Both delegates from customs and business circles praised the 7th APEC Customs-Business Dialog, which began Monday morning here, as "constructive" and " significant."

At the meeting, whose theme is "The New Economy -- Moving Customs-Business Partnership and Trade Facilitation to the Next Level", customs officers and business people attended discussions under the three topics of "Advancing Customs Trade Facilitation Strategy to Meet New Challenges," "Implications of E-commerce and Paperless Trading on Customs and Business" and "Convergence of Customs and Business -- Our Shared Goal in Maintaining Economic Competitiveness."

Deputy Director of the Department of Compliance and Facilitation of World Customs Organization Mervyn Kemp said this ACBD meeting is more constructive and has more focuses, compared with previous ACBD meetings.

Delegates are extremely enthusiastic to have dialog, he said, as the dialog offered them rare opportunities to solve the problems and obstacles in the way of trade facilitation.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Australian Customs Services John Jeffrey said the successful dialog between the customs authorities and business community offered them a chance to care the common issues, and they reached a lot of consensus.

Vice President of Total Fina Elf (China) Investment Co., Ltd. Hendrik Botter, who joined the discussion session of "E-Commerce and Paperless Trading", said the meeting shows the increasing transparency of the work of China Customs.

(Xinhua News Agency 08/14/2001)