The National Workshop held in Brazzaville from 11 to 15 November 2013 brought together 29 participants from the central, regional and local services of the Congolese Customs Administration.

In addition to a technical section devoted mainly to the structure of the Harmonized System (HS), its General Interpretative Rules (GIR) and the HS 2012 amendments, this Workshop enabled participants to address issues associated with the administrative organization of Congolese Customs as regards the improvement of tariff classification work and related infrastructure.

To this end, it should be noted that the work resulted in the drafting of recommendations including:

• setting up a permanent Tariff Management Unit run by a Head of Service, and expanding the team responsible for managing tariff classification issues
• taking stock of the situation as regards the WCO Recommendations relating to the HS, and notifying the WCO of their acceptance, where applicable
• designating HS Contact Points responsible for tariff issues at the regional level, drawing on officials having participated in the Workshop; setting up a body of trainers specialized in the HS, and appointing a National Co-ordinator
• drawing up a national HS training plan making particular provision for specialized training courses by Sections or Chapters, according to regional or local needs,
• providing the Administration with the HS tools and ensuring that HS documentation is made available to all officials dealing with tariff classification issues.

All the services will soon be equipped with the full range of HS-related tools, the Customs Administration of the Republic of the Congo is doing everything in its power to ensure this is the case.

At the end of the Workshop, the Congolese Administration decided to reinforce the unit in charge of Tariff questions by adding two new persons to the existing staff.