The WCO Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Health and Safety Programme continued its module of training for Members, holding a three-day webinar from 16 to 18 December 2020 for 16 officials of the Indirect Taxation Authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This virtual workshop, financed by the Customs Co-operation Fund of Japan (CCF/Japan) and supported by the WCO Europe Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB), used an online platform with simultaneous interpreting.

In the course of this training event, participants were made aware of the challenges facing Customs during the current pandemic and of the important part Customs could play in securing borders and safeguarding the population by preventing counterfeit and/or illicit vaccines and medical supplies and equipment from entering their countries. Because WCO tools and instruments for risk management could help Customs to deal more efficiently with items trafficked in this way, these tools and instruments were also discussed at the workshop.

Day two of the workshop was spent on specific training, provided by rights holders, on how to recognize counterfeit products. They shared with participants a number of basic concepts which Customs officers could use to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit products.