US Embassy provides strategic trade enforcement training to Sri Lanka Customs officials

Tuesday, 3 October 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The US Department of State’s Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Program and the World Customs Organization (WCO) trained 34 Customs Officials from Sri Lanka in strategic trade controls enforcement from 12 to 15 September.

The methodology discussed in the workshop allows Customs Administrations to focus on cargo entering their borders that may present risks to national security and public safety. The training provides Customs Officials with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to better screen shipments by identifying those that present a risk, and targeting those that need to be physically inspected. This training also provided effective means of identifying high-risk shipments and the knowledge and skills necessary to improve cargo targeting capabilities. It focused on the importance of strategic trade controls enforcement (STCE), the role of Customs in STCE, how to establish STCE procedures and create conditions for success, techniques to carry out STCE, STCE as it relates to weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and the importance and challenges associated with the use of the Customs Harmonized System to identify potential STCE violations. Customs organisations are seeking the best ways to utilise finite resources to screen cargo entering, transiting, and exiting their borders. EXBS aims to prevent the proliferation of WMD and their delivery systems and the transfer of conventional weapons that threaten regional peace and stability. The EXBS program comprises a wide range of nonproliferation strategic trade control assistance, from licensing and legal/regulatory technical assistance, to provision of nonproliferation equipment and training for seaport and border control officials and enforcement agencies.