On 26 September 2022, the Deputy Secretary General of the WCO, Ricardo Treviño Chapa, welcomed a delegation from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to World Customs Organization (WCO) Headquarters in Brussels, with a view to enhancing collaboration between the WCO and the GCC.
The Deputy Secretary General presented an overview of the WCO together with its mission and vision, before turning to the important topic of the WCO Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and its key features, emphasizing that Data and Green Customs were current priority issues for the Organization. After listening to the presentation by the Deputy Secretary General together with presentations by staff from the WCO’s different Directorates, delegates had an opportunity to exchange views on various topics supporting the ongoing development of the GCC Customs Law.
WCO Secretariat staff from the Compliance & Facilitation and Trade & Tariff Affairs Directorates shared their views on issues relating to the development of the GCC Customs Law, such as Customs policies, enforcement, and tariff classification under the Harmonized System (HS). Some challenges and success factors for enhancing cooperation between countries with respect to harmonizing transit procedures and ensuring mutual recognition of Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programmes were highlighted. Delegates were also introduced to the core issues under discussion as part of the comprehensive review of the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC).
WCO recommendations on risk management within the context of Customs enforcement activities, based around common datasets such as the WCO Data Model, were addressed. In addition, some best practices adopted by WCO Members for conducting risk analysis under the SAFE Framework of Standards were touched upon.
The experts from the HS team presented the WCO's HS review cycle and shared their views on related issues such as harmonized tariff rules, integrated tariffs, and taking on board the requirements of other government agencies.
The visit ended with a productive discussion on potential technical collaboration between the GCC and WCO.