The El Salvador Customs Administration has been giving thought to implementing international standards, including the WCO Data Model (WCO DM), to help enhance its efficiency in managing border clearance procedures.  The Administration consequently asked the WCO to assist with the adoption of the WCO DM.  To this end, the WCO organized a National Workshop on the WCO DM, held at the Customs Headquarters in San Salvador from 5 to 9 February.

The Workshop was opened by Mr. Abilio Vadillo Alberto, Deputy Director General of Customs.  In his opening remarks, Mr. Vadillo Alberto stressed the importance of implementing international standards within the automated system used by Customs, so as to facilitate interoperability between that system and those of other stakeholders.  He explained that his Administration was currently using the ASYCUDA++ system and was planning to upgrade to ASYCUDA World.

The WCO Expert pointed out that the Organization was, at present, working closely with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), owner of the ASYCUDA system, to align that system with the WCO DM.  He further explained that the WCO DM was linked to other international standards that were widely used in the international value chain, including ISO coding systems, United Nations (UN) standards on units of measure and UN standards on location coding (UN/LOCODE).  The use of the WCO DM would enable ASYCUDA to interoperate with external systems in a standardized manner around the world.

The WCO Expert went on to say that the WCO DM was considered as the universal e-language of Customs, expediting the operation of many business areas relating to border management, such as supply chain security management, passenger control, transit inter-connectivity, Trusted Trader/Authorized Economic Operator management, Single Window, e-licensing, e-permitting, and e-certification.

With a view to familiarizing the Workshop participants with the WCO DM data elements, they were invited to undertake an exercise to map the Central American Single Declaration (DUCA) data requirements with the WCO Data Model.  The mapping was based on the two-step method that included identifying the corresponding WCO DM element in each of the DUCA data fields, and then building the information structure based on a specific WCO DM information package.

At the end of the Workshop, the WCO invited El Salvador Customs to develop a National Information Package that would reflect its level of adoption of the WCO DM.