Responding to a request from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the WCO and the WCO Regional Office for Capacity Building Asia/Pacific (ROCB A/P) conducted a training workshop on the WCO Time Release Study (TRS) tool in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 21-22 August 2013. The workshop was attended by 26 participants from the Customs control departments of five Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) countries, namely Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The workshop was funded by the ADB.

The TRS is a tool for reviewing clearance procedures by measuring the average time taken between the arrival of goods and their release. This helps to identify problem areas and potential corrective actions to increase the efficiency of border controls. The use of TRS and other measurement strategies enables Customs to improve trader compliance and trade facilitation.

The objective of the Tashkent workshop was to provide guidance to participants on how to deploy the TRS to improve trade facilitation and to strengthen Customs cooperation between CAREC members. WCO experts presented WCO instruments and tools, a TRS overview, purpose and methodology, the development of the process map, work plan and timetable, and the use of WCO TRS software.

This workshop also provided participants with an opportunity to exchange information and experience on their Customs procedures and use of TRS implementation. Uzbekistan Customs introduced the results of their TRS conducted in 2011 and 2012, which provided useful information for the other participating countries. Participants agreed to discuss TRS usage at the next CAREC Customs Cooperation Committee meeting in September in Astana, Kazakhstan.