The Belgian Customs and Excise Administration can go ahead to post 5 customs representatives in important markets, outside the EU.   Noël Colpin, the Belgian Administrator General, convinced the Belgian government to have its own customs representatives in Moskow, Pretoria, Washington, New-Delhi and Beijing.  Aim is to simplify the economical relations with these countries by the presence of Belgian customs representatives.  The names of the newly appointed will be made official in June.

This decision is complimentary to the project for ’secure trade lanes’.  A ’secure trade lane’ is a logistics information platform, which gives access to transaction data.  Customs authorities are studying how to work together for the exchange of data and the monitoring of movement of goods.  Belgian Customs are involved in the study of the trade lane with India.  Other countries next to India with whom the EU wants to set up trade lanes are China, South-Africa and South-Corea. 

Another initiative in the same context is Authorized Economic Operator (AEO).  AEO certified companies will eventually be authorised to use these trade lanes.  By doing so, they will benefit from a preferential treatment offered by customs authorities for consignments proven safe.  The level of certification will however determine how clients will be subject to customs checks.   

It is clear that customs will evolve from its current role as an administrator into a new role as facilitator of business.

Do you want to learn more about the new players within the logistics world, the role of the WCO, the evolutions within customs worldwide and the consequences for the activities within the customs administrations?

On March 11th, Lieve Meyers of the blog Taxtalk, Ann Vissers (C4T) and Pieter Haesaert (C4T) had an interview with Noël Colpin. The report and podcast of this interview are available in Dutch.

• Listen to the podcast!
• Link to the full report (in dutch)!

Noël Colpin, the actual Administrator of the Belgian Customs and Excise Administration is candidate for the post of Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO). www.colpin.be is the official website for our belgian candidate. In June it will be announced who will succeed the actual Secretary General, Michel Danet from France for a term of 5 years.

The WCO is the only international organisation focused on customs matters. Located in Brussels, it has 171 members across the globe at all stages of economic development that collectively process approximately 98% of world trade. More info on www.wcoomd.org.

Yesterday, March 11th, Lieve Meyers from the blog Taxtalk, Ann Vissers (C4T) and Pieter Haesaert (C4T) had an interview with Noël Colpin about customs worldwide, the World Customs Organisation, the new players in the logistic field and the consequences for customs.

This podcast interview will be available next week on our site.