The WCO ESA Governing Council Meeting, hosted by the Lesotho Revenue Authority was held in Maseru, Lesotho on the 26th and 27th May, 2016
During the opening remarks Advocate Realeboha Mathaba, Ag. Commissioner General, LRA, welcomed the participants to Lesotho and urged them to use the opportunity to reflect on the achievements and challenges of the region and how to utilize the opportunities presented to mitigate them. He thanked the WCO and development partners for the support given to Lesotho. He highlighted the critical roles played by the TFA and urged the region to utilize tools availed by the WCO to support the region, and uphold best practices in support of trade.
Mr. Jed Michaletos, ESA Regional Vice Chair thanked the government and people of Lesotho for their hospitality and hosting. He highlighted current issues, including the growth in global trade, trade flows (and ways of mitigating slow growth in the Region through the implementation of the TFA), illicit trade, commercial fraud, terrorism and Illicit Financial Flows. He expressed the need to find plausible ways of improving intra-African trade and avoiding duplication between RECs. He also called on the region to fully utilize the available WCO tools. He informed the meeting that the forth Global AEO meeting would be hosted by Uganda in 2018 and called on the region to support the Member for a successful hosting of the meeting. Other matters he referred to include; development of the regional strategy, and the WCO ‘Digital Customs’ theme of 2016.
Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, WCO Secretary General, expressed gratitude for the excellent hosting of the GC by Lesotho. He highlighted the importance of Customs supporting international trade and regional integration, and their supporting tools. He wished the meeting fruitful deliberations on all the issues for discussion.
Honourable Minister Tsoeu Mokeretla, Chief Guest and Minister for Public Works and Ag. Minister for Finance (Lesotho), expressed the appreciation of the government and people of Lesotho for hosting the meeting and welcomed all the participants to Lesotho. He highlighted the importance of trade facilitation, the need to comply with international regulations and underscored the place of Customs in implementing policies. He referred to the ever-changing environment and the dynamism of international bodies such as the WCO and WTO. He emphasized on the need for proper border coordination mechanisms and information sharing in light of emerging issues relating to security among others. He acknowledged the support received from the WCO and other development partners in support of various matters including the WTO TFA, Authorized Economic Operator programme, Digital Customs, Single Window, and Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) among others.