General Authority of Customs participated in the 139th and 140th meetings of World Customs Organization (WCO) Council that convened in the organization's headquarters in Brussels last Thursday and continued for three days.

HE the Chairman of Qatar's General Authority of Customs Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Jamal chaired Qatar's delegation participating in these meetings.

The WCO meeting discussed a range of articulated themes pertaining to upgrading and modernizing the customs operation, adopting the best standards in the field of securing and facilitating the supply chains in international trade such as digital customs, trade work, global competitiveness package, world customs network, capacity building report, Integrity Subcommittee report, in addition to a plethora of other topics.

The meetings also addressed technical topics, including tariff, rules of origin and developments in the evaluation process of goods, in addition to a review of some matters related to the nomenclature and classifications of goods and merchandise, and Tariff and Trade Affairs Committees made presentations on customs valuation and the Harmonized System Committee.

Regarding the compliance and facilitation procedures and related matters, the reports of the relevant committees on the visualization of the data of the new customs implementation network were discussed, in addition to reviews on the latest developments of the Policy Commission and submitting its recommendations to the Council for further consideration in order to take the appropriate decisions.

HE Al Jamal met with WCO Secretary-General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya on the sidelines of the Council's activities. They discussed the accomplishments of the Customs Training Center in the State of Qatar.

HE Al Jamal presented a model of Al Bayt Stadium to Dr. Mikuriya, which is where the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is set to be held.

These meetings would evidently contribute to advancing the customs operation and optimizing its capabilities, in addition to coming up with recommendations to boost the mutual cooperation and coordination among the countries in line with the standards of WCO.