World Customs Organization

The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization that helps Members (currently Customs administrations from 169 countries) communicate and co-operate on customs issues. It was established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation Council; it adopted its current name in 1994.

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, it develops agreed rules on customs procedures and provides advice and assistance to customs services. It has established an international standard classification of commodities called the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, which is used to classify goods for tariff purposes the application of tariffs. The WCO has 170 members; see World Customs Organization member states. The current Secretary General is Michel Danet (1999-present) from France.

The WCO does not deal with tariff and trade disputes; these issues fall under the jurisdiction of the World Trade Organization.

In June 2005, the WCO adopted the Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade ("SAFE"),[1] an international instrument containing 17 standards that promotes security, trade facilitation, anti-corruption, and revenue collection. Because of SAFE's complexity, the WCO launched in January 2006 a Customs capacity building program called the WCO Columbus Programme,[2] which focuses on comprehensive needs assessments for WCO Members using the WCO Diagnostic Framework tool.

On 1 July 2006 Tapani Erling from Finland was elected chairman of the council of the organisation, replacing Pravin Gordhan (2000-2006) from South Africa, who had held the chair for the past five years. [3]

External links

• Official WCO website
• Factsheet on the WCO (PDF)
• Indian Customs Organization