wco: research unit
TRANSCRIPT
WCO: Research Unit
Rachel McGauran
Research Unit
Office of the Secretary General
WCO Secretariat
Content Overview of the Organization
Tanzania’s Membership of the WCO
WCO and Capacity Building
WCO’s Research Unit
Compilation of Publications
Key Research Projects
Club de la Réforme
WCO Conferences
WCO: An Overview
The GATT - Questions raised about
Customs processes - No institution
responsible for examining Customs
issues
13 European countries - Study Group to
examine the Customs issues identified by the
GATT: creation of an international Customs
body
The Convention establishing
a Customs Co-operation
Council (CCC) signed in
Brussels
The CCC
Convention entered
into force on
4 November 1952
The inaugural
session
of the CCC
Council held on
26 January 1953
with 17 founding
Members
In 1994, WCO
name adopted
by the CCC
19471953 194819521950 1994
A global membership
Tanzania
Commissioner of Customs and Excise:
Mr. Tiagi M. Kabisi
Number of Customs staff: 1,228
Year of WCO Accession: 1964
Proportion of government tax revenue
collected by Customs: 50.4%
Taxes on export: 0.7%
The WCO Secretariat
Elected Officials Secretary General
Kunio Mikuriya
Director of Capacity
Building
Erich Kieck
Deputy Secretary General
Sergio Mujica
Director of Compliance
and facilitation
Gaozhang Zhu
Director of Tariff
and Trade Affairs
Position Currently Vacant
Evolution of the Customs Function
Revenue Collection of Import Taxes (duties & excise)
Protection of Economic Interests (domestic industry)
Protection of Society <health, safety>(drug trafficking, firearms, environment, etc.)
Economic Development <trade, investment>(trade facilitation)
Cu
sto
ms fu
nctio
nSecurity <terrorism>(shifting focus to the entire supply chain)
Customs Today
WCO and Capacity Building
Capacity building delivery is based on the
annual needs-assessment carried out by WCO,
Members and Regional Offices for Capacity
Building.
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WCO and Capacity Building
Customs Administrations in developing
countries face enormous pressure to maximize
revenue collection in an atmosphere often
characterized by low compliance levels.
Customs officials typically resort to high levels
of documentary and physical inspection to
verify the value, classification and origin of
goods.
10
WCO and Capacity Building
WCO Capacity Building initiatives cover an extensive range of
activities reflecting our expertise across diverse domains such as
valuation, post clearance audit, risk analysis, risk management,
origin of goods, single window and the Revised Kyoto Convention
(RKC), precursor to the newly-signed Trade Facilitation
Agreement (TFA).
The WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement will provide a renewed
impetus, increased donor funding and secure political will to
ensure enhanced and streamlined Customs processes.
Update: 27 November 2014, Members adopted the Protocol of
Amendment agreeing to insert the TFA into Annex 1a of the WTO
Agreement, thus becoming applicable to all 160 Members of the
WTO.11
Research Unit of the WCO
Secretary General
Deputy SG
Trade and Tariff Affairs
Directorate
Compliance and
Facilitation Directorate
Capacity Building
Directorate
Nomenclature
Valuation
Origin
Compliance
Facilitation
Europe MENA
WCA ESA
AP America
Office of SG Research Unit
Background
A priority for the Secretary General
Knowledge-based Customs.
A Customs Reform and Modernization tool.
Seventh Strategic Goal of the WCO.
Research Unit
Established in the Office of the Secretary General in 2009.
Currently composed of five people.
Empirical approach.
http://www.wcoomd.org/home_research.htm
Compilation of Publications
Research Paper Series (34).
Core component of the Research Unit’s work.
Empirical analysis-Member surveys and data extractedfrom Customs automated systems.
At the request of Committees or the Secretary General
Trade Facilitation in Regional Trade Agreements.
Customs Administrations Operating Under CustomsUnions.
Customs Environmental Scan.
Key Research Projects
Performance Measurement/Research on Quantification.
First undertaken in Cameroon in 2010, spread to Togo in 2011 andLiberia in 2013.
Objectives Improve Customs revenue.
Reduce corruption.
Facilitate Customs clearance.
PrinciplesUse of information contained in IT systems.
Production and regular dissemination of numerical indicators.
Individual performance contracts for Customs staff and partners.
In the pipeline: ASYCUDA modules.
Key Research Projects
Key Research Projects
Exchange of Information (EOI) between Customs administrations.
Paper ‘Tracing trails: implications of tax information exchange programmes for Customs administrations’ published in September 2014 (World Customs Journal).
Currently identifying areas of potential cooperation in conjunction with the OECD (guidelines, template).
EOI between Tax authorities:
Instruments EOI on request, Automatic EOI, and Spontaneous EOI.
Focusing on information of incomes and assets from financial
institutions.
Excluding taxes on import and export.
Tax authority
Financial
institution
Financial
institution
Financial
institution
Country A
Tax authority
Financial
institution
Financial
institution
Financial
institution
Country B
EOI between Customs administrations
Information that Customs seek to exchangeTrade transactional information from trade documents (e.g., prices,
quantity, and quality of commodities, and transaction partners).
Objectives of EOITo levy taxes on cross-border trade.
To chase and deter illicit trade transactions.
Type: mostly EOI on requestAt bilateral level, EOIs without the WCO’s coordination.
US ICE’s trade data sharing programme.
Automatic EOI: Export declarations fed into import declarations? Not yet.
EOI between Tax authorities and Customs
administrations
Customs administration → Tax authorities
Exchange of trade data (i.e. purchases/sales data) between Customs
and tax authorities can help in the detection of undeclared/mis-
declared tax bases for both parties.
Monetary instruments import / export data can help tax authorities
detect unreported incomes or assets.
Customs investigation of trade-based money laundering is useful to
discover cross-border tax evasion.
EOI between Customs Administrations
International Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance for the Prevention, Investigation, and Repression of Customs offenses (aka, Nairobi convention) in 1980.
International Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs matters (Johannesburg convention) which has not enteredinto force yet.
Model Bilateral Agreement on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters established in 2004.
Trade information exchange on request (Article 12) in WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) platform.
Globally Networked Customs (GNC) Framework.
Club de la Réforme
Objective
Facilitate information exchange between members of theCustoms community and those in the academic sphere toestablish communication channels on a variety of topics ofmutual interest.
More than 400 users registered.
Enables sharing of videos, articles, photos and academicarticles.
URL: www.club.wcoomd.org
Club de la Réforme
Annual Report
An annual compendium of Customs activities-both of
Members and the Secretariat.
First publication appeared in June 2012
during the Council sessions.
Annual Report: Member Profiles
WCO Conferences
WCO Revenue Conference.
When? 30 June-1 July 2014.
Topics:Transfer Pricing
Informal Trade Practices
VAT, Excise and Compliance
130 Delegates
WCO Conferences
All is well that ends well!
WCO Picard Conference 2015. Launched in 2006, objective of the Conference is to promote high-level exchanges on Customs research and professionalism.
Where? Baku, Azerbaijan.
When? 8-10 September.
Call for Papers: January 2015.
Thank you for your attention.
Merci de votre attention.
Asante santa.