WCO BEGINS STUDY TO IMPROVE CUSTOMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

WCO BEGINS STUDY TO IMPROVE CUSTOMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES    The World Customs Organization has begun a study to determine how to improve the customs operations in developing countries.
   Customs administration officials from around the world, in addition to officials from the World Trade Organization, World Bank and other donor organizations, and the private sector, met in Brussels this week to consider ways to provide countries with “swift and predictable customs clearance,” while maintaining revenue collection and public protection responsibilities.
   The WCO study is driven by the trade facilitation emphasis in the WTO Doha Declaration. At the meeting, Kunio Mikuriya, deputy secretary general for the WCO, outlined the prerequisites for capacity building:
   * Political will.
   * Support of the private sector.
   * Sustainable funding.
   * Functioning civil service.
   * Adequate remuneration
   * Sound legal framework and judicial system.
   * Support for global trading system and trade liberalization.
   * Climate for change and improvement.
   The senior-level WCO group must develop a comprehensive “customs capacity building strategy,” which it will present at the WCO Council Meeting in June 2003. The WCO will also plans to present the study at the Cancun WTO Ministerial Meeting in September 2003.