The 20th Meeting of the Revised Kyoto Convention Management Committee (RKC/MC) was held from 17 to 18 June 2019 at WCO Headquarters in Brussels. In her opening remarks, Ms. Ana B. Hinojosa, Director of Compliance and Facilitation welcomed the accession of the Cook Islands and Tuvalu, two small islands States in the Pacific region as the 117th and 118th Contracting Parties to the RKC in May 2019. She also provided a brief update on the work done and progress made by the Working Group on the Comprehensive Review of the Revised Kyoto Convention (WGRKC).

Since the 19th Meeting of the RKC/MC, the WGRKC held four meetings and made steady progress with the examination of 107 proposals, covering 36 concepts provided by 18 Members. Considering this status, the 20th RKC/MC meeting discussed the following items concerning the Comprehensive Review of the RKC and other related additional matters:

• Overall report by the Chairperson of the WGRKC and progress report on the Comprehensive Review of the RKC;
• Work plan and working method of the WGRKC;
• Stakeholder engagement session;
• WGRKC’s Stakeholder Engagement: Inviting Customs and Economic Unions to the meetings of the WGRKC;
• Sharing of experiences on Accession procedures and national practices on the implementation of the RKC;
• Delivery of RKC-Related Activities: Developments since the 19th RKC/MC Meeting; and
• Update of the RKC ICT Guidelines.

On the above agenda items, the 20th RKC/MC Meeting held fruitful discussions and came out with substantive decisions and guidance. At this Meeting, the RKC/MC approved the reports of the WGRKC Meetings and the progress report of the WGRKC which contained matured proposals taking into consideration the contributions and interventions made by the delegates. On the draft Work Plan, the RKC/MC Meeting decided to update it by having fewer meetings of the WGRKC with longer period over four to five days as to maintain a sound balance between efficiency and quality of work. Regarding stakeholder engagement, the RKC/MC acknowledged the importance of engaging external stakeholders and agreed in principle, to invite external stakeholders, including the Customs and Economic Unions, as Observers, to the WGRKC meetings. The 20th RKC/MC Meeting also had the opportunity to understand the experiences on Accession procedures of the RKC of Cook Islands and Tuvalu as the 117th and 118th Contracting Parties to the RKC. An update, on all the RKC related activities and developments that happened since the 19th RKC/MC Meeting, as well as an update of the RKC ICT Guidelines, was provided to the 20th RKC/MC by the Secretariat.

Overall, the 20th RKC/MC Meeting had held substantive discussions and participants expressed their appreciation for the substantial work done by the WGRKC.