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officials of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA)
headed by the Commissioner General Mr Yankuba Darboe accompanied by the
commissioner of customs, Director of Finance and other experts within GRA,
recently returned to The Gambia after attending the 129th /130th sessions of
the Customs Co-operation Council meeting
from 6 to 8 July 2017 in Brussels, Belgium.
The
conference was part of series of annual conferences of Customs Co-operation
Council held at the World Customs Organization headquarters in Brussels.
The
delegation also attended the WCO Global Transit conference held at the WCO
headquarters on 10 and 11 July immediately after the council sessions.
According
to the Gambian delegates, the conference provided a unique platform for customs
administrations, governments, international organizations and the private
sector to exchange views and experiences regarding efficient and effective
transit regimes.
The
conference also was geared towards addressing a wide range of topics such as
bridging Asia and Europe, accelerating regional economic development in Africa,
the Americas and other regions and overcoming the challenges faced by
landlocked countries.
According
to the Gambian delegate the deliberation of the agenda was focused on the
following point: the report of the policy commission, comment by the
chairperson of the council, and approval of the report of the secretary general
of the World Customs Organization.
The
Gambia delegate further reported that in a brief speech of the opening,
chairperson urged the council to take note of the issues that were reflected on
the report, which were due for discussion such as trade facilitation agreement
(TFA), which should be the main priority for customs administration, simply
because 90 per cent of the TFA are customs which include security.
For
his part, the Secretary General of the WCO spoke about the budget of the World
Customs Organization commenting that they were operating in a sound footing
with a current reserve of about 11 million Euros.
He
also spoke about the areas of the WCO under the trade facilitation, E-commerce,
security, customs and taxes cooperation, financial and performance measurement.
Regarding
to the trade facilitation agreement, the WCO has provided support to harmonize
in implementation and there is a TFA working group which are all geared towards
helping institutions to implement this agreement through conducting capacity
building mission. It was also disclosed that WCO conducted about 320 capacities
to 70 countries during the past three years.
The
Gambia delegation also mentioned that E- Commerce was among the key issues
discussed which was all about buying goods in the internet as electronic
commerce.
During
the conference the contribution of WCO was among the agenda, and it was also mentioned
that the WCO has also been assisting customs to strengthen their facilitation
through capacity building, and through E-Commerce, by simplifying the procedure
and also helping customs administration to collect more revenue and maintain
safety and security.
He
stressed the importance of customs and taxes cooperation in bringing custom
taxes together for domestic resources mobilization.
On
security the fight against terrorism was a particular reference. In this regard
customs administrations were advised on the type of cargo and passengers they
take to other destinations.
According
to the Gambian delegate, there was side meeting that were conducted for the
regional west and central Africa, and the main agenda was to look at the two
current vacancies at the level of the WCO; that is the Deputy Commissioner
General of the World Customs Organization whose position is going to be vacant
and it needs to be filled and also the position of the WCO current chairman.
Regarding
the status of the regional offices, the Gambian delegate said it was agreed
that the regional body should be autonomous because we have the regional body
in different countries.
In
this case the Gambian delegate urged other member countries to come to The
Gambia and learn from GRA’s best practices and share expertise and experience
for effective implementation of revenue mobilization.
During
the conference, interconnection transits were also discussed, trying to connect
customs administrations within the region to share transit interconnection.