In June 2005 the WCO Council agreed to establish a Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG). The PSCG was formed for the purpose of informing and advising the WCO Secretary General, the Policy Commission and WCO Members on Customs and international trade matters from the perspective of the private sector. The PSCG complements the vital contributions made by private sector Observers to WCO Committee meetings. 

More recently, it was decided to create regional private sector groups to contribute to the work of the PSCG by providing more granular input reflecting the customs and trade environment of the various WCO regions.  Currently regional private sector groups operate in Eastern & Southern Africa, the Americas & Caribbean and the Asia Pacific Region (RPSG-AP).  These groups operate under the stewardship of their respective WCO Regional Vice Chairs. 

The RPSG-AP is capped at 30 members who are able to participate in discussions related to supply chain facilitation, security & resilience as well as border management and the implementation of trade policy, e.g. trade agreements.  Members include manufacturers, exporters, importers, forwarders & brokers, associations, express carriers, and ports. 

The establishment of the RPSG-AP couldn’t have happened at a more appropriate time. COVID and other events stressed the global supply chain and disrupted manufacturing capability resulting a reprioritization of business methodologies to increase supply chain resilience. There is little doubt that the Asia-Pacific is central to economic recovery and direct regional input to the global intergovernmental discussions is important. 

The main objectives of the RPSG-AP are. 

• Improving understanding between Government and the private sector. Government, in this case customs, creates and administers the cross-border environment in which the trading sector    operates. Misunderstandings that create inefficiencies are harmful to both and direct engagement to understand each other’s drivers, capabilities & limitations will reduce this. 

• Simplifying, harmonizing and increasing consistency the cross border trading environment and facilitating emerging business models such as e-commerce. 

• Promoting business friendly measures such as voluntary disclosure, transfer pricing adjustments, modern risk management principles and paperless processes directly with customs as well as building networks and sharing knowledge with other regional businesses. 

Since the creation of the RPSG-AP, the Regional Vice Chair has been held by Indonesia, Australia and from  August 2024 Hong Kong China.