“Partnership in Customs Academic Research and Development”

The 10th annual WCO PICARD Conference was held from 8 to 10 September 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan and hosted by the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Conference Summary

The Conference kicked-off with opening remarks by WCO Secretary General, Dr Kunio Mikuriya, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr. Abid Sharifov, the Chairman of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Prof. Aydin Aliyev, and the Vice-Commissioner of Korea Customs Service, Mr Donhyun Lee.

240 participants from over 50 countries attended the conference including representatives of Customs administrations, the academic and research communities, international and regional organizations, and the private sector.

WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya, expressed his gratitude to the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan for hosting the PICARD Conference and the warm welcome to the participants, and thanked Korea Customs Service for supporting the participation of some speakers. Mr Mikuriya noted that research activities and discussions on topics relating to global value chains (GVC), revenue matters and smuggling, the three focus topics for this year’s Conference, greatly support the Customs community and its stakeholders in their daily work and decision-making processes.

Chairman Aliyev noted that, taking into account the challenges lying ahead for Customs administrations, it goes without saying how important the timely sharing of information and best practices among the global research community is today, as it has an important role in informing decision-makers about the research findings that promise to lead to effective solutions. In this context, through academic research and debate, the PICARD Conference strives to help decision-makers in Customs to formulate strategies and policies.

The conference benefited from an interdisciplinary approach to research and policy analysis on Customs matters, international trade, and borders. Presentations were made by Customs officials, anthropologists, criminologists, economists, lawyers, and political scientists.

The conference included keynote addresses by Dr Mick Moore, the Chief Executive Officer of the International Centre for Tax and Development in the United Kingdom; and by three Nobel Laureate economists: Dr Eric Maskin, Professor at Harvard University, Dr Edward Prescott, Professor at Arizona State University, and Dr Finn Kydland, Professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

Presentations were also made by representatives of several journals that publish papers on Customs and border issues, including the Global Trade and Customs Journal, the Journal of Borderlands Studies, and the World Customs Journal.

An INCU presentation entitled “INCU – Ten Years of Promoting the Academic Standing of the Customs Profession was jointly delivered by Dr Mikhail Kashubsky, INCU Head of Secretariat and Ms Lala Imanova, INCU Regional Office Manager. As part of the presentation the INCU took the opportunity to present 10^th Anniversary Awards to some of its members and affiliates in order to formally recognise the contribution they made to the INCU. The Certificates of Recognition and complementary 3-year Institutional INCU Memberships were presented by the INCU President, Prof. David Widdowson and the INCU Vice-President, Prof. Hans-Michael Wolffgang, to the following four institutions:

• Cross-Border Research Association (Switzerland);
• University of Costa Rica (Costa Rica);
• University of Customs and Finance (Ukraine);
• State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan and its Academy.

A Youth Forum took place on the last day of the conference, bringing together some 70 students from various universities to discuss topics raised during the Conference, as well as future career possibilities in Customs and in the international trade arena.

The Conference was attended by a number of individual members of the INCU and representatives of the INCU affiliates and institutional members including several members of the INCU Management Committee, the Advisory Board and the INCU Secretariat.

During the three days of the conference in Baku, the INCU held a joint meeting of the INCU Management Committee and Advisory Board and the Annual General Meeting of INCU members, where the implementation of the INCU Baku Resolution and other future initiatives were discussed, as well as several bilateral meetings. The INCU Annual General Meeting was attended by several observers including representatives of the WCO and the International Road Transport Union (IRU).

Following the conference, the INCU held the Inauguration Ceremony of its first Regional Office in Baku, which was officially opened on 11 September 2015.

Conference Documents

• Conference Program:  English    French     Russian    Spanish
• PICARD 2015 Flyer:  English  French
• PICARD 2015 Call for Papers:  English

Conference Presentations

The following presentations were delivered at the conference:

TITLE	SPEAKER(S)	PDF	Video
International Cooperation: Comparing Trade and Tax (or tariffs and corporate taxes; or Erik and Erika)	Mick Moore	EN	EN
Smuggling- an old plague constantly evolving: the Cameroon Customs Experience	Minette Libom	EN
Bounty Hunter Reward System: is it a management evil?	M.R. Rajmohan	EN
Seizures of Inconvenience?	Siv. Runhovde	EN
Global value chains as the new development paradigm: what implications for Customs?	Gaelle Balineau	EN
The impact of responsible consumption standards on global value- chains and international transactions	Antoine Vion	EN
10 years of promoting the Academic Standing of the Customs Profession	Mikhail Kashubky Lala Imanova	EN	EN
World Customs Journal	David Widdowson	EN	EN
Kluwer Law International Global Trade and Customs Journal	John Brew	EN	EN
Journal of Borderlands Studies Annual report 2014-15	Emmanuel Brunet Jailly	EN	EN
World Customs Organization East and Southern Africa Regional office for Capacity Building	Christine Msemburi	EN	EN
Management of innovative customs development projects: experience of Azerbaijan Customs	Igbal Babayev	RU
Information cooperation between the private sector and Customs: a case study of the economic integration in CIS	Valeriya Ermakova	EN
International Harmonization in the Rules of Cross- border Electronic Commerce	Min Wang	EN
Global value chains, border management and Australian trade	Nicholas Humphries	EN
Reconciling rules of origin and global value chains: the case for reform	Dylan Geraets	EN
The adjudication of customs tariff classification disputes- lessons from Australia and Canada	Theo Colesky	EN
A framework for a database to share information on tax revenue streams and tax collection costs among Customs Administrations Globally	Juha Hintsa	EN
Compensation of Customs Duty New tasks for Customs Administrations	Robert Luissi	EN
Determinants and pervasiveness of the evasion of customs duties	Christina Mitaritonna	EN
An analysis of the risks for fraud in storage and inspection/ processing areas (MAD)	Lofti Ayadi	FR
The World Ranking of Trade Statistics Accuracy	Shintaro Hamanaka	EN
Protection of cultural property as part of the security policy of the European Union	Tomasz Nowak	EN
Combating the illicit trade of cultural property and archaeological and ethnological objects in the United States. US immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seizures under analysis	Maria Vazquez	EN
Method of automatic selection of the basis for calculating the amount of customs duties and taxes under the control of customs value of goods	Yulia Mazanik	RU
Risk management system as a modern tool for counteracting customs offenses	Oleg Komarov	RU
The normality of informality: estimating informal trade between Mal and Algeria	Sami Bensassi	EN
Profit, networks, and power: real government and informality in cross-border trade in Sierra Leone	Vanessa Van den Boogaard	EN
Kurdistan Iraq: A space for the redeployment of commercial trade routes between Turkey and Iraq	Cyrille Roussel	FR
Why have global markets failed to reduce inequality on development countries	Eric Maskin	EN	EN
Current State of World Economic Development	Edward Prescott		EN
The Implications of Nation’s Policy Environments for Innovative Activity and Capital Formation	Finn Kydland		EN

Conference Photos