The Conference was attended by eighteen of the twenty three member administrations. Delegates from American Samoa, Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Marianas, Republic of Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu represented their respective administrations. Representing Palau was Customs Chief John Tarkong Jr.
Attending the Conference were representatives from China Customs, Japan Customs, Canada Border Services Agency, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the Pacific Immigration Directors Conference (PIDC), the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police (PICP), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC), the World Customs Organization (WCO), the United Nations Office Drug Control (UNODC), Joint Interagency Task Force West (JIATF(W), United States Coastguard, DHL and the anti money laundering teams AMLAT and PALP. The Hon Minister Amenta Matthew, Acting Minister of Finance, on behalf of His Excellency President Litokwa Tomeing, formally opened the Conference and welcomed delegates and observers to the Marshall Islands. The Minister noted the importance of Customs in the region and that the Customs role extended wider than revenue collection into other equally important roles of community protection and border security. She also noted the theme of the conference and believed that much progress takes place when working cooperatively towards a common purpose. The Minister commended the work of the WCO, working cooperatively with the OCO, in recognising the value to enhance capacity in especially small administrations in the region. Mr Casten Nemra, Chief Secretary of the Marshall Islands Government chaired the Conference. The outgoing Chair, Daniel Rofeta, the Comptroller of Solomon Islands Customs and Excise Division informed delegates that the relationship developed by the OCO with the WCO and that organisation’s Regional Office of Capacity Building was already bearing fruit for all members of the OCO and not just those who are members of the WCO in their own right. The conference noted the WCO workshops held in the region and their importance to Customs modernisation and reform. The Conference noted and congratulated the Head of Secretariat for OCO achievements during the past year. These included progression of areas of mutual interest in the Statement of Principles, assistance to members in implementing their border cash reporting regimes, involvement of the OCO in fraudulent document training and the negotiation of a Declaration of Intent with the WCO to implement the Columbus Programme. The Conference further noted the significant importance of the Programme and the wide spread capacity building benefits available to all OCO members that would align with international standards. The Conference recognised the importance of implementing border cash regimes and endorsed the OCO continuing to work closely with the anti money laundering organisations to assist members where required. The Conference also noted the important work that was being progressed to coordinate and better utilise air and maritime surveillance assets through multi tasking and deployment to meet interagency objectives and to improve regional security. This would be achieved through interagency cooperation at both the regional and national level. The Conference noted the detailed report on the security risk of pleasure craft in the region. It further noted a report on the security risk posed by cruise ships through increasing numbers and size of craft, including their carrying capacity of passengers and crew, and the impact that this would have on law enforcement. The Conference noted the developing relationship between the OCO and the Caribbean Law Enforcement Council and the intention to formalize the relationship through a Co-operative Arrangement. The Conference considered and endorsed terms of reference to undertake a regional threat assessment on Customs offending including activities of transnational crime. Intellectual property rights was identified as a subject for Customs to develop appropriate cross border responses. The Conference further noted and supported the implementation of measures to monitor the cross border flow of precursor chemicals and for members to actively participate in Project Prism. The Conference endorsed the implementation of measures for customs modernisation and reform applying to trade facilitation and security. It noted a report on the progress made with the Customs components within the Regional Trade Facilitation Programme. The Conference noted that the OCO was working cooperatively and collaboratively with PIFS on a review of targeting customs services at the subregional level following a Forum Economic Ministers’ directive. The Conference encouraged all members to actively inform Governments and Ministers of the importance of the work being undertaken by the OCO in the region in the areas of trade facilitation revenue collection, community protection and security. The Conference accepted the offer of Vanuatu to host the 11th Annual Conference in 2009, the offer of Samoa to host the 12th Annual Conference in 2010 and the further offer from Papua New Guinea to host in 2011. Delegates expressed their gratitude to the President, His Excellency Litokwa Tomeing, Government and people of the Republic of Marshall Islands and the staff of the Republic of Marshall Islands Customs who had been instrumental in making this a most productive and enjoyable Conference. Chjef Tarkong mentioned that members were very appreciate of the various activities and achievements undertaken by the OCO Secretariat Mr. Robert Taylor and his staff over the past few year to assist member countries. The OCO conducted a number of workshops over the past year to include assisting members in drafting Regional Model Legislation, Framework of Standards & Legislation / Kyoto Convention, WTO GATT Valuation Training and Model Legislation, HS 2007 Training, Integrity Workshop and Diagnostic Training. Although Palau Customs has come a long way and has taken positive steps over the years to develop and grow, we still have work to be done in order to modernize Customs. Although Palau Customs is not currently members of the Kyoto Convention, we are applying such principles set out in the Kyoto Convention to modernize Customs. If our objective is to improve the efficiency in customs clearance and the delivery of goods in order to benefit importers, exporters and business through simplified customs procedures and best practices, then we need to adopt legislation to suit such practices and become members of the Kyoto Convention. We need to propose Customs legislation that covers our current practices on the WTO GATT Valuation for example. We need to update the HS Code 2002 Tariff version to the 2007 HS Code and actually have legislation in place. We also need to implement Warehousing Legislation to cover imports and exports, At this time, we are currently working on updating / revising our Customs Regulations / Procedures and finalizing our Customs Code of Ethics and Conduct Manual. We need to have suitable Customs Powers in place when performing our duties at the borders and I hope we can ask our government, especially Congress, to pass legislation and to include a Customs Revolving Fund that would allow Customs to update, develop, and maintain our Customs Automated System currently in place. On March 04, 2008 a number of Importers and other companies were trained by staff on new tariff (HS Version 2002), procedures on imports / exports and electronic filing in order to minimize errors and improve on their compliance. Other sessions are being planned to continue such workshop later this month and throughout the year with our stakeholders. Of course, other challenges will be to improve and build on our working relations with Immigration, Police, Quarantine, Marine Law Enforcement and the other agencies. We need to see an increase in funding for our budget in order to improve on our services and operations. Our Drug Detector Dog Unit needs continued funding to expand and be current with their trainings and we need to have equipment such as X-Ray Machines in place at the airport, post and port. We need vehicles to conduct inspections and perform. Nevertheless, I’m sure we can find donors to assist. Otherwise, plans are underway to have the OCO assist Customs to conduct a Diagnostic Review, Currency Reporting Training and other trainings this planned for the remaining year.
