The Data Model Projects Team (DMPT) met from 27 to 31 January 2020 at WCO Headquarters in Brussels. The meeting was attended by WCO Members, the private sector and other international organizations.

The meeting was opened by Mr. Pranab Kumar DAS, the Director, of the WCO’s Compliance and Facilitation Directorate. Mr. DAS informed the DMPT that the WCO celebrated International Customs Day on Friday 24 Jan 2020 and launched the WCO’s Theme for 2020: “Customs fostering Sustainability for People, Prosperity and the Planet”. Mr. DAS emphasized that the DMPT has important role in supporting the WCO Theme of the year by enlarging the “Digital Customs” agenda with a greater emphasis on the use of modern technologies, including a high-performance, paperless Single Window environment and a solid IT infrastructure.

Mr. DAS announced that the WCO, with the support of the DMPT, had successfully published the new version of the WCO Data Model, version 3.9.0, on 23 December 2019. This version of the WCO DM included the revised International Maritime Organization Facilitation (IMO-FAL) Derived Information Package (DIP) that is fully in line with the IMO Compendium on Electronic Business. The DIP is useful to facilitate Customs-Maritime digital collaboration in the context of Single Window. The new version of the WCO DM is available at: www.wcoomd.org/DataModel > WCO Data Model eHandbook.

The DMPT elected Ms. Louritha Green of the United States of America (USA) as the new Chairperson. Ms. Green supported by the Conveners of the Focus Groups led the meeting proceedings. Under her leadership, the DMPT discussed the plan to produce a new major version of the WCO DM, version .4.0.0. The DMPT welcomed one member’s voluntary contribution to take on the role as Product Manager for the new major version of the WCO DM. The DMPT agreed to hold an ad-hoc working session meeting to finalize the planning process in April 2020.

In the context of cooperation with the SAFE Working Group, the DMPT discussed the categorization of Annex II of the SAFE Framework of Standards (FoS) based on Goods Declaration and Cargo Reporting and the need for clarification of the different purposes of Advance Electronic Information (AEI).

In line with the WCO Theme of the year, the DMPT discussed potential cooperation with the Basel Convention Secretariat to develop a paperless process for transboundary movement of waste, in particular plastic and e-waste. The DMPT noted that there were different setups in different Countries on whether Customs has a role in the transboundary movement of waste. Therefore, closer engagement between Customs and competent authorities at a National and International level is needed to move forward with the proposal to develop a collaborative paperless processes in this area.

With regard to the future maintenance of the IMO Compendium on Electronic Business, the DMPT agreed, in principle, to continue supporting the IMO Secretariat in its maintenance process, in particular to support the development and maintenance of IMO datasets that relate to regulatory (Business to Government) processes. In addition, the DMPT discussed and agreed to publish a Customs related standardized Code-List for Ship Store and Crew Effects as WCO Code.

In the context of digital collaboration within Single Window environment, the DMPT received a presentation by the Chair of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) Electronic Working Group on the ongoing process to develop paperless solution for food related electronic certification.

During the meeting, the DMPT received 11 Data Maintenance Requests (DMRs) submitted by the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) and approved 6 of them. In addition, the DMPT discussed the basic principles for transformable electronic message format, standardization for Application Programming Interface (API) and the compliance criteria for the WCO Data Model.  Finally, the DMPT received a presentation by the Secretariat on the prototype of the WCO DM Web Portal and repository for My Information Package (MIP).