The fourth WCO Passenger Facilitation and Control Working Group (PFCWG) Meeting took place from 10 to 11 October 2022, chaired by Mr. Paul Campbell from New Zealand. The meeting was held in a hybrid mode with 23 people attending in person at WCO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and 98 online from around the world. Observers from the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA), the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT) also participated in the Meeting.
Mr. Brendan O’Hearn, Deputy Director, Compliance and Facilitation Directorate opened the PFCWG. In his opening remarks, Mr. O’Hearn noted that the WCO had witnessed the steady growth of the cruise industry and recognized that there has been an increase in the challenges posed to Customs administrations and other border agencies. The WCO’s Passenger Facilitation and Control Working Group initiated the work in this area to achieve more efficient passenger embarkation/disembarkation and maintain higher levels of security by establishing global data standards for maritime travellers.
The popularity of cruise ship travel points to emerging trends, such as more passengers, larger ships and diverse itineraries. These emerging trends bring potential vulnerabilities from a Customs perspective, especially in terms of border and security risks. With the expansion of the cruise ship industry around the globe, the Members of the World Customs Organization (WCO) have raised concerns, expressing the desire that Customs administrations be better equipped with shared knowledge and expertise to assist in addressing the border and security risks. The WCO and PFCWG’s focus has been to align processes to the aviation industry, where possible, and to minimize the impact on the ordinary course of business of the cruise line industry.
During the Meeting, PFCWG delegates were updated on the latest developments in the cruise industry with a presentation from the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) on Cruise lines’ experience with re-opening cruise ship business, including challenges faced by the industries like the shortage in resource availability and compliance with new health requirements by government agencies.
CLIA informed the group that approximately 97% of global fleet capacity restarted operations and they anticipate 100% by the end of December. CLIA also noted that most of the world has relaxed health requirements including the removal of vaccination requirements for cruise passengers and the removal of pre-boarding testing requirements and global cruise travel is returning to pre-pandemic levels, and/or exceeding them.
The Cruise Ship Compendium of Best Practices for Customs Use was presented and endorsed by the PFCWG. The final Global Data Standard for maritime API and PNR data elements were also presented and endorsed by the group.
The PFCWG examined the Maritime API/PNR datasets prepared by the Mini Group of interested Members in the intersession, which had been refined based on feedback provided by CLIA. The Working Group made significant progress on the standardization work by approving the datasets. Following the datasets endorsement, the PFCWG will be to present the agreed elements to the IMO Expert Group on Data Harmonisation (EGDH) at the end of October 2022.