Deputy Secretary-General calls for holistic approach to customs reforms
14 October 2008
“It is a cause of concern that customs administrators in many developing countries are still caught in the old web of control and revenue collection” – Ransford Smith
Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith stressed that customs modernisation must be viewed in the wider context of trade facilitation reform, noting that many customs reform projects have been limited in scope.
“Given that the pivotal role of customs in the overall process of trade facilitation is increasingly clear today, it is a cause of concern that customs administrators in many developing countries are still caught in the old web of control and revenue collection,” he noted.
Mr Smith said this during the Global Dialogue on Customs Capacity Building at the World Customs Organization in London, UK, on 2 October 2008.
He emphasised that reform that is limited only to customs will be substantially less effective if other agencies and service providers do not also enhance their performance at the same time.
"In this competitive world, the quality of logistics can have a major bearing on a firm's decisions about which country to locate in, which suppliers to buy from and which consumer markets to enter," he said.
The Deputy Secretary-General added that high levels of logistics costs, particularly low levels of service, are a barrier to trade and foreign direct investment, and thus economic growth.
He observed that obstacles to moving goods across borders quickly, reliably and cheaply "pose one of the main development challenges".
In most developing countries, Mr Smith said, border control and procedures have not kept pace with the changing trading environment.
Mr Smith pointed out that the Commonwealth has been providing technical assistance to member countries in the area of trade facilitation including customs reform and modernisation.
Click here for full text of Ransford Smith's speech
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