The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization that helps Members (currently Customs administrations from 169 countries) communicate and co-operate on customs issues. It was established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation Council; it adopted its current name in 1994. For the political science journal, see: International Organization An international organization (also called intergovernmental organization) is an organization of international scope or character. ... Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting customs duties and for controlling the flow of animals and goods (including personal effects and hazardous items) in and out of a country. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ...

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, it develops agreed rules on customs procedures and provides advice and assistance to customs services. It has established an international standard classification of commodities called the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, which is used to classify goods for tariff purposes the application of tariffs. The WCO has 170 members; see World Customs Organization member states. The current Secretary General is Michel Danet (1999-present) from France. Nickname: The Capital Of Europe, Comic City City of a 100 Museums[] Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989  - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area    - City 162 (Region) km²  (62. ... The Harmonized System of tariff nomenclature are internationally standardized names and numbers maintained by the World Customs Organization for classifying traded products. ... A tariff is a tax on foreign goods. ... The following countries are members of the World Customs Organization. ... A large number of international organizations and other bodies have a secretary general or secretary-general as their chief administrative officers or in other administrative capacities. ...

The WCO does not deal with tariff and trade disputes; these issues fall under the jurisdiction of the World Trade Organization. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

In June 2005, the WCO adopted the Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade ("SAFE"),[1] an international instrument containing 17 standards that promotes security, trade facilitation, anti-corruption, and revenue collection. Because of SAFE's complexity, the WCO launched in January 2006 a Customs capacity building program called the WCO Columbus Programme,[2] which focuses on comprehensive needs assessments for WCO Members using the WCO Diagnostic Framework tool. The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

On 1 July 2006 Tapani Erling from Finland was elected chairman of the council of the organisation, replacing Pravin Gordhan (2000-2006) from South Africa, who had held the chair for the past five years. [3] Tapani Erling (b. ...

External links

• Official WCO website
• Factsheet on the WCO (PDF)