At the invitation of the American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI), Ricardo Treviño, Assistant Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), has participated in the AAEI Annual Conference This year's event, which is taking place online from August 11 to September 3, 2020, was attended by over 400 participants.
According to the WCO press release, this Conference aims to provide a forum for policymakers to speak directly with international trade practitioners about the benefits and shortcomings of the multilateral trading system.
Together with Alan Wolff, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Deputy Secretary-General Treviño discussed trade and customs issues at a Live panel session titled «What is the future of trade: multilateral or bilateral?, Held on 11 August 2020. The panel was moderated by Ms. Marianne Rowden, President and CEO of the AAEI, who began by highlighting the differences between the working methods and structures of the WCO and the WTO, as well as the main objectives of the two Organizations.
During his speech, the Under-Secretary General Treviño explained the nature of the WCO as the only intergovernmental organization which deals with customs matters and focuses on standard setting, capacity building and fostering cooperation between Customs. He went on to stress that almost all The technical bodies of the WCO are open to all WCO Members and therefore all WCO Members can contribute to the development of the Organization’s standards, instruments and tools. “This opening is important for the Organization, because it allows Members from countries at different levels of development and with different trading environments to work collectively on standards that would be acceptable to the majority, being a further step towards greater harmonization of border procedures,” he said. “Thanks to the work done on trade facilitation and electronic commerce, This openness and inclusiveness concerns not only Members, but also other stakeholders in international trade."He added.
After Treviño mentioned the large number of bilateral and multilateral agreements, the moderator asked him to address this issue in the context of the SAFE Framework of Standards and Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) for Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs). In response, highlighted the highly critical relevance of the SAFE Framework of Standards, adding that to date, 171 Members have signed the Letter of Intent to implement these Standards. In addition, There are 95 operational OAS programs, not to mention those under negotiation, plus others 20 that are in development, and 85 ARM providing ultimate benefits to traders, which operate both in the country of origin and in the country of destination.
In turn, the WTO Deputy Director-General Wolff, He highlighted the close cooperation between the WTO and the WCO., and the relevance of this cooperation in matters such as trade facilitation, tariffs, valuation and origin.
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