world customs day 2020

World customs day 2020

For the UFE, the customs and financial administrations must set an example in commitment, exemplarity and responsibility for sustainability.

On January 26, the World Customs Organization (WCO) chose the theme “Sustainability at the heart of customs action for people, prosperity and the planet”. According to the organization, it is about focusing the customs community on the customs contribution to a “sustainable future, by placing socioeconomic, health and environmental needs at the center of their action”.

The UFE welcomes this choice, which fully meets the concerns of its members. All agents of custom administrations testify the importance to be given to environmental facts.

Climate change has immediate repercussions on international trade, from the making of products, their transport and their mode of marketing. The attention paid to the environment should not constitute a “marketing” selling point among others: it must irrigate all modern taxation, from trade and therefore customs policy, to corporate taxation.

EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni’s mission letter also calls for major changes to the inclusion of carbon content in product exchanges, beyond just thinking about energy taxation.

UFE also appeals to the financial administrations and to TAXUD in the sense of the effective commitment, the exemplarity and the responsibility of the political and administrative leaders to green tax at all levels.

The sustainability desired by the WCO also refers to the social and environmental responsibility which customs and more broadly financial administrations must demonstrate on a daily basis, with the same commitment, with exemplarity and sense of responsibility