The World Customs Organisation (WCO) on 04 September announced that, under the auspices of WCO-Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Connect Project, a workshop took place from 13 to 16 August in Johannesburg and successfully finalised the training packages for the SACU Preferred Trader Programme (PTP).
The development of the SACU PTP training modules was facilitated by regional experts from SACU member states, with inputs and quality assurance provided by the WCO and SACU secretariats. As a follow-up to a WCO-SACU Connect project mission delivered in December 2017, and resulting from this four-day intensive working session, PTP risk management and audit training modules were successfully finalised and adopted by SACU member states.
As part of building sustainable national preferred trader programmes, the WCO-SACU Connect Project is actively supporting the region in building tools and enhancing skills that will ensure a common approach in the accreditation programmes. The approach used by the project will enable replication of the regional instruments at national level.
In the following weeks, and as complementary efforts to the present mission, an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) validation workshop including supply chain management training will be held in Lesotho, with a view to enhancing validation skills applied to SACU PTP programmes. It is envisaged that each member state will have acquired relevant tools that will assist in building a sustainable preferred trader programme.
