At the request of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), two WCO experts, Mr. Samson Bilangna and Mr. Sang-Hyup Lee, conducted a national workshop/diagnostic mission under the WCO Mercator Programme from 4 to 8 December 2016 in Tehran, Iran, aimed at supporting the implementation of both the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
The main objectives of the mission were to conduct a diagnostic and assess the needs of IRICA with respect to the implementation of the RKC and the TFA, with the overall idea of discussing specific areas that had already been identified by IRICA and the WCO experts during the preparation phase of the mission. The identified areas included, among others, the ‘single window’ (SW), post clearance audit (PCA), risk management (RM) and advance rulings (ARs).
The WCO team had the opportunity to view IRICA’s comprehensive clearance system and visit their SW site in Tehran, in addition to conducting a diagnostic visit to one of the most important Customs offices located at the Bandar Abbas port. As a result, a three-day Information Exchange Workshop was held on issues such as TFA implementation, the WCO Time Release Study, RM, PCA, the SW and Customs automation, authorized economic operators (AEOs) and ARs. Based on their observations and IRICA’s presentations, the WCO experts were able to identify some of the Customs systems’ strengths and weaknesses.
Prior to the end of the mission, the WCO experts had a meeting with the President of IRICA, Dr. Masoud Karbasian, Ph.D, who leads Customs’ modernization initiatives, during which they highlighted the main findings of their mission and provided some recommendations on the way forward.
IRICA extends its appreciation to the WCO Secretary General Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, as well as to Mr. Samson Bilangna and Mr. Sang-Hyup Lee.