The World Customs Organization (WCO), in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), conducted a technical assistance mission for the benefit of the National Revenue Authority of Sierra Leone for the migration of its tariff to the 2022 version of the Harmonized System (HS).

This mission, which is part of the EU-WCO Programme for Harmonized System in Africa (HS-Africa Programme), funded by the European Union, took place in Freetown from 29 April to 3 May 2024 and was conducted by experts from the WCO and ECOWAS member countries, namely Liberia and The Gambia.

According to the provisions of the HS Convention, Contracting Parties are required to ensure that their customs tariffs and statistical nomenclatures for imports and exports comply with the HS. As a Contracting Party to the HS Convention and in accordance with the obligations arising from this Convention, Sierra Leone should update its customs tariff based on the 2022 version of the HS from 1 January 2022.

This mission, taking place in response to a request from the National Revenue Authority of Sierra Leone, was preceded by work to review and analyse the national tariff of Sierra Leone and a series of virtual meetings. In addition to the technical aspects of implementing the HS 2022 amendments, the experts worked with their colleagues at the National Revenue Authority of Sierra Leone to identify challenges that prevented them from implementing amendments of HS 2022 on time. Based on the difficulties identified, solutions were proposed to enable the National Revenue Authority of Sierra Leone to implement its customs tariff based on the 2022 version of the HS into its IT system. This mission enabled the Sierra Leone Customs Administration to now apply the 2022 version of the HS.

At the end of the mission, the Commissioner General of the National Revenue Authority of Sierra Leone, Mrs. Jeneba J. BANGURA, was delighted with the result obtained during this mission and congratulated all the experts for their commitment and efficiency . She also recalled the important role of implementing HS amendments on time in trade facilitation and the collection of statistics. She assured that this mission will have an effect in the future as well to guarantee timely migration of the next version of the HS, in accordance with the commitments made under the HS Convention. Finally, she thanked the WCO and the European Union for their continued support for customs administrations in Africa for capacity building for effective and uniform application of the HS.

Experts from the WCO, ECOWAS and Sierra Leone have established a work plan aimed at further strengthening the HS skills of the Sierra Leone administration. This work plan will be implemented by the HS-Africa Programme, funded by the EU, in partnership with ECOWAS. For more information, please contact wcoHSAfrica@wcoomd.org