For the first time, an Experts Group on Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) met at WCO Headquarters from 13 to 17 April 2015. Eight Customs officers gathered in Brussels, with an additional officer participating remotely in the meeting using the WCO CLiKC! platform, to share their knowledge and expertise for the development of some new WCO PCA tools.

Taking into consideration the growing importance of PCA, which is covered by the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement Article 7.5, the Secretariat intends to support those Members that try to embark on reform initiatives toward PCA introduction / better performance in their respective administrations.

The 34^th Enforcement Committee, which concluded on 26 March 2015, endorsed the Secretariat’s plan to develop two new WCO tools in PCA. One of these aims at helping Customs administrations visualize through practical exercises the benefits that can derive from the international standards application, and the other one at providing field auditors with reference materials on audit techniques.

At the occasion of this Committee, the Secretariat called for Members’ support, to which Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Turkey Customs Administrations responded positively by sending some of their officers to this Meeting.

The Meeting is a mutually beneficial exercise; it assists the WCO in developing effective tools and also enables the participants in improving their knowledge and techniques for future use in the field. During this five-day Meeting, participants actively pooled their knowledge and experiences through presentations, as well as group discussion and case study sessions.

The Secretariat will continue working on the outcomes of this first Meeting with the next Meeting planned in the latter half of this year. This will allow the experts some time to scrutinize the draft one of the tools before the Secretariat presents it to relevant WCO Working Groups and Committees.