The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was established with an aim to strengthen Asia-Europe relations. ASEM provides opportunities for dialogues and cooperation between Asia and Europe in wide areas covering politics, economy, culture and others. On the First Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM 1) held in Bangkok in March 1996, leaders agreed to consider the development of closer cooperation among customs authorities in Asia and Europe in the areas of customs procedure and prevention of illicit drug trade.

Responding to the agreement, the first meeting of the ASEM Directors-General and Commissioners of Customs was held in June 1996 in Shenzhen, China. The meeting discussed issues surrounding the development of the proposed framework for international Customs cooperation, and agreed to establish two Working Groups, namely, Procedures Working Group (PWG), and Enforcement Working Group (EWG). Since then, the PWG discussed measures to promote cooperation with respect to the harmonization and simplification of Customs procedures.

After the decision of the merger between PWG and EWG and the establishment of the ASEM Working Group on Customs Matters (AWC) at the 7th ASEM Customs Directors-General and Commissioners Meeting in Yokohama, AWC deals with any issues that the ASEM Customs Administrations are facing.

At the present time, AWC is working on the priority activities which were agreed at the 8th ASEM Customs DGs/Commissioners Meeting in October 2009 as the Heraklion Declaration.

The 5th AWC Meeting was held from 19th to 20th April 2011 in Utrecht, Netherland.

The next ASEM Customs DGs/Commissioners Meeting will be held from 11th to 12th October in Hua Hin,Thailand.

[Japan Customs]

This website is maintained by the Office of Counselor for International Affairs and Cooperation, Customs & Tariff Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Japan.

(As of September 2011)