The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World BASC Organization (WBO) signed a Letter of Intent, reaffirming their shared commitment to strengthening security in the international trade supply chain.
Through this agreement, both organizations expressed their intention to establish a voluntary cooperation framework to promote and secure trade across Latin America. This collaboration includes joint initiatives, the exchange of best practices, development of training programs for border authorities and private sector actors, as well as the identification of specific projects where both organizations can provide technical support and awareness-building. As part of the agreement, each organization will appoint focal points responsible for identifying and coordinating collaboration opportunities, under a framework of trusted strategic partnership.
This next step in bilateral cooperation builds on existing agreements that laid the foundation for joint initiatives in logistics security and technical assistance. The first agreement, a Letter of Intent signed in 2006, marked the formal beginning of collaboration between the two organizations, focusing on training, combating drug trafficking and money laundering, providing technical assistance, and promoting transparency and shared responsibility. A second agreement, signed in 2011, formalized WBO’s support for the UNODC-WCO Global Container Control Program, reinforcing its commitment to strengthening operational capacity at ports and borders across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Letter of Intent was signed on April 29, 2025, during the BASC Panama 2025 International Forum: “Navigating the Maritime and Logistics Future of Panama: Securing Global Trade,” a high-level event that brought together 150 representatives from the maritime and port sectors as well as international organizations, with the goal of promoting collaboration in support of a safer, more transparent, and resilient international trade environment.
