On Friday, 15 May 2020, as part of the actions taken by the World Customs Organization (WCO) in response to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the WCO Secretariat launched its first document-based meeting.

In view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, taking into consideration that international travel will very likely remain restricted over the next several months, the WCO Secretariat has focused on exploring alternative arrangements that would allow the WCO to continue advancing its work. 

The new working arrangements for the 227th/228th Sessions of the Permanent Technical Committee (PTC), which were originally scheduled to take place from 27 to 30 April 2020, came as a result of a consultation process that the Secretariat undertook with the Council Chairperson and Vice-Chairpersons, as well as with Members.

A two-phased “document-based” PTC meeting, with a shorter and more feasible agenda is taking place on the WCO CLiKC! platform. The meeting started on 15 May 2020 and will be concluded through 3 July 2020 to allow for the PTC work to move forward, while the items/documents for which a consensus cannot be reached, will be deferred to the next physical/virtual meeting of the PTC.

There are already more than a hundred PTC delegates from Members, international organizations and the private sector that have enrolled in the CLIKC! PTC group and have been providing their input.

It is important to note that, once the PTC delegates have registered on the CLiKC! platform and have also registered for the PTC meeting, the Secretariat enrolls them into the CLiKC! PTC group, allowing them access to the document-based PTC meeting.

There is still an opportunity to register here and take part in this first document-based meeting of the PTC and provide your comments by 29 of May for ‘A’ items and by 12 of June for ‘B’ and ‘C’ items on the agenda.

Please follow the link to the WCO PTC webpage here for further information.