BIMCO and the WCO renewed their relationship through the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order to enhance and strengthen their co-operation to adopt mutually relevant and useful guidance and advice within the shipping industry.
It will be used as the overarching agreement for BIMCO to review its existing individual MoUs with 15 different national customs unions covering counter drug smuggling agreements.
BIMCO has been at the forefront of supply chain and ship security within the shipping industry, advising and briefing ship owners on countering illegal maritime activities for the past two decades. Today, shipping and seafarers are subject to all sorts of security threats and a broad range of maritime crime and it is obvious that customs authorities and ship owners have a shared interest in collaborating in an effort to curtail the proliferation of these damaging activities.
On the occasion of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the World Customs Organisation and BIMCO, BIMCO Secretary General Torben Skaanild said: “Today’s signing of a revised and renewed MoU to reinvigorate both our relationship with the WCO and the industry’s role in combatting illegal maritime activities, lays the foundation for much closer co-operation between ship owners and customs authorities. It is hoped that our future joint efforts – as facilitated by this MoU – to counter the modern threats to the supply chain, will significantly heighten the security level for seafarers, ship owners, port states and society in general, especially in relation to drug smuggling.”
