A National Workshop on Non-intrusive Inspection (NII) Technologies was delivered by the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Guatemala City, Guatemala in the period 11-15 June 2018.

The workshop was conducted with the financial assistance of the WCO Customs Cooperation Fund and was attended by over 65 Customs officers from the Customs Administration of Guatemala and representatives of other border management authorities and private sector entities. The WCO experts delivered training on a number of topics such as defining the needs for NII equipment, procurement process, maintenance of the equipment and image analysis.

The use of NII technologies is outlined in the Customs to Customs network arrangements pillar (Pillar 1) of the SAFE Framework of Standards and serves one of the key objectives of SAFE - to promote the seamless movement of goods through secure international trade supply chains. As per standard 3 of Pillar 1 of the SAFE Framework of Standards, non-intrusive equipment and radiation detection equipment should be available and used for conducting inspections, where available and in accordance with risk assessment. The standard also prescribes that the equipment is necessary to inspect high risk containers or cargo quickly, without disrupting the flow of legitimate trade.

At the same time the workshop contributed to the implementation of Pillar 3 of the SAFE Framework of Standards - the pillar devoted to the cooperation between Customs and other government agencies. Guatemala Customs and the Quarantine, Narcotics and Customs Police have recently developed a cooperation agreement and protocols covering different Coordinated Border Management aspects, including joint controls employing NII technologies. The implementation of the cooperation agreement and protocols will be piloted in July 2018 at the main bounded customs warehouse at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City and at the Puerto Barrios Port private terminal.

During the workshop closing ceremony, the Guatemala Customs Deputy Directors in charge of Polices and of Operations highlighted the importance of the use of NII technologies and thanked the WCO for the timely and valuable support, which contributes to the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the administration for the period 2018-2022.