Study Guide

This module has examined the main treaties governing how Customs administrations approach trade facilitation, revenue management and Customs control. These agreements establish standards designed to achieve a sound balance between facilitation and compliance — ensuring that legitimate trade can proceed with minimal intervention, while illicit trade is prevented and penalised appropriately. 

The foundation of this approach is risk management. Customs supports voluntary compliance by providing information and services to traders, while applying appropriate penalties for non-compliance — whether through genuine error or deliberate intent. This has fundamentally transformed Customs administrations over the past 30 years, though implementation continues as more countries accede to the RKC and the TFA and align their domestic law with modern requirements. 

The agreements examined in this module do not, however, address supply chain security in depth. Module 3 will examine the practices and procedures developed since 2001 to protect the supply chain from terrorism and other hostile threats.