Raven, noted customs reform expert, dies

Raven

   John Raven, a long-time unabashed spokesman and commentator on global customs modernization and trade facilitation, died on Sunday afternoon.
    He was 91 years old. The cause of death was not disclosed, but he had been in declining health in recent months.
    Raven, a graduate of Cambridge University, sharpened his penmanship while convalescing in a hospital during World War II. For two years after the war, he held a variety of jobs, including pine disinfectant salesman, assistant buyer for a drop forge and information desk head for Crawford and Partners. In 1946, he was asked to become assistant secretary of the South Wales Industrial Association, and a year later, at 27 years, he became head of the then powerful British Coal Exporters’ Federation.
    After the federation dissolved in 1968, Raven was asked by the U.K. Board of Trade to organize and service a small expert committee to look at procedural, regulatory and documentary hindrances to U.K. international trade and to recommend changes. Two years later, Raven became chief executive of the U.K. Committee for the Simplification of International Trade Procedures, better known as SITPRO. The organization’s recommendation report, released in March 1970, became the starting point for international trade’s discussion and drive to facilitation.
    “It explained what we are for is simplified international trade procedures and the information flows that service them,” Raven told American Shipper in a January 2011 article. “That was the new trumpet call.”
    During his tenure as head of SITPRO (1974-1984), Raven frequently wrote articles and commentaries for London’s widely circulated Daily Telegraph newspaper. He became a proponent for free trade, small business and women’s workplace rights.
    Working on behalf of the up-and-coming express carrier industry throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Raven became heavily engaged on behalf of industry at the World Bank, United Nations’ Development Program, and World Customs Organization. Living in Brussels since 1990, he became director of the IECC, whose members include UPS, FedEx, TNT and DHL, and more heavily engaged in WCO matters. The express industry was particularly influential in helping the U.S. and Canadian Customs support the production of the WCO Immediate Release Guidelines, and took a keen interest in work on the revised WCO Kyoto Convention on the simplification and harmonization of customs procedures resulting in 1999 with a new and significantly improved text.
    Since his retirement in 2000, Raven has served as an advisor to The International Air Cargo Association, a position he held until the end of 2010, and continued to participate in WCO matters through this year. Raven provided industry input and support for the development of the post-9/11 WCO SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Trade, the Data Model, Unique Consignment Reference (UCR), and capacity building for developing countries’ customs operations. He also continued to write articles and commentaries about customs reform for publications, including for American Shipper and WCO News.
    A complete list of survivors and details for his funeral were not immediately available. –Chris Gillis