At the request of the Customs Administration of Costa Rica, the WCO conducted a mission with the aim of strengthening the Customs’ infrastructure and regulations for Classification and Origin work, in San Jose between 21 and 25 May. Thirty Customs officers participated in a WCO Revenue Package national Workshop on the development of advance ruling system for Classification and Origin, funded by CCF Korea and facilitated by two classification and origin experts from the WCO Secretariat.
The Workshop focused, in particular, on advance rulings for Classification and Origin since they will play a vital role in promoting trade facilitation, as required by the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation, which entered into force on 22 February 2017.
During the Workshop, several presentations with respect to advance rulings, as well as tools and instruments developed under the Revenue Package and best practices, were delivered. At the discussion session after the holistic examination of the national Classification and Origin controls, the participants prepared an Action Plan with proposals and solutions related to the modernization of Classification and Origin work and to the implementation of advance ruling system.
Following the Workshop, the Action Plan was presented to the Directors of Customs Techniques, Regulations and International Affairs, who recognized the importance of those proposals and confirmed that the recommendations would help with the strengthening of the Classification and Origin infrastructure and relevant control systems.