The Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) met at WCO Headquarters on 15 and 16 April 2019. The meeting began with a status update on developments from the Working Group on E-Commerce. The PSCG looks forward to the discussions of this work by the Policy Commission and Council, and to the next steps.

Following a presentation on Free Trade Zones by a PSCG Working Group, it was decided that this topic will be an ongoing agenda item of the PSCG. The group further discussed the impacts on business of non-negotiated tariff changes and retaliatory actions by countries. A paper identifying these impacts for the WCO and its Members will be developed by the PSCG for the Policy Commission.

The PSCG also welcomed the Harmonized System review and appreciated the efforts of the Director and Deputy Director of Tariff and Trade Affairs in organizing the upcoming public conference on “Revitalizing the Harmonized System”.

Finally, the members of the PSCG expressed their renewed commitment to the RKC review process and received reports from its PSCGs in the East and Southern Africa region, as well as in the Americas region.

In preparation for the meeting with the SAFE Working Group, the PSCG discussed the following ideas:

• Leveraging AEO without something as formal as a Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA);
• Is it time for an AEO convention, rather than continuing to sign bilateral MRAs;
• Should the WCO validate Members’ AEO programs;
• Establishing a WCO AEO/MRA measurement tool;
• Creating an annual report of global benefits;
• Applying the BASC “Sandbox” concept to MRAs to see how many benefits are available from one MRA to another.

PSCG has also established a working group on the future of the SAFE Framework of Standards.