JIO visit to South Korea – 30th Anniversary RILO A/P

Enforcement, Meetings

At the invitation of the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) Asia/Pacific (A/P), the CCLEC JIO attended the ceremony held in Seoul, Korea on 6 2017 to mark the 30th Anniversary of the first RILO and the birth of the global RILO network. The JIO was one of 10 RILO’s to attend this ceremony.
The WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya was present for this ceremony.

Following the welcome address by the Korea Customs Service Commissioner, Mr. Yung-Moon Kim, Secretary General Mikuriya delivered a congratulatory speech expressing his sincere appreciation to the past four host Administrations of the RILO A/P for their services, namely Hong Kong, China (1987-1998), Japan (1999-2003), China (2004-2011) and Korea (2012- present). He recognised the gradual evolution of the RILO A/P nurtured by the four Administrations: (i) foundation (Hong Kong, China); (ii) capacity building (Japan); (iii) operations (China); (iv) and networking (Korea) with all 33 WCO A/P

Annual Enforcement Conference held in Miami

Enforcement, Meetings

The annual Enforcement Liaison Officer (ELO) conference was held on 1st& 2nd November 2017 in Miami. In attendance were twenty six (26) countries and representatives of WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Western Europe. The meeting was a joint effort by ODA, CCLEC and member administrations.

This annual meeting is an integral part of the CCLEC enforcement network and WCO National Contact Points. The meeting’s primary objective was to foster closer cooperation with regional and international counterparts and improve networking.

Presentations were made by a Border Force Senior Officer from International Directorate South Americas on Operation Hunter, a representative from Japan Tobacco Industry on tobacco smuggling and a former UNODC consultant, on fuel smuggling. Both the RILOs delivered presentations on work being carried out in their regions.

The JIO presented the report on Operation Caribbean Shield which was held for six weeks in the region.  The Operation was focused on small arms trafficking in the region to assess the level of risk at the borders.

Grand Cayman Customs launches new IT System

News, Technology

As announced previously, today (Wednesday, 1 November 2017) the Customs Department launched Phase 1 of its project to transition from its legacy IT Platforms to its enhanced IT Platforms.

Collector of Customs Charles Clifford said, “The transition will ultimately see the phasing out of the Customs Department’s legacy IT Platforms in favor of enhanced IT Platforms which are designed to ultimately deliver effective trade facilitation and exceptional customer service while maintaining effective border control protocols.”

Deputy Collector of Customs Kevin Walton, who has responsibility for the Customs Department’s Revenue Collection Portfolio, said, “Because this is a transition, those traders who may not be ready to use the new IT Platform which is being launched in Phase 1 today will have available to them our legacy IT Platforms which will remain live and available in order to facilitate a smooth transition within a reasonable period of time before the old systems are taken offline at the end of this year”

Collector Clifford advised that customers must come in to register on the new system in order to take advantage of it advances. Registration is necessary for compliance purposes. However, it is a one time registration and once you are registered on the new system you will be able to enter your declaration online from the comfort of your home or office. You will then receive an email from the Customs Department confirming receipt and advising that your declaration will be processed within 2 hours. Once your declaration is processed, you will receive a further email advising that your goods have been released and that you should come in to pay the duties and collect your goods or alternatively that your goods have been selected for inspection and you must come in to witness the inspection.