The 18th Session of the Administrative Committee for the Customs Convention on Containers, 1972 was organized in two phases: a virtual meeting session held on 28 January 2021, and a consultation process to adopt the report of the Meeting to be held from 8 to 12 February 2021 via the WCO CLiKC! platform. The Customs Convention on Containers, 1972 (Container Convention) is a United Nations convention administered by the WCO.

More than 100 delegates had registered for the 18th Session of the Administrative Committee, including representatives of 17 Contracting Parties, 30 WCO Member Customs administrations that are not Contracting Parties to the Convention, a number of international organizations and private sector entities.

The Administrative Committee examined and approved an update of the Container Convention Handbook, which was done with the objective of incorporating amendments to Annexes 1 and 4 to the Convention that entered into force on 1 November 2020. The delegates were briefed about recent developments of relevance to the Administrative Committee, such as the work of the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), TradeLens and the work of the Cargo Integrity Group (CIG) in the area of safety in the containerized supply chain. The Committee also heard a presentation by the Secretary General of the International Container Bureau (BIC) on the BIC Facility Code.

The Committee considered the matter of the Customs treatment of containers and devices used for the transportation of situationally critical medicines and vaccines and provided guidance in that regard.