With sponsorship of Euro customs, a WCO National Workshop on the modernization of the Customs Laboratory of Ecuador was held in the headquarters of the Ecuador Customs in Guayaquil, from 15 to 19 December 2014.

At the opening of the Workshop, the National Director of Tariff Classification, Ms. Claudia Buitron, highlighted the importance of a Customs Laboratory for the correct classification of certain commodities in the Harmonized System (HS), specially in the area of the "green customs", and thanked the representatives from the Mexican Customs Administration and from the WCO Secretariat's Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate for facilitating the high level discussions on the modernization of the Customs Laboratory in Ecuador.

During the Seminar the group discussed relevant areas of analytical methodology. A wide range of topics related to the HS and Customs Laboratories was addressed and the participants were also thoroughly informed about several databases specifically designed for the day to day routine in a Customs Laboratory.

The Workshop was closed by Ms. Eva Noemi Mondragon from the Mexican Customs Laboratory. In her remarks she also emphasized the importance of a Customs Laboratory for the correct and uniform classification of commodities in the HS and in the national Customs tariff and for the well-functioning of the Ecuador Customs Administration.