At the request of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), the WCO conducted a mission with the aim of strengthening the Customs’ infrastructure for Valuation and Classification controls in Monrovia between 27 and 31 August 2018.

The mission, which was kindly funded by the China Customs Cooperation Fund, was facilitated by a representative of the WCO, a WCO-accredited Valuation expert from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and a representative of China Customs.

In order to assess the present infrastructure and control systems, a series of meetings was held with senior management and teams responsible for Valuation and Classification matters, risk management, post-clearance audit and training /HR policy.

As part of the programme, a one-day workshop was held for 20 selected LRA personnel covering various technical and practical issues relating to Valuation and Classification, including sessions on key principles of the WTO Valuation Agreement, the Harmonized System 2017, the WCO’s Revenue Package programme and China Customs’ Classification control programme.

At the end of the mission, the mission team presented its provisional recommendations to the LRA Commissioner of Customs, Mr. Saa Saamoi. In particular, the recommendations will assist with LRA’s implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement (Liberia acceded to the WTO in 2016) and will help with formulation of a strategy for termination of private sector inspection contracts for valuation and classification, which is a requirement of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.