Geneva, 14-15 April, 2016 - The Eleventh Meeting of the Partners to the Green Customs Initiative (GCI) was hosted by the Secretariat of Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS) in Geneva, Switzerland from 14-15 April, 2016.
The meeting brought together representatives from the Secretariat of BRS, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Secretariat of CITES, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), UNEP Division of Environmental Law and Conventions (DELC), UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE), OzonAction, the World Customs Organization, INTERPOL, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, the Interim Secretariat of Minamata Convention, and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
GCI Partners and the Green Customs secretariat opened the meeting discussing activities in 2015 and upcoming plans for 2016, and Partners agreed the set of action points as the workplan for 2016, including updating the GCI Guide, finalizing the GCI Guidelines for Cooperation, and developing the Strategic Plan.
UNEP Environment and Trade Hub presented its capacity building services for government officials and other stakeholders through their network of partners in the environment and trade space. Although the Hub currently focuses on macroeconomic policymaking, the team expressed interest in potential areas of overlap between the Hub's work and the training of customs officials involved in at-the-border enforcement activities, including: (1) engaging in training-of-trainers (ToT) exercises involving not only customs officials but also national authorities, thereby linking policy-making with policy-implementing officials; (2) capacity building on, even advocacy, for stronger environment and trade provisions in regional trade and investment agreements, including provisions that support the objectives of Green Customs Initiative members; and (3) capacity building for implementing environment-related trade agreements such as the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), which currently involves negotiations around a complex set of over 600 HS-6 codes including potential ex-outs.
The benefits of cooperation could include unlocking a new set of potential donors, accessing a new set of partner organizations in customs and trade, and enhancing the effectiveness of customs enforcement by bringing policy and customs officials and other stakeholders together, including through enhanced ToT capacity building activities.
Partners are currently reflecting on these new options for expanding GCI’s future workplan, fundraising, and outreach activities.
The Green Customs Initiative (GCI) is a partnership of international organisations cooperating to prevent the illegal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities and facilitation of the legal trade in these. Launched in 2004, the GCI is designed to enhance the capacity of customs and other relevant enforcement personnel to monitor and facilitate the legal trade and to detect and prevent illegal trade in environmentally-sensitive commodities covered by the relevant conventions and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).
An overview can be found here.
