The COVID-19 pandemic has not halted the work of the Customs Administration of Bolivia on developing an Advance Ruling system, nor has it halted the WCO’s work to support this. Within the framework of the SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme, the first joint initiative between the WCO and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) from Switzerland, an initial workshop to assist the Customs Administration of Bolivia in developing an advance ruling system for classification and origin was restructured to customized online working sessions. An advance ruling system for classification and origin will play a vital role in promoting trade facilitation and will meet the requirements of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation.

During the online sessions, eighteen participants from relevant departments of the Bolivian Customs were actively involved asking questions and discussing possible solutions. Bolivia presented its current regulations, the classification and origin infrastructure, as well as the progress made on the actions agreed during the initial diagnostic mission carried out in 2018 by the WCO. The WCO experts gave presentations on advance rulings and the tools and instruments developed under the Revenue Package.

The discussion focused, among others, on the modification of the legal framework and the current infrastructure, the development of new procedures and regulations and the modification of the customs software and website to include and publish the advance rulings.

The workshop represents the first of the ongoing efforts in the Tariff and Trade Affairs area to convert the delivery of a usually week-long face-to-face capacity building activity into a series of online events, which needs significant adaptation of the initially planned capacity building programmes to the new normal. The on-line sessions will continue to build the capacity of participants to prepare the regulations and procedures needed for the implementation of the national advance ruling system.