With the sponsorship of the Japanese Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF Japan), a WCO National Workshop on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy was held for Indonesian Customs in Jakarta from 11 to 15 September 2017.
The Workshop was attended by 21 Customs participants involved in IPR border enforcement. Resource speakers from the Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P), China Customs and Japan Customs shared their knowledge and practices with the participants and facilitated the discussions.
During the Workshop, the participants re-examined their current IPR enforcement at the border and the impacts of the illicit trafficking in IPR infringing goods by comparing them with the requirements of the WCO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).
The participants then discussed the challenges and possible solutions as a way forward through a series of group discussions. The discussions covered a wide range of topics, namely the legal framework, operational procedures, risk analysis, information recordation at Customs, information-sharing among Customs officers, cooperation with right holders and IPR training programmes.
Through the intensive group discussions, the participants identified specific future actions to be taken, and shared their common understanding on how to improve IPR border enforcement.
The Workshop successfully concluded with a clear recognition by participants of the follow up and actions, both institutional and individual, that they would need to take. The participants expressed their appreciation to the WCO and the resource speakers for their contribution to the Workshop.