As part of the work of the Customs Joint Committee of the Agadir Agreement, the Directors General of the Member States' customs departments held a meeting in Amman February 18
th , 2015.
Mr. Zouhair CHORFI, Director General of the Moroccan Department of Customs and Excise took part in this event alongside his counterparts in other member countries namely Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia.
This meeting was characterized by the participation of Mr. Kunio MIKURIYA, Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) who attended to bring the support of this organization to the Technical Unit of the Agadir Agreement in particular, by the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding between the two sides.
Intensive discussions were held between the participants at this event. They focused on ways to intensify customs cooperation between Customs of the four partner countries in favor of a better contribution to achieving the objectives of the Agreement. In the same context, an agreement on mutual administrative cooperation in customs matters was signed between these countries. It represents now a regulatory framework to enhance cooperation through the establishment of a consultation mechanism on customs issues at an operational level.
It also constitutes a legal framework for coordinated fight against customs offenses that can damage the economic, commercial and social interests of the Member States. The meeting was also an opportunity to assess the implementation of the action plan developed by the Technical Unit.
In this regard, the General Managers reviewed the outcomes of the work of the committee of senior officials of information technologies in charge of the program regarding the interconnection of the information systems of the customs administrations of the member countries.
This program was initiated to facilitate the exchange of information for the benefit of the improvement and simplification of customs procedures. The results of the workshop, held in Cairo in September 2014, on the topic of "authorized economic operator" and the action program for the mutual recognition of controls were also reviewed.
In this respect, it should be noted that the Moroccan Customs Administration of the Kingdom made significant progress in terms of the authorizations of the economic operators (AEO) by the establishment, under the SAFE Framework of the World Organization Customs, a program combining customs facilities and requirements for safety and security.
This meeting resulted in a set of recommendations, aiming at the strengthening of customs cooperation, the contribution to the achievement of the Agadir Agreement objectives in line with the regional economic integration and the promotion of exports and Investment Agreement between the Member States and with the European Union.