PHOTO: Amb. Isaac Nyenabo
Liberia’s Brussels Mission through Ambassador Dr. Isaac W. Nyenabo II deposited two ratified instruments on behalf of the Government of Liberia to the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels.
According to the Information Ministry in Monrovia, Amb. Nyenabo also held a bilateral meeting with Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, WCO Secretary-General.
The Government of Liberia last year 2020 ratified two custom instruments, The Revised KYOTO Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs procedures RKc, and The Nairobi Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance for the Prevention, Investigation, and Repression of Custom offenses (Nairobi Convention).
The Head of Mission, H.E Ambassador Isaac W. Nyenabo today formally notified the Secretary-General that the Republic of Liberia has acceded to the International Convention on the simplification and harmonization of Customs procedures, done at Kyoto 26-June-1999 and amended in 2006 as well as the Nairobi Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance, a dispatch from Brussels quoted.
During the bilateral meeting after the deposit, the Ambassador elaborated on several issues that the KYOTO convention intends to address, transparency and predictability of custom actions, standardization, and simplification of the goods declaration and supporting documents, simplified procedures for authorized persons, maximum use of information technology, minimum necessary customs control to ensure compliance with regulations amongst other things.
The Ambassador further lamented on the Nairobi Declaration and why it is so important with the aim at affording parties’ mutual assistance with a view of preventing, investigating, and repressing customs offenses and as well as share assistance by customs administration who are party to the convention.
Ambassador Nyenabo further stress H.E The President, Dr. George M. Weah continues commitment to multilateralism and collective global adherence to protocols. H.E the Ambassador informed Dr. Mikuriya that due to the current pandemic, and considering the travel restriction, a full delegation that would have included Custom Authority was unable to make the full notification.
For His part, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya extended his appreciation to H.E The President of Liberia, the Legislature of Liberia, and the People of Liberia for acceding to these two very important instruments. He, however, thank H.E Ambassador for the formal notification and deposit, stating that the WCO enjoys good relationships with Liberia’s Mission at the EU and Liberia customs authority.
The World Customs Organization was established in 1952 as the custom Co-operation council and currently constitutes 183 custom authorities, the organization main objective is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of custom Administration, provides guidance, foster exchange information between custom administration as well as govern framework and conventions that facilitate and secure the free flow of international trade.
Liberia begins member on Jan 7th, 1975, and has since been engaged through several partnership and cooperation, ranging from, import and export traffic,
Modernization and classification of tariff work, Valuation of customs infrastructure and classification, strengthening cooperation between parties involved in clearance of relief consignment, coding systems, and other international best practices.
It can also be recalled that at the request of the Liberia Revenue Authority, The WCO conducted a mission in Liberia with the purpose of establishing a set of activities that would provide tailor-made technical assistance and other capacity-building activities that would strengthen LRA technical assistance. H.E, Ambassador Nyenabo was accompanied by Mr. Senve Darlington Tehmeh, Minister-Counselor- Public Diplomacy.