Al-Shahat Ghatouri, Customs Authority chief is representing Egypt at the World Customs Organization (WCO) Policy Commission in Bahrain from 5 to 8 December.
The WCO was initially established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation Council (CCC); it’s an independent inter-governmental body that aims to enhance the productivity of customs administrations.
It represents 184 customs administrations worldwide that collectively process 98% of world trade.
Acting as the global center of customs expertise, the WCO is the exclusive international organization that is competent in customs matters and can rightly call itself the voice of the international customs community.
The WCO agenda includes the WCO action plan for fragile borders, green transformation and its positive effects on public health, improving customs performance worldwide, and the data strategy of the World Trade Organization.
The organization will additionally discuss the feasibility study on a global platform for customs date exchange, expanding the concept of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) to include cross-border e-commerce, facilitating the flow of global trade, illegal trade, and the WCO strategic plan for 2022-2025 and its executive plan for 2022.
In a press release issued last Monday in Cairo, Ghaturi stated that his authority set to join forces with the international community to streamline and digitize procedures, reduce customs release time, facilitate internal and external trade, as well as applying the most efficient international customs practices and exchanging expertise on the transformation to ‘green customs’ are also among the authority’s objectives.
The intention of participating in these meetings is to solidify cooperation, coordination, and expertise exchange, taking the WCO standards into account.