The World Customs Organization (WCO) responded positively to the request for technical assistance from the Guinean Directorate General of Customs (DGD), agreeing to help it in its move to bring the Customs functions that had been outsourced to a private goods inspection company back in-house.  This assistance involves assessing and building the capacities of Guinean Customs in tariff classification and Customs valuation of imported goods.

The first phase of this WCO technical assistance has just been successfully carried out in Conakry from 27 November to 1 December 2017, thanks in particular to the WCO’s financial support and the commitment of the Guinean Customs authorities.  This was a diagnostic mission to assess the tariff classification and Customs valuation control systems established by the Guinean DGD for imported goods.

As part of this mission, the two WCO experts led working sessions with managers and executives from the Headquarters Directorates concerned by tariff classification and Customs valuation matters.  They also visited a major operational directorate to meet DGD officials assigned to the various offices in the control chain for imported goods, to help them understand the degree of implementation of international standards in these two Customs-related areas, as well as the practices followed for Customs clearance of goods.  To supplement this work, the experts conducting the mission also held an exchange of views with a number of economic operators in the private sector, in their capacity as Customs partners, in the presence of a representative of the Guinean Chamber of Commerce.  These discussions were candid and productive.

The experts also examined the measures taken by the DGD to bring its formerly outsourced Customs functions back in-house, and encouraged those in charge to speed up the process of reforming the Customs control infrastructure in the light of the recommendations made during the mission, which were based on tools and instruments of the WCO that were developed as part of its programme on the Revenue Package.  These recommendations will be included in Guinean Customs’ next Action Plan, which will set out the future actions to be undertaken with this WCO assistance.

The week’s work was brought to an end with a debriefing session on the initial results of the mission, in the presence of the Assistant Director General and his immediate staff.