FM Releases Trade Facilitation Plan

· Seeks India Help in Plugging Illicit Financial Flows

[CBEC Press Release dated 21^st July 2017]

Secretary General of World Customs Organization, Dr Kunio Mikuria during two-day visit to India had called on the Finance Minister to discuss various issues relating to Customs and Trade Facilitation.

SG appreciated various initiatives taken by Indian Customs to facilitate trade particularly the release of the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan. The Action Plan was released by Honourable Finance Minister on 20-07-2017. The Action Plan aims to align border procedures with international best practices and improve ease of doing business.

He mentioned about WCO working with G20 on illicit financial flows. He sought Indian support for the study on illicit financial flows and plugging of trade based money laundering.

In the morning, Secretary General along with Chairman, CBEC Ms Vanaja Sarna addressed workshop on “Trade Facilitation Agreement – Learning from Implementation Experience” at FICCI Federation House. This workshop has been organised by CBEC, FICCI and World Bank to share Global experience and Indian perspective on best practices in Trade Facilitation. International experts from WTO, World Bank and other countries participated in the said workshop.

Mr Mikuriya spoke about how WCO is helping many countries in implementation of TFA through their Mercator Programme. He specifically appreciated TFA plus category in India’s Action Plan.

During the course of the day, Secretary General had separate meetings with Revenue Secretary, Secretary DIPP, Chairman and members of CBEC.