From 8 to 12 August 2016, the World Customs Organization (WCO), with the support of Canada, organized and facilitated in Dakar (Senegal) a workshop for IT experts from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali , Senegal and Togo Customs. This technical workshop funded by the Customs Cooperation Fund of the Republic of Korea was also attended by the ECOWAS Commission, the UEMOA Commission and the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) of Germany. It familiarized participants with the WCO data model and initiated the development of electronic messages (XML format) to be exchanged between customs administrations involved in the envisaged supranational transit procedure.
The work was based on the functional specifications previously developed by legal and procedural transit experts and adopted by the relevant Directors General of Customs.
The harmonization of transit data and information flows between customs administrations is a strategic objective of the WCO West and Central Africa Region (WCA) and will contribute to the effective implementation of relevant provisions of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).