From 22 to 26 July 2024, the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority and the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries Secretariat (CPLP) hosted an Intermediate Workshop for Customs officials from Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa on the Harmonized System and Commodity Classification, in Lisbon, Portugal. The workshop was delivered by one expert from the WCO, one WCO accredited expert from Brazil and two experts from Portugal, within the framework of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System in Africa (HS-Africa Programme), funded by the European Union.
The activity is part of the comprehensive package of assistance to support the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa on competency development on the Harmonized System and classification. It was preceded by two activities, namely: the meeting on the implementation of the HS 2022 in July 2023 in Cape Verde, and the Study Visit to the 73rd session of the WCO Harmonized System Committee in March 2024 in Brussels.
In her opening remarks, Mrs. Paula Raposo, Deputy General Director of Customs, thanked the EU-WCO HS-Africa Programme and the WCO for the ongoing support to the Portuguese-speaking countries. She highlighted the importance of developing trainers who can disseminate knowledge on the HS and strengthen this important area in the respective Portuguese language administrations. She also highlighted the Programme’s support for translation and interpretation into Portuguese in HS sessions at WCO as a factor of integration, inclusion and facilitation of trade.
The workshop was attended by officers from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe, and officers from the headquarters and the Customs Laboratory of the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority. The workshop delivered an intermediate training on theoretical and practical aspects of the HS in the areas of agriculture, medicaments versus food products, base metals, textiles, machinery and high-tech products, and ensured that the participants understood the principles of tariff classification of goods in the HS.
Following the WCO Strategic Guidance on Competency Development on Tariff Classification, the workshop was preceded by the HS Foundation e-learning. Participants worked on several case studies where they classified specific products which presented complexities in classification.
Following the workplan established for capacity building with the CPLP Secretariat and Portuguese-speaking African countries, the HS-Africa Programme shall convene an HS advanced workshop, followed by a training of trainers’ workshop aiming at a possible accreditation by the WCO on HS in Portuguese language.
At the end of the workshop, Mrs. Paula Raposo, thanked the WCO and the European Union for the continued support to the Portuguese-speaking countries work on building capacity for Harmonized System classification and expressed her enthusiasm to the prospects for further collaboration and partnership.