23-26 November 2020, Online Workshop hosted by ROCB A/P

The WCO Sub-regional Virtual Workshop on Post Clearance Audit for the Pacific Islands was held from 23 to 26 November 2020. The Workshop was organized by the ROCB A/P in close cooperation with the WCO and the WCO Accredited expert from India under the sponsorship of the Indian Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/India). The 6 Customs administrations in the Pacific, namely Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu as well as the representatives from Oceania Customs Organization (OCO) Secretariat and the OCO Members attended the Workshop. Together with the experts on PCA from the WCO, the Indian Customs and Mr. Ilkwon HAN (Gideon) of ROCB A/P, Mr. Norikazu Kuramoto, Head of the ROCB A/P, Ms. Yuko Mamiya, Program Manager of the ROCB A/P, and Ms. Pavida Boonmun, Assistant Program Manager of the ROCB A/P also attended as facilitators/coordinators for the Workshop.

In order to deepen the knowledge on the basic concept of PCA and identify the gap between its current capacity and practical application of PCA in each Member administration and the WCO standards, the Workshop covered various International Conventions and WCO tools such as the Revised Kyoto Convention, the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, the WCO PCA Guidelines, the WCO Implementation Guidance on PCA, the WCO Voluntary Compliance Framework and the WCO Customs-Business Partnership. Through a series of presentations and discussions, the participants reaffirmed that PCA is the tool to measure and improve compliance.

During the workshop, common challenges in the implementation of PCA were identified through the country presentations and the participants actively participated in the discussion of possible solutions for their challenges, facilitated by experts. Also, the participants exchanged their experiences to address the challenges on how to implement PCA under the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Mamiya introduced the capacity building activities in the A/P region including the WCO Small Islands Economies (SIEs) Initiative which provides tailor-made technical assistance to Customs administrations in SIEs to address the unique challenges in SIEs.

The active contribution of the participants resulted in a successful workshop and this workshop supported enhancing communication and information sharing among Member administrations even in the pandemic situation. The participants expressed their appreciation to the Indian Customs, the WCO, the ROCB A/P and the Experts for their support to the workshop.

For more information, please contact at rocb@rocbap.org.