is the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization

World Customs Organization

The World Customs Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. With its worldwide membership, the WCO is recognized as the voice of the global customs community...

 (WCO).

Career

Mikuriya has a BA in law from the University of Tokyo

University of Tokyo

, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...

 and a PhD in international relations from the University of Kent

University of Kent

The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...

, Brussels School of International Studies. During his career, Mikuriya has held various high-level positions in Japan's Ministry of Finance. He also had assignments as Counsellor in Japan's Mission to the WTO and a negotiator for Japan during the GATT Uruguay Round

Uruguay Round

The Uruguay Round was the 8th round of Multilateral trade negotiations conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , spanning from 1986-1994 and embracing 123 countries as “contracting parties”. The Round transformed the GATT into the World Trade Organization...

negotiations.

WCO

From 2002 to 2008, Mikuriya was the WCO Deputy Secretary General. On 28 June 2008, he was elected WCO Secretary General, and he took up this post on 1 January 2009. Mikuriya has called for successful completion of the Doha Development Round, lobbied against the U.S. 100% container scanning law, advocated enhanced trade facilitation measures during the global economic downturn, and supported the contribution of Customs to environmental protection.

Publications

• Mikuriya, Kunio (2003), The Challenges of Facilitating the Flow of Commerce in a Heightened Security Environment, in UNECE (2003), Cosgrave-Sacks, Carol and Mario Apostolov (eds.), Trade Facilitation – The Challenges for Growth and Development.
• Mikuriya, Kunio (2004), Legal Framework for Customs Operations and Enforcement Issues, (Chapter 3 of the World Bank's Customs Modernization Handbook).
• Mikuriya, Kunio (2006), The Customs Response to the 21st Century, Global Trade and Customs Journal, Vol.1, No. 1.
• Mikuriya, Kunio (2007), Supply Chain Security: The Customs Community's Response, World Customs Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2.