WCO experts update Customs officials

A workshop was opened on Monday in Yaoundé to strengthen the capacities of members of the World Customs Organization (WCO) to the Coding System.

To cope with the changing patterns of international trade, the Customs Directors General for West Africa and Central Region thought to strengthen the capacities of their experts on Harmonized System Description and Coding System (HS).

This is a nomenclature that includes about 5,000 groups of goods identified by a six digit code, arranged and governed by well-defined rules. It can apply to the collection of import duties, in the development of trade import and export statistics, and the requirements surrounding the declaration of goods for import.

Three experts from the General Secretariat of the World Customs Organization (WCO) since Monday conducted the training of experts from Cameroon, Benin, Congo, DRC and Senegal. It is in the context of the regional workshop of the World Customs Organization on Accreditation of expert trainers in the harmonized system of description and coding of goods opened by the Director General of Customs, Minette Libom Li Likeng.

The goal, according to Benedict Meille, WCO expert, is to "form a pool of experts from the region preselected to receive after this week assessment, a possible accreditation".

After the training, they will be able to attend all customs administrations in the region in order to facilitate WCO missions. "This is to increase the capacity of the region to be independent, to modernize and develop its activities and make them more effective and more efficient regional customs," she added.

Customs training to recent developments of the harmonized system is to reduce the expense incurred in the award of a new designation of the goods on the international market. The meeting also aims to open a dialogue with donors to mobilize support for priority regional projects and create sustainable membership for customs modernization in the region.

This workshop comes as a result of the holding in May in Nigeria, the 20th Conference of Directors General of WCO Customs for the West Africa region and the Centre. The recommendations formulated during the meeting provided for the training of human resources in the area of international trade. The closing of the workshop is scheduled next Friday.