The WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme conducted a mission in Lesotho from 17 to 21 April 2023 to further enhance technical assistance and capacity building on trade facilitation initiatives as part of its multi-year Mercator partnership with Revenue Services Lesotho (RSL). The main focus of the mission was a three-day Workshop to support Lesotho on Coordinated Border Management, in line with Article 8 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), through Lesotho Border Management Services (LBMS).

The Workshop took place under the auspices of the National Trade Facilitation Committee of Lesotho and was opened by Chairperson Mary Motebang, Ministry of Trade and Industry, who expressed her appreciation for the support extended by the WCO to progress the trade facilitation agenda of Lesotho and requested all participants to engage actively in the CBM initiative. Ms. Mathabo Mokoko, RSL Commissioner Client Services, thanked the United Kingdom for its continued financial assistance through the WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme. The workshop was attended by eleven border agencies including representatives from HOBA (Heads of Border Agencies), LBMS functional heads and the CBM legal working group.    

The workshop participants conducted a gap analysis on the context of CBM at the Maseru Bridge Border Post, the main border post with the highest volume of trade and passengers between Lesotho and South Africa. The outcome of the gap analysis with recommendations was submitted to HOBA for consideration.

In addition, the NTFC deliberations zoomed in on the importance of establishing a National Time Release Study (TRS) Technical Working Group to enable Lesotho to execute a national TRS as an important diagnostic tool from a whole-of-government approach assessing the end-to-end clearance process.

During the mission, the WCO team, which included experts from HMRC and Zambia Revenue Authority, also took the opportunity to visit the Maseru International Airport to observe operations of ACaDes (Air Cargo Declaration System), implemented with support from the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme. As a result of the Air Cargo streamlining reforms, the air cargo manifest is now submitted to RSL electronically by Air Link, the only airline operating at the airport, and the need for hard copies of the manifest has been eliminated.

The WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, financially supported by the United Kingdom’s His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), looks forward to continuing its Mercator partnership with RSL by providing capacity building and technical assistance in both TFA technical measures as well as organizational cross-cutting enablers.

For more information on the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, please see here.

For more information on WCO capacity building, please, contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.