Within the framework of the Asia Pacific Border Management Waste Project the WCO Secretariat has organized a workshop on plastic waste for the Vietnamese authorities. The workshop was conducted virtually between 25 and 27 October and benefited the work of the General Department of Vietnam Customs and the Vietnam Environment Administration. It formed part of the Project’s general goal of strengthening the response of various Asia Pacific Customs Administrations to effectively deal with legal trade of plastic waste, to mitigate the threat of illegal plastic waste shipments, and to sensitise the Administrations on the Basel Convention’s plastic waste amendments that became effective on 1 January 2021.

During the workshop, the WCO representatives provided training on the customs enforcement of measures on plastic waste as well as the role of the WCO standards and advance information exchange. The United Nations Organization on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC)-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP) representative presented the programme and its role in preventing the cross-border movement of illicit goods, including plastic waste shipments. The participants also took part in exercises on targeting, examination and investigations in order to give them a hands-on approach in the fight against illegal trade in plastic waste.

At the end of the workshop a detailed National Implementation Plan for Vietnam was presented to the General Department of Vietnam Customs. It was developed after the initial Diagnostic Mission in December 2020 and contains recommended actions aimed at dealing with the trade in plastic waste. During this workshop the National Implementation Plan was presented to the Customs Administration, which then was given the opportunity to discuss the observations which were the basis for the recommendations. These will be featured in the regional conference on plastic waste which will be held in February 2022.