As part of its activities as World Customs Organization (WCO) Regional Customs Laboratory (RCL) for the Americas and Caribbean region, the Customs Laboratory of Peru (within SUNAT, Peru’s Customs and Tax Administration) organized its second webinar on “Physical-chemical and instrumental analysis of textile and organic products” on 4 and 5 November 2021.
The webinar was attended by more than 130 participants, mostly Customs chemists, from 21 WCO Members in the Americas and the Caribbean region.
The Deputy National Superintendent of Peruvian Customs, Ms. Marilú Llerena, the WCO Vice-Chair for the Americas and the Caribbean region, Mr. Werner Ovalle, and the WCO Director of Tariff and Trade Affairs, Mr. Konstantinos Kaiopoulos, participated in the opening ceremony.
During her opening remarks, Ms. Llerena highlighted the key role that Customs laboratories played in the verification and analysis of textile and organic products, in order to ensure correct tariff classification, valuation and efficient collection of Customs duties, as well as to contribute to fair competition and protection of society. She went on to express the commitment of the SUNAT Peru RCL to continue strengthening the capacities of Customs laboratory professionals in the Americas and the Caribbean, through training and cooperation at the regional and global levels.
The WCO Secretariat raised participants’ awareness of the Harmonized System (HS) 2022 Amendments related to the textile sector and explained some of the Notes to Section XI. Experts from the RCL Peru described the analytical techniques for the identification of textile fibres and fabrics and for the identification of textured and non-textured filaments. The experts also demonstrated how to perform quantitative analysis of organic solvents by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection and with flame ionization detection. Finally, the RCL experts explained the analytical techniques of nitrogen analysis using DUMAS analyser equipment, and of polymer analysis using FTIR photometry.
During the closing ceremony, Mr. Kaiopoulos congratulated the RCL Peru both on the excellent organization of the event and the quality of the presentations that would help enhance the analytical capacities of the region’s laboratories. He invited the region’s Customs chemists to participate actively in the upcoming session of the Scientific Sub-Committee in January 2022 and to propose future activities that could be organized by the RCLs.