Tapani Erling (born 22 May 1945), is a Finnish

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

. He was the Director-General of

Finnish Customs Finnish Customs (, ) is the customs service of the Republic of Finland. It is a government agency steered by the Ministry of Finance. The Finnish Customs is a part of the customs system of the European Union and has around 1,900 employees. Hi ...

. In July 2006 he was elected chairman of the Council of the

World Customs Organization The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Notable projects include its collaboration with the WTO on trade facilitation and the implementation of the SAFE Framework of Standar ...

. Before being nominated to the head to the Finnish customs in 1998 he served as a manager in charge of foreign subsidiaries at

Outokumpu Outokumpu Oyj is a group of international companies headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, with 10,600 employees in more than 30 countries. Outokumpu is the largest producer of stainless steel in Europe and the second largest producer in the Americ ...

Oy and before that at economist positions at different Finnish ministries. He has worked in the Finnish

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

representative office, and also pursued an academic career. Erling has been a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland ( , SDP, nicknamed: ''demarit'' in Finnish; , SD) is a social democratic political party in Finland. It is the third-largest party in the Parliament of Finland with a total of 43 seats. Founded in 1899 as ...

. He served as the political secretary of minister for foreign trade, Jermu Laine from 1973 to 1978. Erling is married and has at least one son, Orri, who was known as a

child prodigy A child prodigy is, technically, a child under the age of 10 who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to describe young people who are extraordinarily talented in some f ...

who started his career in the Finnish

software industry The software industry includes businesses for development, maintenance and publication of software that are using different business models, mainly either "license/maintenance based" (on-premises) or " Cloud based" (such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, ...

at the age of fifteen. Erling is known as a promoter of

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

-Finnish co-operation and has been made a Chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

References

Helsingin Sanomat , abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital ...

3 July 2006
Tapani Erling elected chairman of the Council of the World Customs Organization
at the Finnish Customs site Knights of the Legion of Honour 1945 births Living people 20th-century Finnish economists 21st-century Finnish economists {{Finland-bio-stub