According to sources from General Administration of Customs on January 9, First Global Cross-Border E-Commerce Conference to be co-hosted by China Customs and the World Customs Organization, will be held from February 9 to 10 in Beijing, with its theme being “promote sustainable cross-border e-commerce with an innovative, inclusive, strategic and collaborative approach”.

Customs, being a key link in the chain of supervision and control over cross-border e-commerce, is faced with both opportunities and challenges brought about by its rapid growth. Compared with conventional trade, cross-border e-commerce, which features low-value and fragmented goods moving frequently across borders in high frequency has constituted a new challenge for traditional mode of customs control. To address this issue in a timely manner, the WCO has set up a working group on e-commerce. With China being its chair as of October 2017, the working group has been trying to develop an international standard by drafting a WCO Framework of Standards on Cross-border E-commerce. The forthcoming global conference will hear and discuss opinions on the draft framework of standards so as to determine on the basic principles on customs control over cross-border e-commerce.

A total of 800 representatives will be invited to attend the conference, including those from the WCO member administrations, international organizations, Chinese central and local government agencies, academic institutions, e-commerce companies and related businesses both at home and abroad. Among agenda of the conference will be benefit sharing, innovation, technology-driven growth, balanced development, vision and outlook, issues related to e-commerce facilitation, security, taxation and statistics, as well as new opportunities for e-commerce brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative.

“Beijing Declaration” will be released as the conference’s outcome, which will demonstrate consensus and vision of the world customs community and other stakeholders to promote sound development of cross-border e-commerce.