The International Federation of Customs Brokers Associations (IFCBA) held a very successful conference on 12-13th December 2022 in Singapore, welcoming customs brokers from 12 countries in Asia, North and South America, the Caribbean, and Africa, and celebrating the IFCBA’s 30th anniversary. The focus of the conference was on the World Customs Organization (WCO) study review of the Harmonized System of Tariff Classification.
In his opening speech, the Secretary General of the WCO, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, congratulated the organisers of the Global Conference and extended his best wishes on the IFCBA 30th anniversary. Dr. Mikuriya expressed his appreciation for the role of customs brokers worldwide and for the contribution of business operators to customs work.
The WCO official launch of the study on the possible strategic review of the HS, in September 2022, was in the spotlight of the Conference. In this respect, the Secretary of the IFCBA, Ms. Carol West, shared the consolidated results of the replies of the IFCBA members to the survey.
The IFCBA includes HS expert practitioners who are committed to the progress of the HS strategic review project and who have substantially contributed already to the WCO Global Conference for the future of the HS, held in Brussels, in May 2019.
The WCO Secretariat represented by a WCO project officer, whose participation was funded by the Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF) of China, expressed its appreciation and assured that IFCBA input would be reflected in the study for the WCO members’ consideration. Furthermore, she updated the customs brokers on the progress of the study, since its launch, addressed the comments expressed and discussed the points raised by the participants.
Finally, within the framework of the Conference, the Chairperson of the WCO Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG), Mr. Jaime King and the Chairperson of the Asia-Pacific Private Sector Group, Mr. Kit Hickey, provided information on their main achievements over the past few years as a result of the opportunities provided by the WCO for the engagement with the private sector.
FFFAI also participated in this important meet. Representing FFFAI, its Executive Committee Member Mr. Vikrant Gogia made a presentation at the IFCBA Conference to highlight the recent developments in Indian Customs with active collaboration from the pan India apex body FFFAI. He also shared that Indian Customs Act 1962 completes its 60 years and FFFAI shares the common Diamond jubilee year celebration.
Mr Gogia emphasised on the Indian Customs various facilitation measures along with IT and faceless transaction initiatives, which include Electronic Cash Ledger, Anonymised Escalation Mechanism, Electronic Cargo Tracking System, Customs Brokers Licensing Management Portal, Turant Customs, E-Sanchit, Authorised Economic Operators, Direct Port Delivery, etc, which ensure Ease of Doing Business in line of the Government of India’s mission. With a transparent and trust-based system in place, Indian Customs and Customs Brokers in India working as partners to promote the EXIM trade in the country. FFFAI is constantly in dialogue through its recommendations and working together with the Indian Customs and Government of India for achieving the set target of $5 trillion economy by 2025. The audience representing different countries from across the world strongly applauded the developments pertaining to ease of Customs Clearance and Customs Broking Business in India.
