The WCO held the sub-regional working Group Activity one (WG1) on HS Classification under the Master Trainer Programme for Pacific Islands virtually from 18-22 October 2021 with the support of the Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) for the Asia/Pacific region. This activity is the first of the Master Trainer Programme on HS launched to support the Pacific Islands Customs Administrations in developing a “Regional Experts Pool” for more sustainable capacity building in the region.

The Master Trainer Programme or MTP is a programme conducted under the WCO/JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Joint Project to develop sustainable and self-contained training capacity by 1) developing a pool of well-experienced trainers and 2) regionally featured training materials and programme to be used by these trainers. To achieve that objective, a series of progressive activities will be undertaken by the participating Customs Administrations namely Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, supported by the WCO and JICA. Upon completion of this MTP, the Master Trainers are expected to deliver training on HS Classification not only in their respective administrations but also for the benefit of other countries in the region.

In total, twelve (12) Customs officials nominated by the six Revenue Authorities and Customs Administrations in the Pacific Islands got together virtually. During the workshop, each Customs administration shared its issues and challenges that they are facing in implementing HS as well as efforts in strengthening uniform application of HS. Invited experts from the WCO, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Japan Customs shared their knowledge and expertise on HS from global and national perspectives and contributed to the improvement of the knowledge and expertise of participants to be quality trainers. At the end of the Working Group Activity, participants jointly developed their collective work plan to achieve the two objectives of the MTP through the progressive follow-up activities. Participants expressed their strong appreciation to the WCO and JICA for this new opportunity as well as to the participating experts for their dedication and sharing their valuable knowledge and expertise.

Both WCO and JICA welcomed the strong ownership and commitment clearly demonstrated by the participants during the workshop and reaffirmed their support to the continuous efforts of Customs Administrations in the Pacific Islands to ensure sustainable capacity development.

For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.