Newspress

Around 20 experts from Member Customs Administrations and the Asian Development Bank gathered in Faridabad, India from 8 to 10 January 2019 for a regional workshop on transit for selected Members of the Asia-Pacific region. The event was organized with the financial support of the Chinese Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF China) and was hosted by the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs of India.

The workshop agenda covered all sections of the WCO Transit Guidelines launched in July 2017. One of the workshop sessions discussed transit by rail and the WCO initiatives in the area of Customs-Railways cooperation. In each workshop session, the WCO set the scene by presenting the guiding principles for the establishment of efficient and effective transit regimes as outlined in the various sections of the WCO Transit Guidelines and the participants shared and discussed good practices, challenges and measures for further improvement of the various aspects of transit. Highly informative presentations were delivered by the Asian Development Bank and the Customs administrations of Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

The workshop concluded with outlining strategic areas in which the Members of the Asia-Pacific region would focus their efforts in view of enhancing their transit regimes.

The transit workshop for selected Members of the WCO Asia-Pacific region was the fifth in a series of regional events organized by the WCO with the objective of promoting the implementation of the WCO Transit Guidelines and the establishment by Members of efficient and effective transit regimes in their territories.