Dear friends,
From 26 to 28 June 2023, the World Customs Organization (WCO, Organization) is holding the WCO Knowledge Academy on Customs and Trade 2023. A three-day academy focusing on the development of technical skills for Customs and Trade practitioners.
The WCO mentions, that this initiative brings together experts in Customs matters to meet the demands of a complex international and cross-border trading system. Business professionals, Customs managers and administrators, border agency officials, international organization representatives and academia will benefit from the interactive discussions on pertinent topics in the Customs environment.
This year, responding to the demand of Members and the private sector, the WCO is introducing a new format for the Academy. The event will start with a dynamic and interactive discussion between the participants and the WCO-management, led by the Secretary General and supported by the Deputy Directors of the Tariff and Trade Affairs directorate, the Facilitation sub-directorate, the Compliance and Enforcement sub-directorate, and the Capacity building directorate. Participants may share their questions before the session or interact with the leaders of the WCO on any topic they want to address during the session.
The training courses will be led by technical experts and will provide Customs and Business practitioners with bespoke sessions on HS, such as “HS – practical classification – working through examples” or “HS 2022 – understanding and using legal notes”, as well as on Origin, and Valuation. Participants will also get be able to listen to updates on the work of the WCO on Green Customs and Circular economy, its Data Strategy and Data Model, as well as on Gender equality and diversity.
The Academy is open to all interested participants. Registration is free for two participant from each WCO Member administration. Additional participants from Member administrations, and non-WCO Member participants are subject to a fee. Private sector are welcomed to participate in all sessions for a fee of 200 euro. All sessions will be interpreted in English and French.
The program of the event can be found here.
In my opinion, the WCO Knowledge Academy – 2023 is a specialized event, since the main issues are the Harmonized System and value, as well as the WCO Data Model. Plus issues of green customs and gender equality in customs. I believe that the last two topics are important but not basic in custom sense. For example, the WCO Compendium on Gender Equality and Diversity in Customs, the 2022 WCO International Conference on Green Customs, and the UN Green Customs Guide are publicly available. And a man can easily make acquaintance with them.
My personal experience shows that at the moment only a small number of experts in customs are familiar with the WCO basic legal instruments and tools, and they are rarely referred to them in everyday activities. One of the reasons is the lack analytics and translation into native language (for example, only 15% of WCO tools have been translated by Organization into Russian).
In my personal opinion, such events should cover the entire spectrum of the WCO instruments and tools with an emphasis on the practical aspects of their application in modern customs.
In any case, the WCO Knowledge Academy – 2023 is a great opportunity to get acquainted with the activities of the international customs organization and its legal instruments and tools.
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10.05.2023