The 24th Meeting of the Revised Kyoto Convention Management Committee (RKC/MC) was held from 01 to 05 March. Over 130 Participants joined the virtual meeting via the KUDO platform.
It was mainly devoted to Step 2 under the four-step framework of the comprehensive review of the RKC. The ‘four-step framework’ is an approach comprising submission of proposals and development of recommendations as Step 1; assessment of developed recommendations against the RKC, its Guidelines and other existing WCO instruments and tools as Step 2; consideration of developed recommendations against agreed criteria for possible amendment to the RKC as Step 3, and development of amendment proposals in line with Article 6 and 15 of the RKC as Step 4. The four-step framework was agreed by the RKC/MC during its 22nd Meeting.
The Secretariat provided an update and the first draft of the Step 2 assessment undertaken so far with the support of interested Contracting parties and Observers. Most of the discussed concepts were related to COVID-19 such as relief consignment, e-payment, postal procedures, passengers, use of IT and technology, etc. The RKC/MC has conducted a very painstaking task and consequently decided which recommended proposals should be dealt with in the RKC, its guidelines, any other existing WCO instruments and tools or under a new instrument or tool.
In his opening remarks, the WCO’s Director of the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate expressed his satisfaction with the increase in the number of Contracting Parties from 124 to 127 since the last meeting held in December 2020. He warmly welcomed Liberia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as new RKC Contracting parties.
Over what the WCO considers to be a very productive five-day meeting, the RKC/MC discussed how to progress the work in an inclusive manner considering the contribution of Observers in the review of the Convention. The RKC/MC also discussed pre-recorded presentations by the abovementioned new Contracting parties on their accession procedures.
The next RKC/MC will be from 07 to 11 June.
Story by: Riaan de Lange