Procedures Working Group Homepage

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 has been discussing measures to promote cooperation with respect to the harmonization and simplification of Customs procedures.

For the purpose of promoting the transparency of Customs procedures among ASEM partners, ASEM Procedures Working Group Website (PWG Website) was created in June 1999.

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, the PWG Website has been renewed and was created as the AWC Website.

The 1st AWC Meeting was held in May 2008 in Lille, France.

[Japan Customs]

This website is maintained by the Office of Regional Customs Cooperation, Customs & Tariff Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Japan.

(As of 1 April 2009)