ICC Customs Guidelines (revised version June 2012)

This 2012 edition of the ICC Customs Guidelines – produced within the framework of ICC Memorandum of Understanding with the World Customs Organization (WCO), presents a comprehensive set of practices that ICC considers should characterize all modern customs administrations. Their observance is of major value and importance for those engaged in trade and transport, particularly in developing economies.

The guidelines and explanatory notes draw on a wide range of WCO documents and ICC policy statements. Many guidelines, for example the use of risk-assessment techniques with pre-entry and post-audit procedures, are as favourable to better security and other border controls as to improved trade facilitation. The guidelines make specific reference to the value of systematic customs/trade co-operation through memorandum of understanding programmes.

They have numerous uses. For example, they set out, in a convenient form, a summary list of key provisions that, cross-referenced to corresponding stipulations in WCO Conventions, can be readily expanded into a code of best customs practices. Selected guidelines and explanatory notes have been assembled into toolkits for use in assessing customs practices in relation to such specific concerns as supply chain security and integrity.