World Customs Organisation Head visits GRA
Contact between the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) reached a high point in March when the Organisation’s Secretary-General, Ambassador Kunio Mikuriya paid a two-day visit.
A release from the GRA yesterday said that Mikuriya, who has been serving as the WCO Secretary General since 2009, was in the company of Sharon Davies, Technical Attaché, Capacity Building Directorate when he met CommissionerGeneral of the GRA Godfrey Statia and senior officials in Customs Excise and Trade Operations on March 19th and 20th.
The release said that the two sides discussed national and regional support to implement the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement which Guyana ratified in November 2015.
Day two of the visit saw the SecretaryGeneral being guided on a tour of key areas in Customs Operations such as the Entry Processing Unit, wharves. He used the opportunity to interact with Customs Officers stationed at these points, giving them guidance on best practices.
Mikuriya, the release said, also met participants in the ongoing Customs Officer III Training Programme where he delivered remarks highlighting the importance of the Harmonised System (HS) training which was ongoing at the time. The HS was developed by the WCO to standardise tariff codes in accordance with international best practices.
In February this year, the WCO completed a Mercator Programme Scoping Mission to Guyana that identified key areas of Customs operations where GRA could benefit from WCO’s assistance.