Since Colombian Customs Administration is currently in the process of implementing a new IT support service for the submission of import, export and transit declarations, it has asked the World Customs Organization to assist with the evaluation of the adoption of the WCO Data Model.  For this purpose, the WCO organized a National Workshop on the WCO DM, held in Bogotá, from 26 to 30 November 2018, facilitated by two WCO DM experts from Netherlands and Uruguay, for the benefit of Customs officers and representatives of Customs and Single Window authorities of Chile, México and Peru.

The Workshop was opened by Mrs. Ingrid Magnolia Diaz Rincon, Director of Customs Management and in her opening remarks, Mrs. Diaz establish the commitment of the Administration to build a reliable, harmonized and standardized digital collaboration with all value chain stakeholders, both partner government agencies and private sectors, at the national, regional as well as international level.

The WCO accredited explained the WCO DM as the key instrument to achieve the goals established by the Colombian Customs Administration, enabling sharing and exchange of information with relevant stakeholders that are involved in cross border trade, particularly with Single Windows authorities.

Through the presentations provided during the Workshop, participants gained an understanding of the strategic value of compliance with the WCO DM and the core concept of the WCO DM. To familiarize participants with the WCO DM data elements, the participants were invited to undertake an exercise to map the data elements of their national forms with the WCO DM, by following the “4-step mapping methodology”, created by the WCO Secretariat

Finally, the WCO encouraged Colombian Customs to continue with this work to develop a National Information Package to reduce the complexity of Customs clearance process in general, and create a strong electronic interchange of information on regulatory data requirements with the National Single Window to provide greater facilitation for trade.