WCO lends support to Morocco Customs in building capacity on transfer pricing control

From 1 to 4 July, a national training workshop was held at the Customs Training Institute (Institut de formation douanière - IFD) in Benslimane, Morocco. The workshop, on the subject of the control of transfer pricing, was attended by 22 officials from the Moroccan Customs Administration and was led by an expert from the Valuation Sub-Directorate of the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate and a WCO accredited expert trainer on Customs Valuation from Côte d'Ivoire.

This workshop, financed by the Customs Cooperation Fund of China (CCF China), was one example of the technical assistance and capacity building activities provided by the World Customs Organization for the benefit of its Members. The practical organization of the event was overseen by the Moroccan side.

The purpose of the workshop was to equip participants with the tools needed to identify and make use of the documentation on transfer pricing with a view to determining whether the values declared in transactions between related parties were acceptable.

During the workshop, participants learned about the various capacity building opportunities offered by the WCO through a presentation on the tools and instruments of the Revenue Package. Given that all participants were already working in Customs valuation control, a presentation on the general principles of Customs valuation served merely as background. This meant that the workshop could then focus on specific aspects in this area, including transactions between related parties and the application of Decisions 3.1, 4.1 and 6.1 of the Committee on Customs Valuation.

The guidelines drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were presented to the participants. They were also given a presentation on the Customs approach to transfer pricing. Finally, to enhance participants' practical skills in the control of transfer pricing from the Customs perspective, the workshop looked at a number of case studies before participants presented their contributions in various feedback sessions.

The organizers commended the participants on the considerable interest they had shown in this training exercise. The standard of the discussions had been very high, thus culminating in a sharing of experiences on both sides. Special mention was given to the IFD team for the workshop's excellent organization.