FIELD VISIT - ROTTERDAM

On Saturday 2 July, delegates will travel by coach to the Port of Rotterdam and Belasting & Douane (Customs & Tax) Museum.

Port of Rotterdam

For an unforgettable impression and first hand experience of Rotterdam’s busy international port, this extensive tour is definitely a must. Witness firsthand, some of the concept presented during the classroom discussions in a practical application. The port of Rotterdam’s annual throughput amounts to some 465 million tonnes. This makes the port of Rotterdam the largest port in Europe. The port area includes 12,500 ha (land and water, of which approx. 6,000 ha is business sites). The total length of the port area is more than 40 km. Approximately 30,000 seagoing vessels and 110,000 inland vessels visit the port of Rotterdam every year.

Belasting & Douane (Customs & Tax) Museum.

The Tax and Customs Museum has a very interesting collection about everything that relates to tax and customs. Now this might not sound very interesting to everyone that hates to pay tax and customs, but there are actually some very nice things to see in this museum!

Rotterdam has always played an important role in the history of tax and customs because of the many goods entering and leaving the country through the harbour. In the museum there are more than 40,000 objects that you can see varying from uniforms, medals, prints, paintings, silver works to smuggling goods!

Programme of the Tour:

07:00 departure from the WCO HQ

09:30 reception at the Customshouse Maasvlakte

09:45 general presentation Customs in the port of Rotterdam

10:45 visit the x-ray containerscan and inspection warehouse

11:30 Transfer to Futureland by bus

11:45 Roundtrip by boat through the new reclaimed port area called Maasvlakte 2 (Lunch included)

12:45 end of trip Transfer to Rotterdam

14:00 Belasting & Douane (Customs & Tax) Museum

16:00 Departure to Brussels

18:30 Arrival to the WCO HQ