Under the auspices of the WCO/JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Joint Project and with the kind host of the Regional Training Center in Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS), the third Working Group Activity of the Master Trainer Programme (MTP) on Customs Valuation (CV) and HS Classification (HS) for the Pacific Islands was held in Suva, Fiji, from 7 to 12, November 2022.

The objective of the MTP is to establish more self-sustainable capacity in key Customs work areas in the participating regions by developing a pool of well-qualified trainers and training materials/programmes that meet regional needs. To this end, the MTP trains the same nominated participants (WG members) from respective Customs Administrations through 5 working-group and intersessional activities for 2-3 years.

24 WG members for CV and HS from 6 WCO Members, namely, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, participated in the working group activity.

This working group activity is the third in a series of 5 WG activities of the MTP to be undertaken for the WG members to become Master Trainers (MT). The WG members started developing teaching materials they could use for training sessions after becoming MTs on CV or HS. To this end, the WCO and Japan Customs experts conducted lectures to enable the WG members to understand the subjects more and to develop quality teaching material.

The material making has just begun, and the WG members are expected to continue working on it intersessionally until the material is finalized at the 4th WG planned for next year.

For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.