Under the sponsorship of the Chinese Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF-China), a regional workshop to assist the English-speaking members of the WCO’s East and Southern Africa (ESA) and West and Central Africa (WCA) regions was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 25 to 28 July 2016.
The workshop focused on the uniform interpretation and application and the timely implementation of the Harmonised System Nomenclature 2017 Edition as well as the improvement of fair, efficient and effective revenue collection. Twenty-eight officials coming from 18 Customs administrations (Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and the secretariats of the East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) participated in this workshop. Experts from the WCO secretariat, the Uganda Revenue Authority and China Customs facilitated the workshop.
Comprehensive explanations on the scope of the HS 2017 amendments were presented, including the background to their development, with a view to ensuring the uniform interpretation and application of the HS Nomenclature 2017 Edition by Customs administrations in the WCO ESA and WCA Regions.
The materials developed under the WCO revenue package were also presented to respond to members’ needs in respect of fair, efficient and effective revenue collection.