[MINUTES] CCG Atlantic 2026-04-21

This meeting featured a presentation by Christian Lembke and Filip from the
World Customs Organization (WCO) on their data model and its intersection
with verifiable credentials. They explained the WCO's role in harmonizing
customs procedures and how their 30-year-old data model is being updated to
a machine-readable format like JSON-LD to support verifiable credentials
and reduce data redundancy across borders. The discussion highlighted the
potential of verifiable credentials to combat fraud and misinterpretation
in customs, and explored ongoing initiatives, member interest, and
potential collaborations, particularly with the EU wallet initiative and
IETF working groups.

*Topics Covered:*

   - *WCO Data Model and Verifiable Credentials:* The WCO presented its
   data model as a universal language for customs collaboration, now being
   updated to a machine-readable format to facilitate verifiable credential
   exchange and improve data analytics and risk management.
   - *Use Cases for Verifiable Credentials in Customs:* Practical
   applications for verifiable credentials in customs were discussed,
   including proof of identity, authorization status, and compliance, with
   examples like customs bonds, certificates of origin, and Authorized
   Economic Operator (AEO) status.
   - *Machine-Readable WCO Data Model Publication:* The WCO is working to
   publish its comprehensive data model in a machine-readable format like
   JSON-LD to avoid new silos and ensure verifiable credential claims align
   with established data definitions.
   - *Ongoing Pilots and Member Initiatives:* There are ongoing pilots
   within WCO member countries for verifiable credential exchange,
   particularly for customs bonds and AEO status, with significant momentum
   building as members recognize the benefits.
   - *Collaboration with EU Wallet Initiative and Other Standards Bodies:*
   The WCO is in dialogue with the EU wallet initiative and is open to
   collaborating with other standards bodies, including the IETF's supply
   chain integrity working group, to promote interoperability.
   - *Challenges and Adoption in Customs:* The primary challenges to
   adoption involve convincing governments and customs administrations to
   embrace verifiable credentials, addressing legacy systems, political will,
   and the need for national digitalization strategies to support this
   transformation.

*Action Items:*

   - Christian Lembke will share his email address and the WCO data model
   group email address in the chat for interested parties to contact him or
   the WCO.
   - Harrison Tang will share the link to the IETF Supply Chain Integrity,
   Transparency, and Trust working group in the chat.

Text: https://meet.w3c-ccg.org/archives/w3c-ccg-atlantic-2026-04-21.md

Video: https://meet.w3c-ccg.org/archives/w3c-ccg-atlantic-2026-04-21.mp4
*CCG Atlantic - 2026/04/21 12:00 EDT - Transcript* *Attendees*

Alex Higuera, Benjamin Young, Christian Lembke, Erica Connell, Filip,
Geun-Hyung Kim, Grace Rachmany, Harrison Tang, Hiroyuki Sano, Ivan
Dzheferov, Jeff’s - HumanOS, Jennie Meier, Kaliya Identity Woman, Parth
Bhatt, Pierre-Antoine Champin, Rob Padula, Ted Thibodeau Jr, Will Abramson
*Transcript*

Will Abramson: If I start in just a moment.

Will Abramson: got speaker on, but I have been in touch with him. I do
think he's joining. So,

Will Abramson: Yes, I still don't see Christian on the call, but he has
just emailed me. I sent him He didn't have an invite link. This is all bad.
okay. I see him. Hi, sorry about the invite link confusion. okay.
Wonderful. I'll get started.

Will Abramson: So Christie, there's five minutes of administrative stuff
from the CCG side and then I'll hand over to you for your presentation and
thanks so much for coming on. Yes. So hello everyone, welcome to the CCG
call. today we'll be presentation from Christian about World Customs
Organization data model across border. yes so before we get into all that
just a couple of agenda items or administrative stuff.
00:05:00

Will Abramson: So first we follow the W3C's code of ethics and professional
conduct here at the CCG. Please continue to make these working group calls
and also the mailing list a welcoming collaborative environment. I'm sure
all of us have seen the many threads ongoing around AI use and misuse on
the mailing list. And I'm sure we've all been feeling a little overwhelmed
by some of that content. I think my sort of initial plea is just if you are
going to post to the mailing list, just take a moment to think about the
other people and the ask that you are making of them.

Will Abramson: by posting content you are asking other people to engage
with you and hoping for them to collaborate with you. So try and respect
their time and just keep that in mind. I think the chairs hopefully with
some of us will work together to create a more formal policy around this. I
personally don't want to ban AI use completely but at the moment it is
really degrading the public space that is our mailing list. move on next IP
note. So anyone who's welcome to participate in these calls are
substantiative contributors to any CCG work items must be members of the
CCG with full IPR agreement signed.

Will Abramson: Do reach out to the chairs if you have any questions around
that or if you want to participate in a work item you don't know how just
reach out to me or Mmud or Denin and we'll be happy to help Next call notes
are shared to the W3C mailing list within 24 hours and they're transcribed
by introductions or reintroductions. If anyone new to the call today wants
to say hello to the community or hasn't said hello for a while and wants to
say hi, feel free. Okay, not seeing anyone got small group space. That's
fine. Announcements and reminders. Anyone have any announcements or remind
the community today?

Will Abramson: Yeah, please.

Kaliya Identity Woman: Next week we have the internet workshop in view. so
I'm just super excited. There's really great people coming. including we
worked on getting Frank present last week to be able to come. if you want
to be there we want to have you there. you can reach out if you get the
price freak out from pricing. we want everybody who wants to participate to
be able to be there. and then we have the aentic internet workshop happen
on Friday, May 1st. It's a separate event that's like a child of IW, let's
say. I've been working on that with Andor.

Kaliya Identity Woman: We just hit a hundred people coming, but it's really
focused on the protocols around Agentic AI. particularly if you're on any
mailing list that are around in the Aentic AI call space, I'd love it if
you could share the fact that it's happening with them because we want more
people in the room. And then finally, we have the digital identity
unconference Europe coming off. If you are based in Europe and you want to
connect with the community and many people have canled coming to IW
unfortunately, it's coming up June 22nd to 24th in Copenhagen and we should
have our one half day of talks announced soon.

Kaliya Identity Woman: but all of the unconference format hopefully you'll
come even sign up before that.

Kaliya Identity Woman: But I'll put that link in. Yeah. So, those are all
the things. Thanks so much.

Will Abramson: Great. Thank you,…

Will Abramson: Cla. yes, that's a good reminder. On that note, next week we
will not be having a working group or…

Will Abramson: credentials community group call because of IW. So that's
been cancelled. If you're not going to I take the hour off. any final
announcements or reminders for the community before I hand not seeing
anyone with that. over to you, Kristen. Thanks for coming on.
00:10:00

Kaliya Identity Woman: I don't

Christian Lembke: Thank you much, And thank you so much for giving us the
opportunity to give a presentation. I'm not alone. I'm here with Phillip
from Norway Customs and I'm from the World Customs Organization. Hi
Philillip, nice to see you. And yeah, I will just try to share my screen.
one second.

Christian Lembke: I try also not to take too much of your time. I got it
here. Good. can you see it in the big mode?

Will Abramson: No,…

Will Abramson: we just see it's not in presentation mode. Can't see your
screen.

Christian Lembke: not in presentation mode.

Christian Lembke: Let me check. Okay. no it should work right.

Will Abramson: Yeah, great.

Christian Lembke:

Christian Lembke: Perfect. Thank you so much. I just start briefly to
introduce the WCO because it's definitely something most of you have never
heard about this and also what are the connections to verifiable
credentials what are we doing in this area was really happy to have John
and Ton with us in the technology conference which is our biggest
conference where we had some connection points with the W3C community
secretar but let me start first to introduce the World Customs ization very
briefly. So we are the only intergovernmental organization for customs
matters. We have 187 members So the customs administrations are our members
and all of them together are responsible for 98% of international trade.

Christian Lembke: On the screen we are divided in regions but we only have
one headquarters in Zad and this is in Brussels, Belgium and so my office
is also in Brussels. this looks a bit overwhelming just to explain where
our working we have a lot of working bodies reporting to other working
bodies and to finally report to the W council. which are then approved
instruments and tools. So what we are doing we do we develop tools
instruments to harmonize customs procedures and yeah and all and also to
ensure safe safety and security as well.

Christian Lembke: And for this call it's re relevant is the data model
projects team you can see on the right side they are developing the world
customs organization data model and this reports to the permanent technical
committee. So we have the DMBT the data model projects teams we meet three
times three four times a year in Brussels and giving the possibilities to
change the W data model based on the need but I will briefly explain what
the WA model is of course so the WA model is

Christian Lembke: 30 years old and this year will get 30 years old. it
started as a G7 initiative 1996. the idea was to have a universal language
for customs collaboration. So it was later handed over to the world customs
organization and the deers to allow computers when they exchange with each
other to have a unified universal language. So this is W data model is a
lot of different classes structures XML schemas and so just on specific
procedures and a global standard which allows that the customs IT systems
but not only customs also other crossber regulatory agencies like
veterinary that they all speak the same language.
00:15:00

Christian Lembke: So to reduce redundancy when we for data requirements and
also it improves of course data analytics, risk management and avoiding
again duplication of data. The idea is once we have the data we have so
many different procedures in when it comes to crossber supply chain and the
idea is to capture data only one and in a harmonized way and then you reuse
it whenever it's needed and the data model is not only for customs but also
for all other crossy agencies data requirements so

Christian Lembke: Briefly you see here we have a lot of data elements
coming from the supply chain then you will find an element in the WC data
model library which has a unique ID definition and of course also other
related information such as what is expected for a format. Do we have a
code list to this element? And then you can build an information model
which has a structure for example though that consigner and the consigner
address is attached to the consigner. So it's all structured in classes and
subclasses and the end what is the result is our electronic messages which
are generated in a harmonized way and in conformance with the dea model.

Christian Lembke: But more important why is customs interested in verify
credentials at a very practical level customs is interested in verification
because our customs administrations increasingly operating in a high volume
crossber digital environment particular because of the commerce they are
really high value at the moment it's increasing where they need to rely
information coming from many different actors systems and investigations in
that environment the chain is not only exchanging data data but being able
to trust what is being custom administration face a number of very concrete
problems which is fraud and misinterpretation including a tariff evasion,
origin fraud and illegal trans shshipment.

Christian Lembke: There's also the use of shell companies to conceal the
real economic actors and also increasingly the risk of spoof document or AI
generated fake documents. So there's GBT frauds for example which allows to
have scanned copies looks which looks quite real to fraud document and so
we need trust and we need to handle this big amount of information incoming
to our customs administration in this context. approach space on
decentralized credentials including verifiable credentials are relevant
because they can support the secure interoperable and privacy respecting
exchange of verifiable digital information.

Christian Lembke: In simplest terms, they can help customs move from having
to trust documents at face value or verify everything through bilateral
interfaces towards a model where certain claims can be cryptographically
verified under anrete trust framework. and where verifi could be used on
the customs? here will find some examples in the customs verify genesis
could be useful wherever proof of identity authorization status or
compliance needs to be established efficiently and reliably across systems,
organizations and borders. This is really the core criteria. It's a claim
that needs to be trusted by another party without creating yet another
manual process or point creation.

Christian Lembke: So for example they have an ongoing initiative to have
customs bonds which is a kind of an insurance that the tax is paid and
there are countries handling a big amount of customs bonds. So this is
currently on the way to have this in line with verifiable credential
exchange. then of course we handle a lot of certificates like certification
of origins.

Christian Lembke: We also have what we call authorized economic operator
which are stakeholders we trust though they are private stakeholders but
they are authorized and so for therefore they have some more benefits
because they are trustworthy and this can be also ensured with VC to really
understand to really prove that this is the AO who's submitting the
information. and then we have the role of the W data model.
00:20:00

Christian Lembke: So what we are currently doing is we have an initiative
to publish the WC data model in a machine readable format JSON LD for
example and to make it public available and machine readable as I said and
this helps to link the information the verify credentials with the W data
model library. this is to avoid new silos. Centious claims should align
with established data definitions, semantics and codeless. And this is the
WS data model.

Christian Lembke: So we see a lot of initiatives within our members, a lot
of momentum for this and more and more our members understands that the
need and what are the benefits of this in the customs world and I hope it I
was able to explain a bit also to you what we are doing what WC data model
is. Of course, there are a lot of more information, but I don't want to
give you too much just to focus on some key points and you will find more
information on the C data model on our website womd.or data model. There's
also a data model app where you can register which is free.

Christian Lembke: And soon we will as I said the idea is to publish the
data model in a machine readable more open and standardized format. that
was from my side from Dio. We have also Philip with us who is our
capability owner for verifiable credentials and…

Christian Lembke: link data and he can explain a bit more from the member
side maybe. Thank you. It's over to you, Philip.

Filip: Thank you,…

Filip: Christian. very good presentation. it's concise and any questions
before I move on? because maybe the customs domain is not familiar to most
of so anyone wanting to comment ask questions you can do that now. Doesn't
seem So personally I represent Norwegian Customs in this we are a member of
the WCO and it's a pleasure to work with the secretariat and the data model
projects team on this. I'm an RDF nerd myself.

Filip: So it was a pleasure to come to the first meeting at the data model
projects team and see sort of the push for publishing the data model in a
different format than it's currently published because now it's expressed
as a set of message formats which has worked It's sort of akin to what the
UNCC fact has done with edifact. it's sort of closely related to that. But
we're ready to publish it as a web ontology to serve as a context for
verifiable credentials and to ease crossber interoperability just by
speaking the same language cross borders for humans and machines.

Filip: I'm not actually sure if I should do much more elaboration on this
because I think you summed it up very well. but I do think there may be
avenues for us to cooperate with the 3C on both the verifiable credential
stuff and RDF ontologies link data.

Filip: So please don't hesitate to get in touch if you feel sort of
compelled by this.
00:25:00

Will Abramson: Okay, great.

Will Abramson: Thanks a lot. Thanks, Christian. it's very interesting
presentation. I have a question maybe around so…

Will Abramson: how are you securing these credentials today? are you using
decentralized identifiers or some other right I see so the first step is
going to be to publish this machine readable data for data model and…

Filip: We're not there yet.

Filip: It's a work in progress. So, mostly it's about expressing the model
so that it can serve as the context. Yeah. Yes.

Will Abramson: then to start using that data model as a context to issue
ECS based bumper

Will Abramson: Mhm.

Filip: And I imagine the WCO won't be the one to sort of verify the
credentials even issue them.

Christian Lembke: No. Yeah,…

Filip: but sort of the administrations around the world Norwegian customs
would be

Christian Lembke: exactly. WCO we are just providing the standard the
library and yeah what we want to do is to publish the entire WC data model
which is quite comprehensive in a machine readable format but maybe this
takes a while because the entire publication will change but maybe we will
have some more pilots running based on a sandbox for example so we just
publish a part of the data module is relevant for this specific

Christian Lembke: pilots but we have ongoing pilots already but in reality
so apart from the pilot I think it's still very old-fashioned way to
certify information so it's I think not yet in the daily operation not
really implemented verify credentials or…

Will Abramson: All right.

Christian Lembke: something similar to where credentials but there are
pilots and there as I said a lot of momentum and I can imagine the future
it will increase dramatically and once more and more of our members see the
benefits of this. Yeah.

Filip: So if you're aware of the wallet initiatives going on in the EU at
the moment.

Filip:

Will Abramson: Yes. All right.

Filip: We're in a dialogue we build consortium there for a pilot on export
of what was it glue laminated timber from Finland to Japan and some sort of
salmon export from Norway to some other third country. which could showcase
the need for verifiable credentials rather than the attributes that the EU
has gone for. Yeah.

Will Abramson: Yeah, that's exciting. I guess on a question around that, I
was wondering, are you aware that the verifiable credentials working group
is recently being recharted? And do any of you intend to participate or
follow that work? So I think there is some work going on. I'm not exactly
clear about a data format context development.

Will Abramson: Yes.

Christian Lembke: So what?

Christian Lembke: So product passport there is currently I understand.

Will Abramson: I think it might be up.

Christian Lembke: Yeah. Yeah. We have some exchange already on this and I
already said we are glad to collaborate on this because I want to have a
dictionary let's say like this and we are happy to provide with the data
model and it's very close to what we are doing. so I already mentioned that
we are happy to collaborate in this initiative as

Will Abramson: Harrison

Harrison Tang: Yeah, I'm just wondering if you guys have already work with
and partnered with IETF skit. I think it's like supply chain integrity and
transparency and trust working group. if not, I think you guys probably
should reach out to them because I mean I can send you the link because we
have them actually presented on several topics on supply chain credentials
before. I'm personally not in this industry so I'm not as familiar with it…

Harrison Tang: but no they are working on something like this and I think
we should all collaborate. Yeah. Yeah.

Christian Lembke: Yeah, please share it in the chat.

Christian Lembke: I'm not sure. Philip, you haven't heard about it? I
haven't heard

Filip: I didn't quite catch the name. okay.

Harrison Tang: I'll share in the chat. It's a supply chain integrity
transparency and trust working group from IETF.

Harrison Tang: Yeah. Mhm.

Filip: Because yeah, we collaborate with lots of sort of interest
organizations from around the world. Yata Fiata. a lot of those, but I
don't think this one has IETF. No, I don't recognize Christian, do you? No.
So, thanks. This is a new one to add to our collection.
00:30:00

Christian Lembke: Yeah, I have a look. Thank you.

Will Abramson: And what sort of timeline are you looking at in terms of
publishing this?

Will Abramson: Do you have a sense of that yet or…

Will Abramson: is it still early?

Filip: That there's a lot of dependencies.

Filip: And as you are well aware, volunteer work, can be quite slow. so
we're sort of trying to piggy back on initiatives that are already ongoing.
I mentioned the wallet initiatives of the EU. I know that the US and UK
have been collaborating on something.

Will Abramson: Great. Erica, please.

Filip: So I think time is not the important thing but sort of quality and…

Filip: learning I would say.

Erica Connell: Yeah. my question was right on the coincident with yours
will about so let me…

Erica Connell: since you just said time isn't the issue but what do you see
as the next steps on the path to adoption? So you have the data model app
and all the member countries learning about it and stuff. what needs to
happen for it to be out out in the world being used?

Filip: I think the trade is already using this technology. and I mean UNC
and UNCC faculty could tell you quite a bit about the in supply chain
logistics because they've discovered that this is a good idea. So I think
it may be a case of governments around the world getting with that program
which is what we're trying to do right now.

Erica Connell: So the education part, getting the word out,…

Filip: Yeah to the governments of the customs administrations and…

Erica Connell: would you say?

Filip: not standardizing on something different than the trade always
already has standardized on

Erica Connell: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you,

Christian Lembke: And what we also do of course we are always collecting
case studies and…

Christian Lembke: pilots and share with the customs community to raise
awareness of best practices. This is in all areas we do this and when we
hear about successful implementation this can really spread around our as
customs community as well.

Christian Lembke: So this is something we also doing. We providing the
standards but we also of course sharing success stories. Yeah.

Will Abramson: And maybe forward to Erica's question.

Will Abramson: When you're engaging or trying to convince governments, what
are some of the common push backs or challenges you have to overcome to
convince them? Is it that they've already kind of adopted or want to adopt
some other technology or

Filip: I can speak for my own administration. it's a very complex landscape
because customs isn't just putting money into the state coffers when goods
cross the border. there's a sort of I wouldn't say mish mash, but I'm going
to say mish mash of rules and regulations on what products you're allowed
to have on the market, conditions for them. all governed by different
agencies and they can't have their own sort of booths at the border doing
their own checks.

Filip: So customs is sort of a regulatory hub which makes it also a poster
child for verifiable credentials right because we're issuing we're checking
so getting a whole national government to adopt verifiable credentials is
not going to be done. solely by customs. It has to be sort of a national
digitalization strategy saying this is…

Will Abramson: It's great.

Filip: what we're going to do. So it's about feeding the right information
to the right people on the strategic level I suppose and…
00:35:00

Erica Connell: Shut the f******.

Filip: showing that it can be done. Yeah.

Christian Lembke: And of course,…

Christian Lembke: customs has a lot of legacy systems. but doesn't mean it
has a modern data exchange approach. But still there are very old
procedures in place maybe in some of our members and…

Filip: Okay.

Christian Lembke: political will is also part of it of course. so you need
to explain it to decision makers without being too technical often. more on
a policy level though that's what we also try to do. but of course we are
technology neutral. we encourage members to if you have data exchange let's
base it on the D data model but not exactly…

Christian Lembke: how you implement it in detail. we of course don't
dictate our members. it's just set of recommendations and what the members
are quite free how they want to implement of course or they are very free
but when you talk to decision makers of course you need to understand how
you talk with them on a policy level if you talk with customs
administrations

Will Abramson: Great. Thank you.

Will Abramson: See a question from Erica in the chat.

Will Abramson: She's asking, "What's the best way for people to get to
contact you or get involved?

Christian Lembke: the best way is our website of course I will put in my
email address there's also some for data model group email address…

Christian Lembke: but you can easily contact me via email And for the data
model itself we have the data model projects teams as mentioned we have
three meetings a year in Brussels but it's more for members of course or
customs chain but we also allowed the attendance of what we call observers
and for specific topics we are happy to invite observers is there something
interesting to share to a specific work item we have. So we are really
memberdriven organization.

Christian Lembke: So this is why we have so many meetings with our members
but of course observers and their knowledge is always welcome.

Will Abramson: Great. …

Will Abramson: maybe I have another question. I mean, please, if anyone
else has questions, do jump on the queue. I'm wondering about the EU wallet
initiative and whether you see that as I know you're trying to collaborate,
but has it helped other countries understand what you're trying to do and
trying to get them on board or has it led to some conflicting some other
challenges that you've had to negotiate?

Christian Lembke: Yeah, maybe Philip can say more about this because it's a
members initiative of course we have no specific opinion about this as this
is really something from member…

Will Abramson: Hey, you're Muted.

Christian Lembke: but maybe Philip you can say something to Yes.

Filip: Thank Norway is in sort of customs wise we listen to digitalization
signals from two different environments at least in the EU. there's DG
digit and grow and move and all the ones who are talking about crossber
interoperability they published the interoperable Europe act the EIF
framework all that good stuff and then we have DG tax which is responsible
for the sort of customs and taxation domain in the

Filip: union which Norway isn't a member of. So, they're going to reform
the customs domain in the EU. part of that is another data space. I suppose
they call it a data hub, but it's essentially one more data space which is
rigged to facilitate the exchange of digital evidence. verifiable
credentials, but we don't know yet if that's going to be aligned with the
sorts of verifiable credentials auditable evidence in the wallet scheme,
which we have to listen to both. because the wallets are a right that
businesses and citizens will get in Norway too.
00:40:00

Filip: So helping or hindering I think that the pilot that we're looking to
do with we build consortium which I mentioned will highlight the need for
the EU wallets to support W3C credentials. I suppose it's a case of help
you…

Filip: if that makes sense. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question,
but please restate it if not.

Will Abramson: Mhm. No,…

Will Abramson: I mean I think it's great. I know intimately the EUI wallet
project but I have seen from the side that part of their initial plan is to
not directly support the VCDM right to not mention it so I just wondered as
you've come in you're talking about JSONLDD context and BCDM credentials
whether you have some conflicting requirements

Will Abramson: when it comes to dealing with people who come from the EUI
wallet project context.

Filip: Yeah, I think the personal wallets that's not as relevant in a
customs context and…

Filip: and those are the ones who will benefit the least from the VCDM
stuff. So, I think the business wallets and the kinds of evidence that's
exchanged in a business context is more suited to W3C credentials and we'll
be able to highlight that more in our pilots.

Will Abramson: That's wonderful. I hope it goes well.

Will Abramson: Does anybody else have any questions or…

Filip: Yeah. So, do I

Will Abramson: I mean we can close early if that's do that or Christian
Philip anything else you would like to add?

Christian Lembke: Perfect. Thank you.

Will Abramson: Okay, great. thank you both for coming on. I really
appreciate you taking the time to share what you're working on. It's always
great to hear from people working within the governments and these other
standards bodies trying to adopt these technologies to a real valuable use
case.

Christian Lembke: Thank you so much for this opportunity and…

Will Abramson: So I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to seeing
how the pilot goes and hopefully the data model when it gets published too.
Great. thank you everybody.

Will Abramson: I will see you next week we're cancelled so two weeks time
if not and some other forums have a great rest of your week. Bye. Yeah,…

Christian Lembke: thank you for the invitation.

Will Abramson: no problem. Thanks.
Meeting ended after 00:45:12 👋

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