A follow-up online workshop was delivered from 12 to 16 July 2021 for the Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) who had highlighted the need for support in implementing its tailor-made Risk Management and Advance Cargo Information System (ACIS) with a view to improving existing practices in the region.

The workshop essentially aimed at providing additional support to the Joint Regional Communication Centre (JRCC) in Barbados and at further improving its risk management capacity on cargo selection from a regional perspective, using advance screening of manifests and waybills.

The Customs Administrations of the CARICOM region joined forces through enhanced collaboration to strengthen the risk management practices already in place. A special focus was placed on implementation of the ACIS for classification purposes with a view to establishing rules and standards for risk assessment and selectivity.

With the support of the WCO experts, the 19 participants were provided with an ideal opportunity to build on the strengths and overcome the weaknesses identified by them earlier during the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats) analysis for the implementation of the ACIS within the CARICOM region. This exercise will no doubt improve profiling and targeting capacity for enhanced selectivity purposes in the Caribbean.

Over the five days, the representatives of the JRCC as well as the other Customs participants engaged fully in the discussions and practical exercises conducted as part of the workshop. They demonstrated their high level of commitment to improving the selectivity processes through the ACIS by targeting high-risk consignments and to ensuring tightened security of the supply chain within the CARICOM region.