The Administrative Committee for the Customs Convention on Containers, 1972 held its 16th Session on 27-28 February 2017 at the WCO Headquarters in Brussels. The Customs Convention on Containers, 1972 (Container Convention) is a United Nations convention administered by the WCO.

The 16th Session of the Administrative Committee was attended by more than 40 participants representing 20 Contracting Parties to the Container Convention, 13 WCO Member administrations, a number of international organizations and private sector entities. For the first time in 10 years the number of Contracting Parties attending the session was sufficient to constitute a quorum. Thus the Committee was able to take decisions on a number of important issues, including two amendments to the Convention and an amendment to the Terms of Reference for the Committee.

The Administrative Committee adopted amendments to two of the Annexes to the Convention - Annex 1 Provisions concerning the marking of containers and Annex 4 Regulations on technical conditions applicable to containers which may be accepted for international transport under Customs seal. The amendment to Annex 1 introduces more detailed provisions on the marking of containers and aligns Annex 1 to the Container Convention with Appendix II of Annex B.3 to the Convention on Temporary Admission (Istanbul Convention). The amendment to Annex 4 introduces provisions concerning new design of containers with a sheeted sliding roof or sliding sheets and aligns the provisions of the annex to Annex 7 to the Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR Carnets, 1975 (TIR Convention).  In accordance with the Convention, the adopted amendments to the Convention will be communicated to all Contracting Parties for their acceptance.

The Administrative Committee discussed the lack of quorum at the last meetings of the Administrative Committee – a persisting issue for the Committee and approved changes to the Terms of Reference for the Administrative Committee with the aim of solving the issue.

The Committee further discussed actions to enhance the involvement of Contracting Parties in the drafting of the agenda of the future meetings of the Administrative Committee and measures to promote the Convention.

The agenda of the meeting included several topics of relevance to the SAFE Framework of Standards such as Container Security Devices (CSDs), Customs treatment of return-refill containers and sanitation of containers, which triggered wide-ranging discussions.

The Committee approved an updated version of the Handbook on the Customs Convention on Containers, 1972, which will be uploaded shortly on the WCO Web-site.

For more information: http://www.wcoomd.org/en/topics/facilitation/instrument-and-tools/conventions/pf_conv_containers.aspx