Pacific Island Members discuss how to improve the facilitation and control of small and low-value shipments

A Sub-regional Workshop on cross-border e-commerce was held from 16 to 19 January 2023 at the WCO Regional Training Centre (RTC) in Suva, Fiji. The objective of the Workshop was to raise awareness of the WCO tools and initiatives aimed at facilitating and securing cross-border e-commerce and to discuss good practices and challenges in this area.

The event was organized with the financial support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of China (CCF China) and benefitted from the participation of twelve Customs officials from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu. During the last day of the Workshop, the participants attending on-site were joined by some representatives of designated postal operators from the beneficiary countries for an online presentation by the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

Throughout the event, the Workshop facilitators provided detailed explanations of the 16 standards of the WCO Framework of Standards on Cross-Border E-Commerce and the tools available to support their implementation. Dedicated sessions discussed the WCO Immediate Release Guidelines and the tools developed jointly with the UPU, such as the WCO-UPU Postal Customs Guide and the WCO-UPU Guidelines on the exchange of electronic advance data between designated operators and Customs administrations.

The six beneficiary Members delivered presentations focusing on revenue collection, facilitation and control of cross-border e-commerce, which were the basis for valuable exchanges of information on challenges and possible solutions.

During his closing remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service, Mark Dixon, highlighted the opportunity provided by the Workshop to enhance cooperation in the sub-region on the important topic of cross-border e-commerce and expressed his readiness to support future sub-regional events at the WCO RTC in Fiji.