The Deputy Secretary-General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Ricardo Treviño Chapa, emphasized the rapid response of Customs to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic while participating in the Pan-European Network of Customs Professionals (PEN-CP) Annual Event, a five-year project funded by the European Union under Horizon 2020, aimed at ensuring Europe's global competitiveness.
During his speech, the official explained that such Customs management was based on four areas focus, namely: facilitating cross-border movements of relief, essential goods and medical supplies; supporting the economy and maintaining supply chain continuity; protecting customs personnel; and protecting society from counterfeit products and medicines.
Point to the WCO statement At the important event, the Deputy Secretary-General gave a keynote presentation on the “Practical implications of COVID-19 on Customs, border management and global supply chains”. He also provided the audience with some figures showing how the outbreak of the pandemic had affected the volume of trade, noting that this impact was uneven across different sectors of activity. To illustrate, he took as an example e-commerce, which had experienced the greatest growth.
He also highlighted “the importance of harmonizing practical actions taken during the pandemic, recalling the need for multilateralism and effective coordination to mitigate the effects of the health crisis”. As an example, Treviño stressed that “Operation STOP and the WCO Mercator Programme had demonstrated the Organization’s readiness to support multi-stakeholder coordination on the ground. The Organization’s ongoing dialogue with its Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) and cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) also reflect its contribution to multilateralism.”
The Deputy Secretary General closed his presentation by referring to the Litigation, Arbitration approved by the WCO Council in December 2020, to facilitate the cross-border movement of critical medicines and vaccines. The aforementioned resolution addresses the measures to be taken by customs administrations to carry out the clearance of vaccines for export, transit and import on a priority basis.
The Pan-European Network of Customs Professionals (PEN-CP) is made up of 13 customs administrations and aims to facilitate customs security research, ideas and innovation requirements for scalable and viable solutions, technologies and process improvements. Participants carry out a wide range of small-scale activities aimed at monitoring and driving innovation in risk management and big data, detection technologies, laboratory equipment, border performance measurement, cooperation between customs, police and border guards, and partnerships between customs and business. The project started in September 2018 and will end in January 2024.
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