Photo Credit: Gerald Nino

Michael T. Schmitz

Schmitz has several goals he hopes to accomplish during his five-year term, which begins in January 2006. One is to shepherd the revised Kyoto Convention on the Harmonized and Simplification of Customs Procedures of 1999, which he was instrumental in negotiating, into full force and effect. The Kyoto Convention, initially approved in 1974, was the first international Customs agreement to harmonize and simplify customs procedures. The revised Kyoto convention lays out an improved and facilitative set of Customs procedures for processing merchandise in international trade. Forty countries must sign the revised Kyoto Convention for it to come into force.

Currently, 38 countries have approved the revised Kyoto Convention with the U. S. remaining uncommitted. “The real value of Kyoto is for our exporters, so they can have predictable, uniform and transparent Customs procedures around the world,” said Schmitz. “Signing the revised Kyoto Convention will not place any hardships on U.S. industry. We already have the regulations and Customs procedures in place that mirror the Kyoto Convention requirements.” Revised Kyoto provisions stress the use of new information technologies, control techniques, and introduce risk analysis to target high-risk shipments. The WCO views the revised Kyoto Convention as the blueprint for modern and efficient customs procedures in the 21st century.

Securing International channels

Passage of the revised Kyoto Convention also will smooth the path for another critical concern, the widespread implementation of the recently adopted WCO Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade. Schmitz hopes to provide support and guidance for the worldwide adoption of the WCO Framework, which could revolutionize global trade processes providing secure channels for the international movement of cargo.

Another area that will receive attention from the new director is intellectual property rights. The international community is becoming increasingly concerned over the impact that intellectual property rights violations have on global economies and the international business climate. The Group of Eight (G8), an organization of the world’s leading industrialized nations, included intellectual property rights as a topic for discussion at its recently completed summit. Working through the WCO's Intellectual Property Rights Strategic Group, Schmitz hopes to stimulate development of global policies that would protect the loss of revenue to legitimate businesses and protect the public from dangerous and hazardous goods.

Traditional Customs enforcement efforts targeting money laundering, drug trafficking and commercial fraud will also be a priority for Schmitz. The potential for corruption in Customs is enormous because of its broad authorities and its role in the collection of revenue, taxes and duties. Criminal activities and internal corruption underscore the importance of integrity as the cornerstone of all efforts to modernize Customs administrations and develop emerging economies. Integrity is certainly a requirement for any of the capacity building efforts that the WCO will undertake. “ We cannot succeed without eradicating endemic corruption in some Customs organizations,” said Schmitz. “The real issue is not that some Customs administrations won’t acknowledge that they have a corruption problem. It ‘s that when the donor countries and institutions are looking for countries that have the true political will to address integrity issues in their capacity building efforts.”

Schmitz has laid out an ambitious, critically important agenda for his time at the WCO. However, it will be a return to familiar territory, not just Brussels, Belgium, but to working in a challenging policy and negotiating arena.