secretary General appreciated the Romanian initiative and its significant achievement, as illicit trade in cigarettes has become a major interest for the international community, evidenced by the recent adoption of the new WHO Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. He agreed to explore WCO involvement in coordinating trans-border operations in this respect, facilitated by the active use of WCO structures and tools, such as the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) and the Customs Enforcement Network (CEN). Later, the Secretary General had the opportunity to see the mobile scanning technology that Romania has developed and to visit a tobacco company to hear about their partnership with Customs.
Secretary General Mikuriya also met the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, Serban Pop, to discuss policy issues relating to the possible reorganization of Romania’s fiscal administration. He took the opportunity to explain the WCO’s policy on the need to preserve the Customs identity in any organizational transformation. In the area of integrity they discussed the importance of using information technology for simplification of procedures and performance measurement, as well as the putting in place of career path procedures and acceptable working conditions.
Whilst in Romania, the Secretary General used the opportunity to visit the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC) where he met the Director General, Gurbuz Bahadir. They discussed the further enhancement of cooperation to support pragmatic coordination and information sharing among Customs and police of SELEC’s 13 member countries.