The United States strongly supports the candidacy of Ian Saunders to become the next Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO). Mr. Saunders has more than 30 years of experience in customs and international trade. In addition to having served at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, he has held other positions engaged in international trade and infrastructure policies as well as capacity building and information-sharing programs. He currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary within the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Mr. Saunders is prepared to build on the WCO’s rich history of fostering global customs cooperation by optimizing current efforts to facilitate the post-pandemic economic recovery, and by adopting a proactive and agile organizational posture to capitalize on future opportunities and to mitigate future threats.
Ian Saunders will be a transformative leader of the WCO, and we encourage our partners to similarly support his candidacy.