G7 Italy: The Apulia Summit

TRADE, INVESTMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE

A s the G7 summit convenes, the global community faces climate crisis. The urgency is clear, as underscored by the G7 trade ministers in February 2024, and calls for concerted action. As the international voice of customs administrations, the World Customs Organization is at the forefront of navigating today’s challenges to border security and trade facilitation. As I begin my tenure at the WCO, I see that one major challenge facing the global trading community today is trust. In this context, there are three aspects: • geopolitical shifts, socioeconomic inequalities and an escalating

Trust in

customs

Trust is a major challenge facing the global trading community, but the World Customs Organization is committed to fostering confidence in customs, ensuring its members and the societies and economies they serve can rely on trade as a means to achieve resilience and prosperity

By Ian Saunders, secretary-general, World Customs Organization

Trust that customs will ensure global supply chains will function no matter what they are confronted with; Trust that the digital infrastructure on which customs relies will work effectively without detrimental effects to privacy; and

• Trust that customs can adapt to the new economy in light of e-commerce expansion. The WCO has long worked to create and preserve a trusted trade and security environment. The creation of the SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade in 2005 reflected

An oil tanker passes through a shipping port processing containers

106 G7 ITALY: THE APULIA SUMMIT — 2024

globalgovernanceproject.org

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