On 18 February 2021, the European Commission has set out its trade strategy for the coming years. Reflecting the concept of open strategic autonomy, it builds on the EU's openness to contribute to the economic recovery through support for the green and digital transformations, as well as a renewed focus on strengthening multilateralism and reforming global trade rules to ensure that they are fair

WTO members on 15 February agreed by consensus to select Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria as the organization’s seventh Director-General.

For all goods brought into the EU Flag of European Union customs territory, express carriers Airplane and postal operators European post office will have to provide a minimum set of advance electronic data, starting from 15 March 2021.

A major operation involving the National Crime Agency has the resulted in the seizure of 4.2 tonnes of cocaine that was destined for Europe.

On January 29, 2021, negotiations were held between interested state bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan and China on the functioning of checkpoints on the Kazakh-Chinese border in the conditions of COVID-19.

Travel to Finland and Sweden - restrictions and bans Sweden has introduced an entry ban to Sweden from Norway for non-Swedish citizens which applies from 25 January - 14 February. Finland has also introduced an entry ban for unnecessary travel between 27 January and 25 February.

In 2020, more than 2.3 million cargo vehicles passed through the customs border of Belarus, which is 5% more than in 2018. The volume of goods, moved by road, reached almost 30 million tons and increased by 5.9% compared to 2018.

Analysts from the Customs Criminal Service (CCS) have assessed the results of last year's fight against cigarette smuggling: almost all as early as 2019. the forecasts and trends published in the autumn were confirmed and highlighted last year.

On January 20, 2021, customs officials and customs investigators at Vienna Airport checked a traveler who had flown from Tanzania via the Ethiopian Addis Ababa to Vienna on the basis of a risk analysis.

The opening event of the Twinning Project "Support to the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the accession to the Convention on a Common Transit Procedure, Convention on Simplification of Formalities in Trade in Goods and implementation of the New Computerised Transit System (NCTS)" was held on January 29.

Officers of the Main Customs Administration on Air Transport of State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan prevented an attempt to smuggle large quantities of drugs and psychotropic substances into the country.

A National Workshop on Post Clearance Audit was held virtually from 18 to 22 January 2021 for Moldova Customs as a part of the WCO capacity building delivery plan. The five-day event was made possible through technical support by the Regional Office for Capacity Building for the World Customs Organization Europe Region.