Under the framework of the EU-WCO HS Africa Programme, funded by the European Union, the World Customs Organization (WCO), in partnership with the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GATF), through GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation), held a national training of trainers’ workshop on HS for Tunisia Customs, in Tunis, Tunisia, from 19 to 23 February 2024.

Building on the knowledge and skills acquired by the participants through their successful completion of the WCO e-learning modules and on-site training at intermediate and advance levels on HS from May 2023 onwards, the workshop focused on further honing the technical competencies on tariff classification, enhancing the participants’ competencies in the areas of adult learning principles, training material design and development, training delivery and evaluation.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Asma el Hamzaoui, GATF Project coordinator for the advance ruling project in Tunisia, thanked Tunisia Customs, the EU-WCO HS Africa Programme and the WCO for the conducive partnership throughout the project.

The interactive workshop offered the participants a unique opportunity to not only design and develop their own training material on specialized HS topics but also to deliver them as training sessions during the workshop. The participants were able to improve both their HS competencies and their training skills and received feedback from the experts.

In line with the national training strategy and sustainable training approach developed with the GATF and the WCO, the new trainers will form part of the Tunisia Customs Administration’s pool of experts and that will be used both for the assessment of advance rulings’ requests as well as for training of Customs staff, including for new intakes, and private stakeholders on tariff classification.

Mr. Richard Chopra, GATF Lead Expert on Customs Modernization and Trade Facilitation, encouraged Tunisia Customs to further apply the technical and training competencies acquired throughout the series of trainings co-delivered with the WCO and invited Tunisia Customs to pursue the partnership with the EU-WCO HS and RoO Africa Programme.

In his concluding remarks on behalf of Tunisia Customs, Colonel Major Arbi Laffert, Senior Manager in the HS Directorate and Project Director for the Advance Ruling mechanism in Tunisia, expressed his gratitude to the GATF for the quality of the support with the implementation of the advance ruling mechanism in Tunisia and the WCO for the provision of high-calibre HS expertise throughout the training sessions delivered since May 2023. Mr. Laffert further indicated that his Customs Administration, thanks to the GATF and WCO support, is more than adequately equipped to enhance trade facilitate and predictability in Tunisia through the upcoming launch and operationalization of the advance ruling mechanism in Tunisia.

For further information, please contact hs@wcoomd.org.