ABUJA: The launch of the World Customs Organisation’s (WCO) Mercator Programme in June 2014, the organisation has continued to advocate that customs administrations take a leading role in Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) implementation National Committees.
The mercator programme is aimed at assisting governments worldwide to implement trade facilitation measures expeditiously and in a harmonised manner by using core WCO instruments and tools such as the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC).
The programme is also aimed at ensuring connectivity at borders and along international trade supply chains in order to provide a consolidated platform for advancing the smooth flow of goods being traded around the world.
With a wealth of expertise and experience in global customs technical assistance and capacity building, including a network of accredited experts at its disposal, in addition to a comprehensive donor engagement mechanisms, the programme provides tailor-made support for implementing trade facilitation measures. To this end, the WCO has delivered more than 60 capacity building, technical assistance, and training activities in support of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) TFA implementation. The WCO’s article 23.2 of the TFA requires that “each member shall establish and or maintain a national committee on trade facilitation or designate an existing mechanism to facilitate both domestic coordination and implementation of the provisions of the TFA.”
Interestingly, Nigeria is found to be one of the 23 countries, out of the 66 customs administrations which are members of the WCO with established TFA national committee as determined from a survey conducted by the organisation. In the survey, the WCO requested members to indicate if they had either established a national committee or designated an existing body to carry out this role. According to a statement on the WCO’s website, at least 21 out of the 23 members that have established or maintained the national committees indicated that customs has taken a leading role as chair, co-chair, vice chair or coordinator of the TFA national committee.
Speaking during the WCO Permanent Technical Committee last week, representative of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr Azarema Abdulkadir, shared NCS administration’s experience of establishing a TFA national committee and how the agency is taking a leading role as vice chair. According to Abdulkadir, Nigeria’s National Task Force Committee, which was established in 2002 for the negotiations of the TFA, has now transitioned to become the TFA national committee. He pointed out that the committee has, among other things, made a significant impact for the trading community by building awareness of the WTO TFA and its objectives. He also noted that the committee has further enhanced cooperation among government agencies for common processing of cargo clearance documents.
The secretary-general of the WCO, Kunio Mikuriya, who lauded the benefits of customs administrations, taking a lead role in the committees, maintained that it was important for customs administrations to take leading roles in the committees because the TFA provisions falls within their primary responsibility.
“As most of the TFA provisions are related to the customs, it is vital that the customs, as the key implementing agency, take a leading role in the national committees on trade facilitation to ensure adequate implementation of the TFA,” the WCO boss stated.
Meanwhile, it is expected that the WCO mercator programme would result to increased global interconnectivity, expand trade volumes and enhance economic competitiveness by providing tailor-made assistance for implementing trade facilitation measures. The programme provides a consolidated platform for coordinating needs and priorities of all stakeholders based on a long-standing history of cooperation between the WTO, other international organisations and the private sector. Of critical importance is the programme’s provision for developing and least developed countries (LDCs) to request and receive tailor-made technical assistance and capacity building according to their own needs for implementing trade facilitation measures, while also providing necessary assistance to assess their needs with the WCO’s expertise.
For donor institutions on the other hand, the mercator programme is beneficial to them by way of ensuring tangible and evidence-based solutions which satisfy their interests with regards to the WCO’s extensive experience in managing technical assistance and capacity building projects along results-based management principles. For customs administrations and all other government agencies of the WCO member countries, the programme provides the platform to learn about existing WCO tools and practices of other member administrations as well as the experiences of various measures for trade facilitation. Consequently, it reduces the risk of a non-standardised approach which may lead to divergent implementation practices. Furthermore, the programme will contribute to predictable and modernised trade procedures and reduce trade costs and clearance times at borders much to the benefit of the private sector.
Overall, the mercator programme matches needs of recipient members and interested donor institutions, taking into consideration the results of WCO, WTO and/or other organisations’ needs assessments as well as the results from self-assessments and Time Release Studies (TRS). The programme encompasses all relevant WCO instruments and tools in support of trade facilitation, such as the RKC, SAFE Framework of Standards, Time Release Study and WCO Data Model. The WCO has called on developing countries and LDCs to submit their requests for assistance to its capacity building directorate at any time or request the assistance of the WCO Regional Capacity Building Offices (ROCBs) in this respect even as interested development partners and donor institutions have been asked to contact the WCO office of external relations with regard to further cooperation, including financial support for technical assistance and capacity building projects.
The WCO has said it will develop the tailor-made technical assistance projects together with donor institutions and recipient members, adding that it would ensure results-based management support activities performance measurement as part of the monitoring.
