Between 8 and 12 October, the WCO conducted an advanced Customs valuation Workshop for the Rwanda Revenue Authority in Kigali, Rwanda.

The mission was made possible with the generous financial support of the Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of the United Kingdom as part of the HMRC-WCO-UNCTAD TFA Capacity Building Programme.

30 officials from headquarters and a range of Customs stations participated in the Workshop.  The programme consisted of refresher sessions on the methodology of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement and presentations on a number of technical valuation topics such as royalty and licence fees and the relationship between Customs valuation and transfer pricing.  Also included were presentations and discussions on the WCO’s Revenue Package, focusing on the practical challenges of implementing the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement in developing countries.

A WCO-accredited Expert Trainer on Customs Valuation from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) co-facilitated the Workshop with the lead expert from the WCO and shared the GRA experience of implementing its valuation control system.

This mission is part of an ongoing WCO programme in Rwanda under the framework of the tailor-made track of the WCO Mercator Programme, specifically designed to support developing countries to implement the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement using the WCO’s extensive range of instruments and tools.