Customs attends in WCO’s meetings in Brussels

Brussels: The General Authority of Customs (GAC) participated in the 139th and 140th meetings of World Customs Organisation (WCO) Council that convened in the organisation’s headquarters in Brussels on Thursday and continued for three days. 

Chairman of Qatar’s General Authority of Customs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Jamal chaired Qatar’s delegation participating in the three-day meetings.

The WCO meeting discussed a range of articulated themes pertaining to upgrading and modernising the customs operation, adopting the best standards in the field of securing and facilitating the supply chains in international trade such as digital customs, trade work, global competitiveness package, world customs network, capacity building report, Integrity Subcommittee report, in addition to a plethora of other topics. 

The meetings also addressed technical topics, including tariff, rules of origin and developments in the evaluation process of goods, in addition to a review of some matters related to the nomenclature and classifications of goods and merchandise, and Tariff and Trade Affairs Committees made presentations on customs valuation and the Harmonised System Committee.

Regarding the compliance and facilitation procedures and related matters, the reports of the relevant committees on the visualisation of the data of the new customs implementation network were discussed, in addition to reviews on the latest developments of the Policy Commission and submitting its recommendations to the Council for further consideration in order to take the appropriate decisions.

Al Jamal met with WCO Secretary-General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya on the sidelines of the Council’s activities. They discussed the accomplishments of the Customs Training Centre in Qatar. The GAC Chairman presented a model of Al Bayt Stadium to the WCO Secretary-General, which is where the opening ceremony of the FIFA  2022 is set to be held.