Highlights from the 33rd RKC/MC Meeting

12 April 2024

The 33rd Meeting of the Revised Kyoto Convention Management Committee (RKC/MC) convened from 9 to 10 April 2024 in a hybrid format. In attendance were representatives of Contracting Parties, Member administrations, and partner organizations.

The meeting kicked off with opening remarks from Pranab Kumar Das, Director of the WCO Compliance and Facilitation Directorate, who welcomed participants and invited them to actively contribute to the discussions for a fruitful outcome.

Discussions focused on updating explanations and appendices to the RKC Guidelines for both the General Annex and Specific Annexes, which include references, examples, and best practices from various sources, mainly RKC Contracting Parties, International Organizations, etc. The meeting provided insight and further contributions on how to enrich the RKC Guidelines. In addition, the meeting also noted the technical input and recommendations provided by the Technical Committee on Rules of Origin on the draft Guidelines for Specific Annex K (SA-K) of the RKC and decided on the way forward regarding the need to prioritize updating SA-K.

Discussions were held on the need to comprehensively update the Handbook on Inward and Outward Processing Procedures and recommended undertake this work under the auspices of the Permanent Technical Committee.

The meeting considered the proposal to develop a Quality Implementation and Compliance Assessment Toolkit (QuICK!), an advanced web-based diagnostic framework/application and database, aimed at enhancing monitoring, reporting and evaluation mechanisms, among others, and supported its development subject to funding availability.

Welcoming Nicaragua as the 136th Contracting Party (CP) to the RKC, delegates received a presentation on their experiences and challenges during the RKC accession process. In addition the RKC/MC requested additional information regarding the submissions made by Guatemala and Iran for the consideration at its next meeting.

The updated draft RKC/MC Work Programme for 2022-2025 was presented, discussed, and endorsed by the RKC/MC.

Maria VOURNOU from Greece and Yves Patrick TCHAMI FOE from Cameroon were re-elected as Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, respectively.

For further inquiries, please contact the RKC Team at RKCReview@wcoomd.org.