World Customs Forum 2010

Istanbul, 6 - 7 October 2010

Report

The Turkish Customs administration hosted the 4th World Customs Forum in Istanbul, Turkey from 6-7 October 2010. It was attended by more than 400 high-level delegates from Customs, business and academia under the theme: “Globally Networked Customs and the Private Sector”.

During the opening the Turkish Minister of State, Hayati Yazıcı, welcomed delegates to Istanbul – cultural capital of Europe in 2010 – and expressed his strong belief in the Customs-business partnership. WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya, encouraged the sharing of ideas and experiences between Customs and business to shape a better partnership in efforts to jointly facilitate and secure global trade.

The conference discussed a range of aspects related to Customs in the 21st Century and how the private sector could join and support efforts by Customs in progressing towards the realization of the vision contained in this strategic WCO document.

Participants urged the WCO to intensify its work on standardizing the implementation of the AEO concept and mutual recognition. They also recognized the need for both Customs and business to espouse a paradigm change based on mutual trust towards knowledge-based professionalism with a service culture for Customs and an improved compliance culture for business.

In parallel there were many bilateral meetings among participating heads of Customs and business. In this regard, Secretary General Mikuriya had a meeting with the Minister of State who expressed his strong support for the WCO.

A summary of the meeting as well as presentations made available will be loaded on the WCO website under the Events Section.