“Reasons are the pillars of the mind.”
-Edward Counsel-
There’s always a reason for everything and anything. So, thinking about it today, we are celebrating the International Customs Day which was initiated by the World Customs Organization in 1983.
The International Customs Day which is celebrated annually on the 26th of January was initiated by the World Customs Organization in 1983, to celebrate all the customs officers and agencies who immensely invest their effort and time to keep up the efficiency of trade management.
The theme of the International Customs Day for the year 2023 is “Nurturing the next generation: Promoting a culture of knowledge-sharing and professional pride in Customs.”
The world has no boundaries anymore and stands high as a global village due to technological advancement. Along with the transformation, many sectors advanced and reached out to an international extent. So did trade become an international element breaking boundaries and reaching out across the globe surpassing seas and skies.
Existence of trade, long ago people merely used various ways of satisfying their needs. Initially, people hunted their own food, later on, started growing paddy and trees, then the excess goods were traded in exchange for goods within the country among the civilians and the people used valuable stones and pebbles to buy goods. After the influence of trade and money, people started introducing currencies which led to mass production. During the time of colonization, the economies of countries changed, the countries like Dutch, Middle East, Portuguese, and British made many alterations in Asian countries and the influence of colonization spread wide, increasing the importance of development. Eventually, new concepts and developments were growing. This introduced the concept, of ‘international trade and customs’.
Talking about Sri Lanka, the country developed and was influenced by many developments after colonization. According to history, we believe before Dutch landed in Sri Lanka there were traders from the Middle East. They found that Sri Lanka was rich in spices and the land was rich in cultivating various types of spices and commodities. One of the prominent cultivation they were interested in was Tea. And also Cinnamon, Cardamon, Clove, Pepper, and many more were focused at the time. Sri Lanka began to have a demand for its commodities and it was one of the main trade centers throughout the period.
International trade has been so important. This created mutual relationships among countries. With all sorts of development, people wanted a standardized method to handle trade globally. They wanted to control incoming commodities and outgoing commodities within a country. This influenced them to initiate the concept of customs. Customs play a wide role in maintaining international trade.
Success relies on effort, organizing skills, and competence along with other skills needed to handle an art with efficiency and effectiveness. Thus, Customs holds pride in the success of international trade.
Celebrating those who are behind the scenes!
