Customs guide

General customs codes do not always distinguish cultural property from a decorative object. An ancient statue may be declared as "garden decoration", a manuscript as "printed paper", an old ceramic as "tableware". The guide helps to decode these misleading descriptions.

It also provides benchmarks on prices, expected documents, high-risk countries and transit routes. This information feeds the risk analysis that officers apply to each consignment.

The sheets were drafted with curators, experts and customs officers, and tested in exercises at six airports and three ports. Their format, a double-sided page with photographs, was chosen for ease of use. Officers' feedback led to several revisions.

A mobile application makes it possible to consult the sheets offline, to compare a photograph with the examples and to contact the emergency line in one gesture. It is reserved for authorised officers.

Each edition adds sheets for new types of property and updates the codes, prices and indicators. States may propose additions, notably for property typical of their heritage. In 2024, twenty-four sheets were created or revised.

Customs also contribute to improving the guide by passing on their seizures and observations. This feedback feeds training and alerts.

OIMAP helps administrations to build the guide into their procedures: adapting the sheets to the national context, training referents, installing the application, putting them in touch with BIOP unit analysts.

A network of customs referents from forty-one States meets each year. It exchanges cases, shares tools and proposes developments to the guide. Its recommendations feed the WCO's work.