WCO and UPU take action to facilitate the sharing of information on the global postal supply chain in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic

On 15 April 2020, the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) sent a joint letter to inform their respective Members of the actions taken by the WCO and the UPU in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, emphasizing that coordination between Customs administrations and designated postal operators (DOs) is critical to the continued facilitation of the global postal supply chain, and to mitigating the outbreak’s overall impact on our societies.

As a result of COVID-19’s impact on the aviation industry, a large portion of international mail has had to be shifted from air to surface transportation, such as sea and land (road and rail). As a result, some Customs authorities may now be confronted with postal documentation intended for other modes of transport at land border ports due to the need to reroute postal traffic. Therefore, Customs administrations were encouraged to be flexible and accept postal shipments with any of the accompanying legitimate UPU documentation (e.g. CN 37 (for surface mail), CN 38 (for airmail) or CN 41 (for surface airlifted mail) delivery bills).

In addition to the provisions relating to postal items contained in the WCO’s Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC), the UPU Convention and its regulations preserve the freedom-of-transit principle for international postal items. Given that the RKC does not preclude Customs administrations from conducting necessary controls, in the letter, WCO Members were urged to facilitate international postal traffic procedures. Customs administrations were encouraged to take due consideration of the RKC recommendation, which establishes that customs shall accept as the goods transit declaration any commercial or transport document for the consignment concerned that meets all customs requirements (Recommended Practice 6, Chapter 1, Specific Annex E).

In addition, the WCO has created a section on its website to assist supply chain stakeholders with customs issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak: www.wcoomd.org/en/topics/facilitation/activities-and-programmes/ natural-disaster/coronavirus.aspx...

This was excerpted from a 21 April 2020 news release by the World Customs Organization.