On 17 September the World Customs Organization (WCO) Working Group on the Comprehensive Review of the Revised Kyoto Convention (WGRKC) held its first meeting in Brussels.
Based on the recommendation made by the Revised Kyoto Convention Management Committee (RKC/MC) at its 18th Meeting in May 2018, the June 2018 Policy Commission approved the setting up of the WGRKC and its Terms of Reference (ToR), recognising the need to ensure that the RKC remained the blueprint for modern and efficient Customs procedures in the 21st Century.
Over 70 delegates representing around 50 WCO Members actively participated in the strategic discussions on the key issues for a comprehensive review of the RKC. The intensive discussions focused mainly on the future RKC structure, and on gaps and needs in order to incorporate recent developments with respect to WCO instruments/tools and members’ best practices. Delegates raised several essential issues requiring in-depth discussion, including:(I) the importance of the RKC’s role for modern and efficient Customs procedures, while addressing the need to maintain the right balance between trade facilitation and ensuring security; (ii) the need to reflect the extensive use of electronic data submission, rather than paper documents, throughout Customs procedures as a whole; (iii) the significance and strengths of the binding nature of the RKC, recognising the need for an embedded and periodical review mechanism; (iv) the necessity for a robust implementation mechanism, supported by technical assistance and capacity building utilising the WCO’s expertise; and (v) the importance of leveraging legal support from the legal divisions of member customs administrations in order to develop proposals.
Given the scale of the comprehensive review work, it is vital that the WGRKC conduct the task in an efficient and time-bound manner. The WGRKC adopted a work plan and established three sub-groups, as laid down in the ToR. It was agreed that the Secretariat would invite all WCO Members to submit their proposals to the WGRKC and that these sub-groups would work in parallel, via the CliKC! platform, to start discussions based on the proposals.