During a working session held in Abuja from 18 to 20 October, the WCO and the ECOWAS Commission Customs Directorate have identified the lack of mastery of ECOWAS instruments by West African Customs Administrations as a major obstacle to regional integration and intra-regional trade. As a result, both organizations have agreed that the WCO-WACAM project, funded by Sweden, would support the ECOWAS Commission with the formulation and initial implementation of a regional training strategy that would specifically aim at addressing this gap.
The regional training strategy will aim to promote and facilitate the development of competencies related to the ECOWAS Common External Tariff, ECOWAS Customs Community Code and the regional preferential rules of origins among others. The regional training strategy will also clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the WCO Regional Office for Capacity-Building and Regional Training Centers located in West Africa in order to leverage resources.
The WCO WACAM Project team and the ECOWAS Commission agreed that the regional training strategy shall be finalized by the end of 2016 in order to initiate its implementation in the first quarter of 2017.
For more questions about this activity or general information about the WCO-WACAM Project, please contact the WCO-Sweden Programme Director, Richard Chopra (Richard.chopra@wcoomd.org ).