January 22, 2020
The World Customs Organization (WCO) held a workshop focusing on modernization and standardization of customs laboratories last week.
Representatives of customs laboratories from eight Member administrations (Bulgaria, Canada, China, the EU, Japan, Korea, the Russian Federation and the U.S.) and two international organizations (the International Olive Council (IOC) and UN Industrial Development Organization) made presentations during the workshop.
According to the WCO "the Workshop dealt with a variety of subjects that would be extremely important and useful to all Member administrations for modernization and standardization of their Customs laboratories, which included challenges, future actions and updates on the analysis techniques/methods being used for the purposes of HS classification, identification of trade in controlled goods or drugs for the protection of society. Delegates had a chance to conduct organoleptic tasting of various kind of olive oil specified in the accepted 2022 HS new subheadings."
The WCO will hold similar Workshops during future sessions as a regular Agenda Item to discuss specific themes and topics of common interest among the Customs laboratories.
Source: WCO