Under the sponsorship of China Customs, and with the support of Fiji Customs and the WCO Regional Office for Capacity Building for the Asia/Pacific region (ROCB A/P), a WCO Sub-Regional Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for Oceania Members was held in Suva, Fiji from 4 to 8 December 2017.

Fifteen officers from five countries within the region (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu) benefitted from financial support provided by the China Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/China), and successfully completed the Workshop.

WCO tools, such as the Risk Management Compendium, the WCO IPR Model Legislation, and implementation of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) were the main topics covered during the Workshop. Cooperation with the private sector and the specific challenges in the region were also discussed.

Participants shared the current IPR border enforcement situation in their respective countries and the challenges that they face, which gave rise to discussions on the region’s specific needs.
The theoretical discussions were put into practice during a field exercise at the DHL premises: a consignment was selected and inspected by the team of participants, resulting in the discovery of IPR infringing goods as well as undeclared goods.

On the last day of the Workshop, participants gave presentations on the lessons learned during the field exercise and discussed the way forward. The Workshop helped them to identify existing gaps within their current IPR enforcement systems and ways to overcome the gaps.