More recently, a topic of increasing concern for
customs and trade worldwide has been that of data
quality (WCO, 2013). Data is used by customs for
various purposes, including security risk analyses,
admissibility decisions, trade-facilitation measures,
revenue collection, resource allocation, coordinated
border management, as well as to compile
statistics used by Governments in the context of
macroeconomic policy decisions. Thus, in cases of
misdeclaration of customs information, be it wilful or
accidental, poor quality data could lead to customs
taking incorrect decisions and all the parties involved
facing negative consequences. In this context, an
expert group was established at WCO composed of
customs and private sector representatives who will
work together to find ways to improve data quality,
compile best practices developed by customs, other
government agencies and trade actors, as well as
analyse instruments that aim to ensure data quality
developed by other international organizations