Under the sponsorship of the Korean Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF- Korea), a World Customs Organization Accreditation Workshop for Technical Operational Advisers (TOAs) in the area of the WCO Time Release Study (TRS) was held at the National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics (NACEN) in Faridabad, India, from 7 to 11 March 2016.

The event was organized as part of the WCO strategic approach to obtain a greater number of experts to assist WCO Members in conducting a TRS. It, was attended by Customs officials from the Asia Pacific (AP) region.

During the workshop, WCO facilitators presented a general overview of the organization of a TRS, and subsequently focused on TRS objectives, challenges, opportunity and ways forward.

12 Customs officers from the WCO AP region participated in the workshop and were continuously assessed against a set of criteria that included their overall knowledge and strategic application of key WCO tools and instruments, their level of technical expertise, their ability to support Member administrations in preparing and conducting a TRS and their ability to facilitate discussion with senior Customs officials.

At the end of the event, several participants successfully completed step 1 of the accreditation process as they had demonstrated their potential to become TOAs in the area of TRS. The successful candidates will now be able to support the WCO in future TRS missions.