CLECAT:On the 26th of January, the World Customs Organisation officially launched the Year of Digital Customs under the slogan “Digital Customs: Progressive Engagement”. This year, Customs administrations are encouraged to actively showcase and promote their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
On behalf of the European Commission, Mr Stephen Quest, Director-General for Taxation and Customs Union, wrote a statement in which he welcomes the importance given to Information Technology in the context of customs and trade future developments. Mr Quest declares that “in the European Union (EU), the coming years will see the development of many new electronic Customs Systems to support changes introduced by our new Customs legislation. All 28 EU Member States will need to use this new technology to secure the implementation of the mandatory changes. We have already created the EU Customs Data Model, which will provide a single source to publish the required data and data exchanges in a format suitable for immediate use by the EU Member States. This EU Customs Data Model is fully aligned with the WCO Data Model”.
Mr Quest’s statement is availableHERE.