The World Customs Organization (WCO) successfully delivered a "green" (conducted without the use of paper) multi-regional workshop on the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) in Panama City, Panama, from 8 to 12 May 2023, with the financial support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of China (CCF-China). A total of 32 Customs officials from South America, Central America, the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa, and Europe attended the workshop. Overall, 26 observers (non-contracting parties) and 6 contracting parties to the RKC participated in the workshop.

Over the span of 5 days, important Customs topics relating to the Body of the Convention, the General Annex (GA), and the Specific Annexes (SAs) of the RKC were examined and discussed. Key topics covered relating to the GA were: Clearance and other Customs formalities (Chapter 3), Duties and Taxes (Chapter 4), Customs Control (Chapter 6), Information Technology (Chapter 7), and further discussed in detail on issues around Customs declaration, deferred payment, risk management, Customs broker, etc. Within the scope of the SAs, Chapters relating to the formalities prior to the lodgement of the goods declaration, inward processing, warehouse, processing for home use, free zones, drawbacks, relief consignments, etc. were discussed.

In order to further familiarize the participants with the RKC provisions, gap analysis exercises were carried out using the simplified WCO RKC assessment toolkit. The results of the gap analysis indicated that despite many participants being non-contracting parties to the RKC, they were largely compliant with the GA of the RKC, on average, by about 85%.

The participant from Guatemala presented their RKC accession experience, and Brazil shared their Single Window implementation project. The participant from Bosnia and Herzegovina presented, in general, their overall Administration's mandate, reform, and modernization initiatives, and their accession pathway to the RKC.

The opening and closing of the workshop were done by the Director General of the National Customs Authority of Panama. The workshop was organized in collaboration with the National Customs Authority of Panama. For further information, please contact us at RKCReview@wcoomd.org.