Enabling Smart Borders:
Foreword
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Gaozhang Zhu
Director,
Enforcement and Facilitation,
World Customs Organization
Gaozhang Zhu
Director,
Enforcement and Facilitation,
World Customs Organization
At the World Customs Organization (WCO), we are committed to playing a vital role in stimulating the growth of international trade through fostering connectivity, innovation and communication, and developing global standards, instruments and tools for the modernization and automation of customs procedures.1
In all our efforts, we champion a partnership approach as one of the keys to building bridges between customs administrations and their partners, both in government and the private sector. An honest, transparent, facilitative and predictable border environment directly contributes to the economic competiveness and social well-being of states.
In addition, the current discussions at the World Trade Organization (WTO) acknowledge that efficient and effective border procedures have the potential to provide more benefits to legitimate international trade than the reduction of tariff barriers. Customs play a key role in the modernization of border management. Advance cargo information, risk management, coordinated border management and the implementation of single windows, based on harmonized international standards, enable border agencies to ensure the highest levels of compliance by focusing controls on illicit trade, thereby securing and protecting their societies while facilitating legitimate traders.