World Customs Organization

2 Vision and objectives

The WCO is internationally acknowledged as the global
centre of customs expertise and plays a leading role in the
discussion, development, promotion and implementation
of modern customs systems and procedures. It is responsive to the needs of its members and its strategic environment, and its instruments and best-practice approaches
are recognized as the basis for sound customs administration throughout the world.
The WCOs primary objective is to enhance the eciency and eectiveness of member customs administraHeadquarters building
tions, thereby assisting them to contribute successfully to
national development goals, particularly revenue collecThe World Customs Organization (WCO) is an tion, national security, trade facilitation, community prointergovernmental organization headquartered in tection, and collection of trade statistics.
Brussels, Belgium. The WCO is noted for its work in
areas covering the development of international conventions, instruments, and tools on topics such as commodity 3 Instruments
classication, valuation, rules of origin, collection of
customs revenue, supply chain security, international
trade facilitation, customs enforcement activities, com- In order to achieve its objectives, the WCO has adopted a
bating counterfeiting in support of Intellectual Property number of customs instruments, including but not limited
Rights (IPR), drugs enforcement, illegal weapons trad- to the following:
ing, integrity promotion, and delivering sustainable 1) The International Convention on the Harmonized
capacity building to assist with customs reforms and Commodity Description and Coding System (HS
modernization. The WCO maintains the international Convention) was adopted in 1983 and came into force
Harmonized System (HS) goods nomenclature, and in 1988. The HS multipurpose goods nomenclature is
administers the technical aspects of the World Trade used as the basis for customs taris and for the compiOrganization (WTO) Agreements on Customs Valuation lation of international trade statistics. It comprises about
and Rules of Origin.
5,000 commodity groups, each identied by a six digit
code arranged in a legal and logical structure with welldened rules to achieve uniform classication. The HS is
also used for many other purposes involving trade policy,
1 History
rules of origin, monitoring of controlled goods, internal
taxes, freight taris, transport statistics, quota controls,
In 1947, thirteen European countries established a Study price monitoring, compilation of national accounts, and
Group to examine customs issues identied by the economic research and analysis.
General Agreement on Taris and Trade (GATT). This
work led to the adoption in 1948 of the Convention establishing the Customs Co-operation Council (CCC),
which was signed in Brussels. On January 26, 1953,
the CCCs inaugural session took place with the participation of 17 founding members. WCO membership
subsequently expanded to cover all regions of the globe.
In 1994, the organization adopted its current name, the
World Customs Organization. Today, WCO members
are responsible for customs controls in 179 countries representing more than 98 per cent of all international trade.

2) The International Convention on the Simplication and Harmonization of Customs procedures

(revised Kyoto Convention or RKC) was originally
adopted in 1974 and was subsequently revised in 1999;
the revised Kyoto Convention came into force in 2006.
The RKC comprises several key governing principles:
transparency and predictability of customs controls; standardization and simplication of the goods declaration
and supporting documents; simplied procedures for authorized persons; maximum use of information technology; minimum necessary customs control to ensure com1

2
pliance with regulations; use of risk management and audit based controls; coordinated interventions with other
border agencies; and a partnership with the trade. It promotes trade facilitation and eective controls through its
legal provisions that detail the application of simple yet
ecient procedures and also contains new and obligatory rules for its application. The WCO revised Kyoto
Convention is sometimes confused with the Kyoto Protocol, which is a protocol to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC).
3) ATA Convention and the Convention on Temporary Admission (Istanbul Convention). Both the ATA
Convention and the Istanbul Convention are WCO instruments governing temporary admission of goods. The
ATA system, which is integral to both Conventions, allows the free movement of goods across frontiers and
their temporary admission into a customs territory with
relief from duties and taxes. The goods are covered by a
single document known as the ATA carnet that is secured
by an international guarantee system.
4) The Arusha Declaration on Customs Integrity was
adopted in 1993 and revised in 2003. The Arusha Declaration is a non-binding instrument which provides a number of basic principles to promote integrity and combat
corruption within customs administrations.
5) The SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and
Facilitate Global Trade was adopted in 2005. The
SAFE Framework is a non-binding instrument that contains supply chain security and facilitation standards for
goods being traded internationally, enables integrated
supply chain management for all modes of transport,
strengthens networking arrangements between customs
administrations to improve their capability to detect highrisk consignments, promotes cooperation between customs and the business community through the Authorized
Economic Operator (AEO) concept, and champions the
seamless movement of goods through secure international
trade supply chains.
6) The Columbus Program is a customs capacity building program works to promote customs modernization
and implementation of their standards to secure and facilitate world trade. In 2005, the WCO adopted the
Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global
Trade, an international customs instrument containing 17
standards that promotes security and facilitation of the
international supply chain. Because of its complexity,
the WCO launched a capacity building program called
the Columbus Programme which focuses on needs assessments for WCO Members using the WCO Diagnostic
Framework tool. The WCO denes capacity building
as activities which strengthen the knowledge, abilities,
skills and behaviour of individuals and improve institutional structures and processes such that the organization
can eciently meet its mission and goals in a sustainable
way.

EXTERNAL LINKS

4 Administration
The WCO Secretariat is headed by a Secretary General,
who is elected by the WCO membership to a ve-year
term. The current WCO Secretary General is Kunio
Mikuriya from Japan, who took oce on 1 January 2009.
The WCO is governed by the Council, which brings together all Members of the Organization once a year, in a
meeting chaired by an elected Chairperson. Additional
strategic and management guidance is provided by the
Policy Commission and the Finance Committee. Several
WCO committees, such as the Harmonized System Committee, the Permanent Technical Committee, the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation, Technical Committee on Rules of Origin, the Capacity Building Committee, and the SAFE Working Group, provide a platform for developing instruments and best practices on
customs competencies.

5 External links
Ocial website

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

World Customs Organization Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Customs_Organization?oldid=729655540 Contributors:

Stephen Gilbert, Andre Engels, Anonymoues, Tobias Conradi, Robbot, Beland, Pyrop, Nk, Alinor, Isnow, Koavf, Utuado, Chobot, Jaraalbe,
RussBot, Angel Naydenov, David Woodward, Zwobot, TimK MSI, Petri Krohn, Rathfelder, SmackBot, Bluebot, Cybercobra, Robosh,
Beetstra, Meco, Tawkerbot2, Eastlaw, Eurobas, Rsi73, Dtolman, Idioma-bot, Oda Mari, Rakesh999991, Raymcwco, Mhockey, CorreiaPM,
Good Olfactory, Addbot, Turzh, Zarcadia, CUSENZA Mario, Lightbot, Yobot, GrouchoBot, SassoBot, LucienBOT, Al139, Sugogo, LittleWink, Full-date unlinking bot, FoxBot, Mean as custard, EmausBot, ZroBot, ClueBot NG, Masssly, BG19bot, Mark Arsten, Julien
Houle, Homme, Rodvdka, Cultura italiana and Anonymous: 39

6.2

Images

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Contributors: Own work Original artist: Sugogo
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6.3

Content license

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