The 2nd Meeting of the Working Group on the Use of Additional Languages at the WCO was held on 5 March 2018 at the WCO Headquarters.
The Group comprises representatives of the Arabic, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish speaking countries, together with the largest contributors to the WCO budget and the Chairpersons of the Audit and Finance Committees.
During the meeting, Members identified priority areas for interpretation and translation of WCO working body meetings and documents.
The Working Group reached agreement on the way forward, namely to submit a proposal to the relevant WCO policy bodies to launch a pilot project to bring additional languages into the activities of the WCO working bodies. The project will be based on the set of WCO working bodies indicated by each language group according to the results of their study, and will ultimately provide solutions for interpretation and translation for the relevant meetings. The pilot project will concentrate on the provision of interpretation at the key meetings identified by the four language groups.
The important decisions reached by the Group pave the way for increasing Members’ involvement in the WCO and also provide both continuity and progress in this important domain.