Trade community mourns Danet’s death

Trade community mourns DanetÆs death

Danet

   Michel Danet, the former secretary general of the Brussels-based World Customs Organization, died Thursday of cancer, according to close associates.
   In a brief statement, WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya expressed 'his sincere condolences to Mr. Danet's family on behalf of the international customs community and the staff of the WCO secretariat.'
   Danet headed the WCO from 1999 to 2008.
   While the United States exercised considerable influence within the WCO, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Danet's leadership helped temper other customs administrations' anxieties surrounding the adoption of supply chain security measures. He argued that adopting risk management principles would be a positive step toward customs modernization.
   That hallmark became evident in 2005 when the WCO membership unanimously approved the SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Trade and the development of the Authorized Economic Operator program under which companies with top compliance and security protocols are eligible for simplified customs oversight.
   'He was a significant personality who dominated the landscape,' said Stephen Rigby, president of the Canada Border Services Agency, on the sidelines of the annual U.S. Customs Trade Symposium in Washington. Danet's chief legacy, SAFE, 'is a durable framework which I think guides a lot of work being done in many countries.'
   Also during his tenure at the WCO, Danet helped transform the traditional adversarial relationship between customs administrations and industry into one of greater collaboration.
   'His great achievement was working with Mr. Bonner and Renee Stein of Microsoft in opening up the WCO to handle trade security on a multilateral basis in concert with trade facilitation,' said Marianne Rowden, president of the American Association of Exporters and Importers. 'It got the trade community invested in the WCO. The whole AEO program was launched as a result and that's the framework we're going to use' to expand secure trade in the future. 'And that recognition by customs administrations that the trade community needs tangible benefits was an important step forward,' she added.

Bonner

   Robert Bonner was commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection following the 9/11 terror attacks, and worked with Danet to internationalize U.S. programs designed to extend supply chain security beyond the border through cooperation with other customs administrations.

Laden

   Michael Laden, a principal at supply chain consulting firm Trade Innovations who played a key role helping U.S. Customs establish the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, said the Private Sector Consultative Group at the WCO was a direct outgrowth of Danet's understanding of the need for the private sector to engage customs administrations.
   Danet, the son of impoverished Algerian parents, rose through the ranks at French Customs during his career. He was a champion of developing countries where customs administration often struggle to gain any national support for modernization efforts.
   'For many developing countries the priority today is not about fighting against terrorism but against poverty,' Danet told American Shipper in one of many interviews as WCO secretary general. 'But if customs administrations are corrupt and not efficient or fail to adopt to the new environment, these economies are going to be marginalized.'
   Kelby Woodard, Laden's partner at Trade Innovations, remembered Danet as an extremely friendly man who always considered how new policy prescriptions would effect customs administrations in developing nations and pushed for international aid to build their customs capacity.
   Many developing countries, which represent nearly two-thirds of the WCO's 172 members, are still nowhere near the level of efficiency of their industrialized country counterparts, and the urgency to modernize continues to intensify since 9/11.
   A memorial service for Danet will be held Dec. 18 at 11 a.m. at the Church of Notre-Dame de la Cambre, in Brussels.
   Expressions of condolence may be sent to the Danet family at hommagesmicheldanet@yahoo.fr. ' Eric Kulisch and Chris Gillis