Editorial

This edition of the World Customs Journal represents a significant milestone in the Journal’s history and that of the International Network of Customs Universities (INCU). At the first Partnership in Customs Academic Research and Development (PICARD) conference, which was jointly launched by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and INCU in 2006, there was considerable debate about how the PICARD initiative should be progressed. One thing in particular that I remember clearly was a message we received from a number of delegates – that the development of an international academic journal dedicated to Customs matters was simply too hard to achieve and excessively ambitious. Undeterred, at our 2007 conference, the first edition of the World Customs Journal was launched – and the current edition marks a full ten years of publication. So much for the critics!