Progress achieved by the Customs Administration of Peru

From April 26 to 27 2022, the Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP) team held a follow-up mission in Lima, Peru, aiming to monitor the progress achieved by the Customs Administration of Peru (SUNAT, for its Spanish acronym), after 3 years of the programme’s implementation.

Through a series of meetings with SUNAT’s top management and other important stakeholders, including the National Committee on Trade Facilitation, this mission provided the GTFP the opportunity not only to verify the country’s progress on trade facilitation and organizational development, but also to review the scheduled activities for the years 2022 and 2023.

SUNAT has achieved important progress, most specifically in enhancing its risk management system and procedures, allowing the Customs Administration to best allocate its resources and considerably reducing its clearance processing times.

For the remaining 2 years of assistance, in addition to enhancing coordinated border management, the GTFP will be working intensely with SUNAT to continue supporting their digitalization process and the country’s priorities.

For further review, a Mercator follow-up mission is being planned to assess their progress with regards to Peru’s compliance with the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

The GTFP is the first joint initiative between the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO) and the World Customs Organization (WCO). This is a 4-year comprehensive programme (2018-2022) which overall objective is to contribute to fostering and facilitating international trade of selected beneficiary countries, in particular Customs Administrations, through the implementation and application of international standards and best practices for the importation, exportation and transit of commercial goods.