Customs and Infrastructure Modernization

CLADEC supports customs modernization reforms that introduce efficient, predictable and clear customs procedures bringing greater transparency and predictability into national customs systems, including automation, tracking of transactions, clear and publicized rules governing customs procedures. 
Recognizing a need to modernize and further harmonize customs procedures internationally, countries set forth a revised version of the Kyoto Convention through the WCO. The purpose of the treaty is to simplify customs procedures, eliminate wasteful transaction charges, improve transparency and predictability, and facilitate trade.

The WCO Council adopted the revised Kyoto Convention in June 1999 as a model for modern, efficient and effective customs procedures. The revised Kyoto Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures went into effect on February 3, 2006 with 44 Contracting Parties.

Implementing the recommendations of the revised Kyoto Convention – including greater use of automated data systems and improved communication between related national enforcement agencies – would reduce or eliminate costs introducing greater predictability, speed and lower costs, facilitating the introduction to market of products that rely on supply-chain sourcing.

Modernization of customs is an important catalyst to economic development that benefits growth and investment. Governments have an important stake in the modernization of their customs administrations. As tariff and other trade barriers are reduced or eliminated through global and regional trade negotiations, customs modernization becomes more and more important to each country’s interest in attracting foreign direct investment.

CLADEC supports automation of data systems and the use of information technology wherever possible to cut costs and improve reliability and security of customs operations. Outdated customs procedures and policies unnecessarily add to the cost of doing business internationally through customs delays, bureaucratic inefficiencies and redundancies and inefficient screening processes.

Trade Facilitation

Trade facilitation includes reforms aimed at improving the chain of administrative and operational procedures involved in the transport of goods and services across international borders.

Trade facilitation can lead to direct benefits to governments and the business community. Government benefits include: increased effectiveness of control methods; more effective and efficient deployment of resources; correct revenue yields; improved trader compliance; accelerated economic development; and encouragement of foreign investments. Benefits to traders include: reduced costs and less delays; faster customs clearance and release through predictable official intervention; simple commercial framework for doing both domestic and international trade; and enhanced competition.

Successful participation in the global economy will be increasingly determined by whether a country maintains high-quality, reliable trade infrastructure; whether competition is permitted to flourish in the logistics services industries; and whether the regulatory environment is conducive to the relatively frictionless movement of goods and services through the supply chain.

According to studies from the World Bank, improvements to a country’s trade infrastructure — logistics services, port capacity, administrative procedures, customs requirements, etc. — could do more to increase global trade flows than further reductions in tariff rates.

The Doha Development Agenda, undertaken by the World Trade Organization in November 2001, has made trade facilitation, in particular expediting further the movement, release and clearance of goods, one of the major topics to be covered in forthcoming negotiations. In so doing, the WTO has clearly recognized that trade facilitation is instrumental in ensuring the full realization of the benefits of trade liberalization flowing from successive rounds of multilateral negotiations – to the advantage, in particular, of developing and transition economies, and of small and medium-sized enterprises.

CLADEC recognizes the importance of an active participation between customs inspections official and businesses and commits to work in partnership with governmental authorities to develop and improve country’s trade procedures.  As GEA stated to make technical assistance and capacity building more effective and operational, there also needs to be the close co-operation and co-ordination between the relevant international organizations, including the World Bank, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD and WCO, and in this regard CLADEC as part of GEA also stands ready to cooperate.