On 03 May 2017 the World Customs Organisation (WCO) notified that it had organised an Experts Group Workshop on Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) at the WCO Headquarters from 24 to 28 April. All 6 regions of the WCO were represented with 10 Customs officers present for the meetings and an additional 6 officers participating remotely utilising the WCO CLiKC! platform. All 16 officers were able to provide their knowledge and expertise towards the revision of the WCO PCA Guidelines. The Workshop was funded by WCO Reserved Funds.
At the June 2016 Council Sessions, Revenue Package Action Plan Phase III was adopted and it was directed that the Guidelines for Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) should be revised by the end of June 2018. It was further agreed at the Working Group of Revenue Compliance and Fraud that the WCO Secretariat establish an ad hoc Expert Group on PCA which will work on the revision. During the Working Group, the Secretariat requested that Members send eligible officers to this Workshop to provide input to the revision. The Administrations of Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Japan, Jordan, Liberia, Mauritius, Peru, Tanzania and United States of America contributed to this initiative.
Taking into consideration the growing importance of PCA as part of the WTO TFA (Article 7.5) which entered into force last February, the Secretariat intends to update the Guidelines which constitute the backbone of the WCO’s initiatives on PCA.
The Workshop was a mutually beneficial exercise; it assisted the WCO in revising Guidelines and enabled the participants to improve their knowledge and techniques by exchanging information among participants from all the regions of the WCO. During the five-day Meeting, participants actively shared their knowledge and experiences through presentations and group discussions.
The Secretariat will continue working on the outcomes of this Workshop with the next Workshop planned in the latter half of this year. This allows the experts time to scrutinise the draft tool before the Secretariat presents it to relevant WCO Working Groups and Committees.