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The Manifesto is an independent, technically rigorous publication for the global customs and trade community. Our role is to report on the technologies reshaping how borders operate, how ports function, and how supply chains evolve. We do this with editorial independence, technical depth, and a global audience perspective.

The WCO Data Model at 30: Customs systems can connect. Do they understand each other?

Thirty years after the initiative that gave rise to the WCO Data Model, exchanging data is only part of the challenge. Border authorities also...

Digital Customs, Disconnected Borders: Why UN ESCAP’s New Trade Digitalization Index+ Matters

A new working paper by Yann Duval and Chorthip Utoktham of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN...

The WTO Public Forum 2026: What the global trade debate means for Customs

For three days in Geneva, the WTO Public Forum 2026 examined a trading system under pressure. Geopolitical tensions, regulatory fragmentation, digital dependence and recurring...

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Our Editors

Raju Boddu

M.Sc., MBA, CFE

Editor-In-Chief

Erika Medina Barrantes

PhD

Executive Editor

Editor Note by Raju Bodhu

Humanity stands at a crossroads

Humanity stands at a crossroads unlike any it has faced since the Industrial Revolution. Artificial intelligence will transform civilisation. The question is whether our institutions, laws, and values can evolve quickly enough to govern the intelligence we have created.
Whether it ushers in an era of unprecedented prosperity or profound disruption may well define our generation. The challenge before us is strategic, ethical, and existential. We must determine not merely whether we are shaping AI, rather whether we can do so intentionally, with foresight, and in the service of human flourishing.
But the challenge extends beyond technology itself. Behind every AI system lies a cascade of questions that go unasked until consequences arrive. What powers these systems, and at what environmental cost? Who owns the data that trains them? How do we govern systems that learn in ways their creators cannot fully explain? Most critically, how do organisations transform not their tools, rather their people, cultures, and decision-making structures?
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