Customs Authority chief al-Shahat Ghatouri is representing Egypt at the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Policy Commission in Bahrain on 5-8 December.
On the WCO agenda are green transformation and its positive effects on public health, the WCO action plan for fragile borders, the data strategy of the World Trade Organisation, and improving customs performance worldwide.
Other topics include facilitating the flow global trade, expanding the concept of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) to include cross-border e-commerce, the WCO strategic plan for 2022-2025 and its executive plan for 2022, illegal trade, and the feasibility study on a global platform for customs date exchange.
According to a press release in Cairo on Monday, Ghaturi spoke of his authority’s readiness to co-operate more closely with the international community to streamline and digitise procedures, reduce customs release time, and facilitate internal and external trade.
Applying the best international customs practices and exchanging expertise on the transformation to ‘green customs’ are also among the authority’s objectives.
Participation in these meetings is intended to consolidate co-operation, co-ordination and expertise exchange in line with WCO standards.
The WCO was established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation Council (CCC), and is an independent inter-governmental body, whose mission is to improve the efficiency of customs administrations.
The WCO represents 184 customs administrations worldwide that collectively process 98 per cent of world trade.
As the global centre of customs expertise, the WCO is the only international organization that is competent in customs matters and can rightly call itself the voice of the international customs community.
