19-23 January 2015, Kashiwa, Japan
From the 19th to the 23rd of November 2014, the WCO organized the Accreditation Workshop for Technical Operational Advisers on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy (A/P Region) in Kashiwa, Japan, under the financial support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of Japan. 10 Customs officers from 8 member administrations (Australia, Bhutan, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tonga) demonstrated their ability in the IPR field, with aspirations of becoming future WCO Accredited Experts.
The accreditation of advisers is comprised of two phases with the first phase being the workshop to identify participants with high potential, and the second being field missions to finally assess their capability in facilitating capacity building activities in specific fields. Only the participants who have successfully completed the workshop phase can proceed with field mission phase.
During the five-day intensive workshop, participants demonstrated their IPR knowledge and facilitation skills in role-plays, presentation sessions, case studies with scenarios and discussion sessions. The whole event was jointly facilitated by 3 experts from the WCO Secretariat and an expert from the Regional Office for Capacity Building Asia Pacific.
This workshop was organized as the first regional accreditation event outside Brussels in counterfeiting and piracy field. The Asian Pacific region has always been strategically important for customs IPR border enforcement because of its unique status both as producer and consumer of counterfeit products. The region was chosen in response to the growing requests of technical assistance in anti-counterfeiting field in this region.
Officers who have successfully completed the workshop will shortly be invited to field missions. Once fully accredited, they are expected to facilitate IPR-related missions and give practical advice to Member countries who wish to strengthen their anti-counterfeit border measures.