The 211th/212th Sessions of the WCO Permanent Technical Committee held on 2 and 3 March 2016 brought together over 170 delegates from over 71 Member administrations and 24 Observer entities. The newly appointed WCO Director of Compliance and Facilitation Ms. Ana Hinojosa welcomed the delegates stressing that Trade Facilitation continued to be an important priority for the WCO and therefore the PTC needed to explore its broad aspects, especially in terms of Custtoms engaging with other government entities.
The Meeting focused among others on many aspects of Digital Customs and identified new avenues for promoting the WCO Data Model for the purpose of achieving a whole-of-border approach in automating cross-border procedures. The Meeting endorsed the Handbook for Globally Networked Customs and supported the Supplement Addition to the Single Window Compendium. The PTC shared experiences on data security standards, modernization of management through the use of ICT and Single Window solutions. It further discussed e-commerce, Customs Brokers, performance measurement and the impact of 3D printing, as well as of drones on the Customs and trade environment.
After concluding the 211th/212th Sessions, the PTC held a Joint Session with the Enforcement Committee on 4 March. The Meeting welcomed the opening remarks by the WCO Secretary General Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, as well as the keynote speech by Mr. Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD. This prepared the ground for a discussion on strengthening cooperation between Customs and Tax Administrations, especially in terms of exchange of information. Digital Customs including Big Data, Data Mining and Analytics was another item on the agenda which brought together WCO Secretariat research on the topic and private sector experience in the field. It was clear that there was still a lot of grounds to explore how Customs could further benefit from the use of Big Data and related cutting-edge solutions. Finally, the Joint Session discussed Advanced Passenger Information (API)/Passenger Name Record (PNR) and welcomed the draft Guidelines on the Use of PNR.