TEXT: I would like to felicitate the Customs community around the world on the International Customs Day 2021. World Customs Organization has chosen the slogan “Customs bolstering Recovery, Renewal, and Resilience for a sustainable supply chain” for celebrating ICD 2021. The theme for this year provides an insight into the deep connection between the role played by Customs and its impact on maintaining essential supply chains around the world. Besides that, Customs is also instrumental in facilitating trade and movement of goods across borders. Therefore, customs has a major role to play in the post-Covid world. The Covid-19 pandemic has put economies under the stress of recession due to the wide-spread lockdowns imposed around the world. It is heartening to see, however, that the Pakistani people and economy have shown extraordinary resilience against the negative impacts of the pandemic. Likewise, Pakistan Customs has also played a significant role in this national effort by towards economic recovery. Pakistan Customs can take pride in the fact that during the first wave of Covid-19 and ensuring complete lockdowns in the country, Customs operations continued unhindered and extraordinary trade facilitation measures were taken to ensure minimum loss to businesses. This was possible only due to exceptional dedication to duty shown by the Customs personnel. Due to these remarkable efforts, Pakistan has been able to improve its ranking on the Trading Across Border Index from 142nd to 111th and has also improved its ranking from 136th to 108th in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. Although Covid-19 control measures can cause major disruptions to global supply chains and transportation and customs clearance systems, I have no doubt that Pakistan Customs will continue to work dedicatedly in these difficult times; thereby guaranteeing supply capacity during the crisis and playing its pivotal role in control, facilitation and regulation of international trade. This will help in mitigating social and economic difficulties during and after pandemic and causing expeditious economic growth.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021