From 27 February to 3 March 2023, the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) hosted a national workshop on the Harmonized System and commodity classification in Senegambia, The Gambia. The workshop was delivered by two experts from the WCO within the framework of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System in Africa (HS-Africa Programme), funded by the European Union as part of the comprehensive package of assistance to support GRA’s work on building capacity on Harmonized System classification.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Yankuba Darboe, GRA Commissioner General, highlighted the timeliness and the high relevance of the workshop as an important contribution towards increasing the capacity of Customs Officers and Clearing Agents in the area of tariff classification. He emphasized the importance to understand the General Interpretative Rules in order to classify correctly and determine what duty rates are applicable to import and export goods.

The workshop was attended by 21 officers from across different stations of the GRA and border posts and by 4 clearing agents. The objective of this course was to describe the structure of the HS Convention and to learn the basic principles of commodity classification, based on the General Rules for the Interpretation of the HS. Participants examined a wide range of fundamental theoretical and practical aspects of the application of the HS, working on a number of case studies where they classified specific products which presented complexities in classification. In addition, participants had access to the e-learning course “HS Foundation” available on WCO CLiKC! platform.

The workshop also offered an opportunity to pilot new training materials made available under the HS-Africa Programme. Those materials have been developed with the aim of establishing a standardized set of tools for HS trainers to deliver a five-day workshop covering all of the most essential areas of the HS related to the practical work of commodity classification. The materials used during the workshop received a high level of appreciation from the participants and will be used for similar training activities in the future.

At the end of the workshop, Mr. Alhagie Mbye, Commissioner of Customs, thanked the WCO and the European Union for continued support to the GRA work on building capacity on Harmonized System classification.

For more details, please contact hs@wcoomd.org.