At the invitation of the OECD, the WCO participated in the OECD Global Forum on Anti-Corruption and Integrity, held on 27 and 28 March 2018 in Paris.
The opening ceremony of the Global Forum was attended and contributed by the Vice President of Argentina, the Prime Ministers of Norway and Iceland, the First Vice President of the European Commission and the Secretary General of the OECD.
The theme of the global forum was "Planetary integrity: building a more just society""The meeting discussed the impact of integrity on business, how it reduced socioeconomic inequalities and improved public policies.
Discussions also focused on the governance of globalization and its crucial role in combating corruption and unethical practices in areas such as trade, competition, infrastructure, development cooperation and revenue collection.
During the panel session, the OECD presented preliminary results on measuring countries’ trade facilitation performance using the OECD Trade Facilitation Indicators. These findings drew on perception and experimental data to map border-related corruption and better understand the links between trade facilitation policy environment and integrity. One of the key findings was the positive relationship between integrity and transparency.
El WCO Capacity Development Director argued that transparency plays a crucial role in trade facilitation.
However, there are other factors which could explain the different impacts of trade facilitation measures on the incidence of corruption, which contribute to a safe trading environment and should be developed in customs and other border agencies:
- Strong internal control capacity and its relationship with external control;
- Human resource management (e.g. professionalization of the workforce, stricter standards for the recruitment process, etc.);
- Performance management;
- Strong leadership and political commitment.
There is also a need to look not only at Customs in terms of measuring trade facilitation performance, but also at other border agencies and key supply chain stakeholders such as immigration and border control, customs brokers, logistics operators, port administrations and many others. Other panellists and session participants agreed with the need to apply the concept of collective action and advised this to move forward with research in this area.
Representing Argentina at the Global Forum of the@OCDE_fr on anti-corruption and building more equitable societies. #Paris #France pic.twitter.com/RGdCOO2DPX
— Gabriela Michetti (@gabimichetti) March 27th 2018
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
