This book will take the reader through the past, the present, and into the future of the flagship institution of the international customs community: the World Customs Organization (WCO). The purpose is to present to the reader, in a comprehensive, orderly, and synthetic manner, the enormous contributions that this prestigious and recognized institution has been making to the secure growth of global international trade. In the development of the text, special consideration has been given to the relevant instruments in day-to-day customs work, which constitute the bases of the WCO (the Harmonized System Convention, the Revised Kyoto Convention, and the SAFE Framework of Standards, among many others), as well as those issues that are currently of specific interest to the global customs community (cross-border e-commerce, trade facilitation, and authorized economic operator, to mention but a few), trying to reconcile the various practical aspects of customs operations with their theoretical underpinnings. In the final part, the book turns to the future of customs, analyzing the most pressing challenges presented by technological advances, including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and blockchain. In short, this book will be of great interest to all foreign trade operators, mainly to customs officials, customs brokers, carriers and international forwarding agents, managers of importing and exporting companies, as well as all those (professionals and students) who wish to deepen their knowledge of the exciting world of customs and international trade.

Summary document which sets out the framework for an information and intelligence management plan aimed at optimizing controls on the cross-frontier movement of goods and facilitating legitimate trade. This material is intended both for Customs administrations and for their partners, being both the sources and the users of information and intelligence.

Trade integration contributes substantially to economic development and poverty alleviation. In recent years much progress was made to liberalize the trade regime, but customs procedures are often still complex, costly and non-transparent. This situation leads to misallocation of resources. 'Customs Modernization Handbook' provides an overview of the key elements of a successful customs modernization strategy and draws lessons from a number of successful customs reforms as well as from customs reform projects that have been undertaken by the World Bank. It describes a number of key import procedures, that have proved particularly troublesome for customs administrations and traders, and provides practical guidelines to enhance their efficiency. The Handbook also reviews the appropriate legal framework for customs operations as well as strategies to combat corruption.

For more than 20 years, supply chains have been optimized using electronic data interchange based on the EDIFACT standard. In 2010, the EU Commission launched a digital agenda to optimize public administration processes through uniform and cross-border regulations. Ongoing globalization and increased environmental awareness are creating increasing de-mands for the transport industry, such as shifting transport from road to rail. Several projects are focusing on the semantic standardization of data exchange based on web technologies, in order to optimize system interaction between all players of the transport supply chain. This study investigates, if using a semantic reference data model instead of a proprietary data model fosters the intensity of possible interactions of data exchange systems in the European goods transport industry. To be able to measure a change drivers, benefits, challenges, and success factors for collaborative data exchange are identified. The research in this study bases its solutions on the system interaction theory and performs a literature review as well as collects primary data. Six representatives of important players of the European goods transport industry are interviewed and surveyed.

The historic growth in world trade, large container ships and information technology have triggered profound changes in international trade. A few years ago, customs officers at the border were meticulously checking goods and documents before releasing a shipment to the trader. A business could be confident that a shipment that had cleared customs complied with all applicable regulations. Today, to reduce congestion and give the trade quick access to their goods, customs have introduced risk management principles and a large number of shipments clear customs automatically. Controls have moved from the border to the trader’s premises and it is during site visits that customs officers check the business compliance records. Moving from frontier checks to audit based controls has transferred a high level of responsibility and risk to the trader. It is now the duty of the trader to identify and report any error or irregularity and to keep an impeccable audit trail from initial quotation to receipt of payment. For the business, failing to provide satisfactory compliance records will result in delayed shipments and serious disruption in the supply chain. This will in turn impact on financial performance indicators such as Days in Inventory, Days Sales Outstanding and of course Cash Flow. The business will also have to endure in depth customs audits during which customs officers will inspect each step of the audit trail disrupting day-to-day business operation. Errors uncovered during these audits will yield heavy financial penalties and a customs debt. Ultimately, customs risk will impact on shareholders value. Customs and finance reporting should receive the same level of attention. However, if all companies check carefully their tax returns, only a few check their import or export declarations with the same scrutiny. Managing customs risk is often seen as a cost centre but it is also a source of competitive advantage. A sound customs management can reduce or remov

Global Trade Law Series, Volume 58 Customs valuation is a key element in the corpus of international trade law. Despite the facts that the /WTO Valuation Agreement 1994 remains unchanged in all material respects and that it has been adopted by virtually every trading nation on the planet, there are fissures in the system preventing consensus on many contentious questions. This extremely knowledgeable analysis by a world-renowned specialist lawyer in the field—by concentrating on diverging views on the nature of the central feature of the Agreement, the definition of the price actually paid or payable (PAPP)—provides the most extensive study available of the origins and architecture of the Valuation Agreement and its intersection with transfer pricing norms. Among much else, the author fully explains differing views on such questions as the following: criteria governing royalties and license fees; acceptability of the First Sale for Export doctrine; role of transport charges in valuing dutiable assists; status of interest payments on deferred payments; valuation of carrier media bearing software for data processing equipment; inclusion or exclusion of transport charges in the PAPP; status of the WTO’s moratorium on electronic transmissions; status of payments of money for tools and other materials used in producing the imported goods; and status of international instruments of traffic. The author expertly assesses interpretations of the Valuation Agreement as presented in the instruments of the World Customs Organization and in the administrative and judicial fora of the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This matchless book takes a giant step toward “real-world” consensus on the daunting questions of custom valuation. Customs and international tax professionals, as well as academic scholars, will come away from its in-depth coverage with an enhanced ability to discern the logic inherent in the Valuation Agreement, a greater awareness of current trends and their origins in authoritative customs valuation bodies, and improved confidence when approaching customs valuation questions.