Ms Mette Werdelin Azzam is a Senior Technical Officer in the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels, Belgium, where she has been working since 1 September 2010 as Head of Origin Sub-Directorate in the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate.

Ms Azzam holds a Higher Technical Certificate in international business (BTS de commerce international) from a business school in Paris, France. She graduated from the Danish Customs and Tax College in 2000 and has been working in the Danish Customs Administration until February 2008 where she was posted in Brussels as Danish Customs Attaché. From December 2005 to January 2008 Ms Azzam was responsible for origin matters at the Customs Headquarter in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ms Azzam has an extensive theoretic and practical knowledge of rules of origin legislation, both in the preferential and the non-preferential areas.

She is responsible for the technical part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in the Harmonization of Non-Preferential Rules of Origin within the Technical Committee on Rules of Origin (TCRO) under the auspices of the WCO. She is the WCO liaison officer in the meetings of the WTO Committee on Rules of Origin (CRO) in Geneva.

Ms Azzam has several years of training experience within the fields of customs legislation and customs procedures. As Head of Origin Sub-Directorate she is responsible for Capacity Building and Technical Assistance activities mainly for developing countries in the area of origin legislation.

Joined the World Customs Organization in October 2013 as Technical Officer in the Valuation sub-Directorate of the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate. 

Worked for Customs Administration of Mauritius for more than thirty years.  Headed the Assessment (Valuation and Post Clearance Audit Units), Enforcement , Risk Management and Airport Sections in the last 11 years prior to working at the WCO.  Set up the Risk Management and Post Clearance Audit Sections.

Mr. Beris has been a Technical Officer in the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate (Nomenclature) of the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels, Belgium since 2011.  His area of responsibility includes Sections XVI, XVII, XVIII and XX of the Harmonized System.  Prior to joining the WCO, Mr. Beris worked as an attorney for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), both in the field at the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, California and Chicago, Illinois, and at CBP Headquarters in Washington, D.C.  His duties at CBP included issuing classification rulings on goods, and serving as the delegate of the United States at the Harmonized System Committee and Review Sub-Committee.

Anette started the work in Danish Customs in 1986 and has over the years gained a lot of experiences within Customs related matters. She has been working as a uniformed officer at the Danish/German border, anti-smuggling unit, handling MAA requests, national analysis unit, organizing national and international operations etc. She has also worked 8 years in the WCO Secretariat where she was responsible for the development of new CEN, nCEN and CENcomm and to write the annual Customs and Drugs Reports.

Anette is currently representing the Nordic States in the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Western Europe (RILO WE). The job is not new to her, as she worked 5 ½ years in the RILO WE just when the office was setup.

Mr. Ernani CHECCUCCI is the WCO Director, Capacity Building, elected from for a five year mandate (2016 – 2020).

From 2011 to 2015, Ernani was the Undersecretary of Customs and International Relations for the Brazilian Secretariat of Federal Revenue – RFB. He was directly responsible for major Customs Projects, such as the trade Single Window, business process reengineering in partnership with private sector, enhancement of risk management function through development of National Targeting Center and application of artificial intelligence solutions, implementation of Advanced Passenger Information (API), enhancing anti-smuggling functions and land border controls, and Customs preparations for major international events (2012 Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development; 2014 FIFA World Cup; 2016 Olympic Games). Under his leadership, Brazilian Customs implemented a number of international standards such as the Istanbul Convention and provisions of the Revised Kyoto Convention.

From January 2005 to April 2011, Mr. CHECCUCCI worked for the World Customs Organizations – WCO, in Brussels, as a Senior Technical Officer. During his experience at WCO, he held the position of Columbus Project Manager and Acting Deputy Director, Capacity Building. His international experience includes diagnostic missions, technical consulting, strategic and project planning in over than 30 countries in the Americas, Africa, Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. He also took part of joint missions organized by the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

Mr. CHECCUCCI has a degree in engineering. He joined the Brazilian Secretariat of Federal Revenue in July 1995, after passing the examination for the position of Tax Auditor. He started his career within RFB working at ports, airports and border points in the northern region of Brazil. From 2002 to 2005, he covered the positions of Deputy Coordinator-General of Customs Administration and Customs Enforcement Coordinator. He has a wide national and international experience in Customs Operations and Management.

He is 45 years old.

He began his career at Customs in an international cooperation bureau, dealing with bilateral relationship between KCS and other Customs agencies. Prior to joining the KCS, he served as a Lieutenant in the Presidential Plane (Air force-one) Group of Korea Air force.

Ian joined the WCO in February 2009 and is a Senior Technical Officer in the Valuation sub-Directorate, Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate.

Ian previously worked in HM Customs and Excise and HM Revenue and Customs in a number of areas, including excise and inland Customs, VAT enforcement and Origin.

He was UK delegate to the EC Customs Code Committee (Customs Valuation Section) and WCO Technical Committee on Customs Valuation.  From 2005 to 2008, Ian was Chairperson of the Technical Committee.

He has conducted valuation workshops in many developing countries, delivered presentations and participated in major international conferences and is co-author of the WCO’s current valuation training modules.

Bernie Crossey is a former UK Customs/Border Agency Senior Investigation Officer. He is a Criminal and Financial Training Expert specialising in Border Controls, Customs Investigation Techniques, Money Laundering, Criminal Investigations and Financial Investigation Training. He is currently working on UK and international training delivery for a Global Financial Institution and as a Customs Training Consultant for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Programme (Vienna). He has designed and delivered a highly successful ‘Core Skills in Financial Investigation Training’ event for Caribbean Law Enforcement Officers sponsored by UKAID.
 
He is currently tasked by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) to design, draft and deliver core skills investigation training for Customs Enforcement Officers in 2017 as part of the COPES project.
Over the last three years he has developed, reviewed and improved UNODC training modules and technical assistance for their global programme on combating cash smuggling and money laundering. Extremely competent with prosecutions and legal proceedings as he is also a Magistrate in the UK Judiciary and an appraiser of magistrates in judicial proceedings.

Oluimo Joined the World Customs Organization (WCO) since 2011. He started working for the Organization as the Representative of the Portuguese-Speaking Countries Community (CPLP) Customs Administration for more than 2 years under the WCO Career Development programme.

After serving the Community in the WCO, Oluimo was invited to join the WCO as Technical Attached at the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate, where he has been working from 2014 in different areas related to facilitation such as the Time Release Study, the Revised Kyoto Convention, the WCO Data Model, the WCO policies in Regional Integration and others.

In the area of Time Release Study (TRS), He has been providing Technical Assistance to several WCO Members in Africa, Asia, America and Europe, and he monitors the implementation of several TRS all over the World. However, his expertise involves business process modelling, ICT implementation and data analyses performance management.

Prior joining the WCO, Oluimo worked in Angola and other African countries such as South Africa and Botswana, at University of Johannesburg (year 2005) and Southern Africa Development Community - SADC (year 2010), respectively. In Angola, apart from Working for the national Customs Administration, where he is still attached since 2007, with a rank of senior Customs officer, Oluimo Worked for other African Regional Initiative called Commission of Golf of Guine.

 Oluimo holds a University degree from the University of South in Economics and Transport Management, and he has two post-graduate Degree in Economic field such as in Monetary and Financial Economics and in Regional and local Government Economics, from the University of Johannesburg (located in South Africa) and University of Evora (located in Portugal).

Severino Dinis works as a Technical Attaché in the Capacity Building Directorate of the World Customs Organization (WCO). His responsibilities cover work related to assist in the coordination of several WCO activities in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (previously have done the same in the Americas and Caribbean Region) and providing support to WCO Members through technical missions and regular consultations in various areas of Capacity Building. Particularly focus on Regional and National Strategic Planning, Risk Management, Performance Measurement, Orientation Package for Decision Makers and as well on the topic of Stakeholder Engagement. In his former assignments, Mr. Severino served as officer on the Procedures and Norms Department (Customs Service Directorate) at the Angolan Revenue Administration (AGT), where he developed several initiatives related to Customs Procedures, Trade Facilitation, Compliance and also regular engagement with Stakeholders. Prior to joining AGT in 2009, Mr. Severino worked in the private sector as Credit Coordinator for Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in one of the biggest commercial Banks in Luanda. Severino holds a degree in International Relations with a specialization in Economic Policy, from the Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal).

Viggo Elster

Technical Officer and Program manager for the IPR, Health and Safety Programme in the Compliance Sub-Directorate in WCO.

Viggo started working for the Norwegian Customs in 1999 and have worked in several areas of Compliance and Facilitation. He started working in the field of IPR and counterfeits in 2007 and built up the IPR Network in Norwegian Customs; Furthermore, he took part in building up the Nordic IPR-Network. He started working at the WCO in 2015.

Mr. Alvaro Fernandez Acebes, Senior Technical Officer in the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate, WCO

Mr. Fernandez Acebes holds a Master Degree (1990) and a Ph. D. (1995) in Chemistry and works as Senior Technical Officer in the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate (Nomenclature) at the WCO in Brussels, Belgium, since 2007. Prior to his positing at the WCO, he worked as researcher in chemistry in the USA, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Greece. He works also as Professor of chemistry at the Spanish Customs since 2001.

Hermie is a Customs and Excise Attorney. She currently holds a position at the WCO as a Technical Attaché in the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate. Her responsibilities include among others; technical support to WCO Members on the implementation of the WTO TFA, in particular the support in the establishments and maintenance of the National Committees on Trade Facilitation (NCTF). She was also responsible for the drafting of the WCO Guidance on National Committees on Trade Facilitation.

Prior to taking up her current position, Hermie served as a Specialist in Customs and Excise Litigation at the South African Revenue Service. She holds the LLB and LLM law degrees. Her academic focus areas are international trade, Customs law, family and Criminal law. She published her dissertation on Trade Facilitation in 2013.

Ms Andrea Hampton

WCO-Norad Project Manager, World Customs Organization (WCO)

Ms. Hampton is a qualified senior Project Manager and Economist specializing in Facilitation of Trade and Investment.  For the past 15 years she has been operating as an intermediary between business and government and managing global capacity building initiatives in the area of Customs and Trade Facilitation.  A further background in information communication technology assists in her approach to initiatives that include technology such as Single Windows, which has been utilized in her management of Trade Facilitation projects as well as service as Single Window domain coordinator within the UN/CEFACT Expert Working Group.  Having worked for the US State Department, Chinese municipal governments, and a major international consultancy, since October 2016, Ms. Hampton has been managing the WCO-Norad Customs Capacity Building Project which covers a wide variety of customs technical areas, including performance measurement and stakeholder engagement.

1978: joined Dutch Customs

1978 – 1979: Basic customs training

1979 – 1985 Customs Inspector Rotterdam Customs

1986 – 1988 Customs specialist training

1989 – 1994 Customs legislation and procedures specialist Rotterdam Customs

1995 – 2002 Customs Policy Adviser Dutch Customs Headquarters

2003 – 2009 Senior Policy/Legal Adviser Dutch Ministry of Finance

2009 – 2012 Seconded National Expert European Commission

2012 – now Technical Officer World Customs Organization

My main responsibilities since 2003 have been in supply chain security and trade facilitation in general. I have been involved in the World Customs Organization's Task Force on Security and Trade Facilitation, the security amendments of European Union’s customs legislation and the development of the European Union's Authorised Economic Operator Programme.

I have been, and still am, involved in the World Customs Organization's SAFE Framework of Standards to secure and facilitate global trade. Whilst working for the European Commission I was part of the European Union‘s international cooperation efforts on security such as the EU-China Smart and Secure Trade Lanes pilot project, mutual recognition of AEO programmes, e.g. between the EU and Japan and air cargo security. At the WCO, I am working in the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate with the focus on trade facilitation, especially the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and Coordinated Border management.

Director, Compliance and Facilitation

Director Hinojosa assumed her elected post in the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate of the World Customs Organization (WCO), effective January 1, 2016.  She leads the directorate that is responsible assisting Members in implementing effective and efficient controls, ensuring fair and accurate revenue collection, and protecting society by intercepting and suppressing illicit and criminal activities.  The directorate has the twin goal of securing and facilitating legitimate global supply chains through the simplification and harmonization of Customs procedures. 

Prior to her election and transition to her current post, she served nearly 29 years with the United States Custom Service/Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

She is fluent in English and Spanish, and is currently studying French. 

In 2012, he joined the EUMM Georgia mission in charge of observing the demarcation lines with the separatist republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In 2014, he was deployed as an observer in the OSCE SMM Ukraine mission operating in the Luhansk region. Member of the GRIP since 2016, Denis Jacqmin currently works on the themes of international sanctions and arms control.

Ms. Maka KHVEDELIDZE joint Georgia Revenue Service in 2011 as an adviser at the International Relations Department. In 2012 she took the position of the Deputy Head of International Relations Department at Georgia Revenue Service. Being the Deputy Head of International Relations Department her working portfolio includes the following: elaboration, management and implementation  of international projects; management and assessment of project writing team assignments; initiating and managing trade facilitation system  supporting tools and instruments, namely: Coordinated Border Management, Single Window, Time Release Study, etc; conducting the negotiations on the establishment of the mutual administrative assistance in customs matters

Maka KHVEDELIDZE has been the country affiliated representative to a number of programmes under aegis of the European Commission.  Maka was the country negotiator within the scope of EU-Georgia Association Agreement and its technical part on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area and Association Agenda while elaborating and conducting the SWOT analysis in relation to the approximation process of the Georgian legislation to the EU one in customs matters; Maka was also the country negotiator on Visa Liberalization Action Plan between Georgia and the EU; She has been the Secretary of  Customs Sub-committee within the scope of EU-Georgia Association Agreement and its technical part on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area; Maka KHVEDELIDZE has been representing the Georgian customs  to the World Customs Organization.   Maka KHVEDELIDZE has been in charge of WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement comparative analysis with the Georgian legislation, its ratifications process in Georgia and further steps of implementation.  

Ms. Maka KHVEDELIDZE completed her academic studies in Georgia, Romania and France having her Master Degrees in English Language; Euro-Regional Studies and Cross-border Relations in Trade; and in Community Integration and European Neighborhood Policy.

Joined the World Customs Organization in January 2015 as Technical Officer in the Compliance and Faciltation Directorate.

Worked for Customs Administration of Indonesia for seven years in Customs Modernization area including Excise management and control, E-Declaration, Bonded-zone logistics management, Business process managements, as well as Passenger facilitation and control as systems analyst prior to joining the WCO.

He is now responsible in the area of Digital Customs, Single Window , the WCO Data Model as well as Advance Passenger Information. Additionally he is also responsible as the secretary of the Data Model Project Team (DMPT), the Information Management Sub Committee (IMSC) and the WCO/ICAO/IATA Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) Contact Committee.

Giorgi Kvaratskhelia

Giorgi Kvaratskhelia has 9 years of Customs experience working for various operational and analytical positions. After joining the Customs Department of the Revenue Service of Georgia, Giorgi has worked in various divisions within the Customs Department including for the Customs Clearance Monitoring Division and Risks Management Division. Throughout his career, Giorgi has been deployed as Customs Clearance Supervisor at the Customs Clearance Zone in Tbilisi and as Head of Shift at Border Crossing Point “Red Bridge” (Georgia-Azerbaijan Border) and “Sadakhlo” (Georgia-Armenia Border). Currently he serves at the position of Chief Analyst at the Customs Risks Management Division of Customs Department.

Samuel Laurinkari heads up eBay’s work on EU policies impacting eBay and its users, such as e-Commerce legislation, online platform policy, consumer policy, competition policy, and cross-border trade policy.

Prior to joining eBay, Samuel worked in government relations for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and as a consultant for FTI Consulting.

Samuel grew up in Finland and Germany and studied European law at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Mr. Benson Lim, Technical Attaché, Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate, WCO

Benson currently works as Technical Attaché, in the Valuation Sub-Directorate, Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate, at the World Customs Organization (WCO) since 2016.  He is currently conducting research on Customs-Tax Cooperation regarding transfer pricing.  He also has co-authored a Chapter “Transfer Pricing and Customs Valuation” to be published in the “Fundamentals of Transfer Pricing”, a project by the WU Transfer Pricing Center at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business).  Prior to this, Benson worked at Singapore Customs from 2001 to 2016, where he spent 12 years working in the Valuation Unit.  Otherwise, he also gained experience working at the Customs checkpoints and in the Compliance Division investigating minor technical offences.

Malaysian by nationality. Academic qualifications include Degree in Law from the University of London and a Masters in International Strategy & Diplomacy from the National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Joined the Royal Malaysian Customs (RMC) Service in the year 1990 and have worked in various capacities in the Malaysian Customs Administration, mainly in the International area. Posted as the Malaysian Customs Attaché to the Malaysian Embassy in Brussels from 2002 until early 2009 with the responsibility for representing RMC at the WCO, EU and all other international forums. Joined the WCO in 2009.

Currently the Acting Deputy Director to the  Facilitation Directorate. In addition to managing the sub-directorate, she also manages issues relating to security and facilitation such as the SAFE Framework of Standards (SAFE); Aviation Security issues  mainly on Air Cargo Security; Authorised Economic Operator (AEO); Scanning matters (NII); Customs-Business Partnership; Container Seals (CSDs); Temporary Admission (ATA Carnet); the Container Convention; Postal with the Universal Postal Union (UPU); Smart and Secure Trade Lanes (SSTL) Pilot; managing relations with the WCO Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) including certain International Organizations and main organizer of the Global AEO Conference and the ICAO-WCO Joint Conferences.

Mrs Ágnes Nagy
Policy Officer
European Commission – DG TAXUD

Since 2009, in charge of Customs data integration and harmonisation in EU Commission, which comprises data collected via customs declarations, pre-arrival / pre-departure declarations, customs goods manifest, applications and decisions. This also includes the development of the EU Customs Data Model (EUCDM).

Before joining DG TAXUD, gained wide-ranging customs experience as consultant in the private sector in Hungary for ten years.

Co-chair of the EU "DIH" Union Customs Code committee and expert group. European Commission Representative for data issues with WCO.

Aseem Nanda is a Marine Engineer by education and joined the Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Central Excise) in the year 2006. He is newly posted in the Indian Embassy in Brussels, where he deals with trade-related matters and represents Indian Customs at the WCO.

Previously, working for India’s Central Board of Excise and Customs, he has been responsible for managing relations with other Customs administrations and has been part of several Free Trade Agreement negotiations. He has also held assignments in Customs enforcement where he has dealt with issues relating to international investigative assistance and information exchange.

Mr. Pandey serves at the World Customs Organization as Technical Officer in the Area of Facilitation & Compliance. He is a lead resource on several WCO instruments such as the SAFE Framework of Standards, Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) and Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA), Air Cargo Security, API/PNR, Single Window, Co-ordinated Border Management, E-Commerce, Postal matters, Exchange of Information, Customs-Business Partneship, Customs brokers, and Customs-Tax Cooperation. He has been working for several national and international initiatives concerning trade facilitation including the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation and security issues.

Earlier in his career with the Indian Customs administration, he has extensively served in various areas including Customs modernization, trade facilitation, risk assessment and enforcement, for nearly 14 years. He also worked as Consul (Economic) and Customs Attaché in Consulate General of India at Hong Kong SAR, P R China during 2009- 2012, responsible for all trade, investment, finance, banking and taxation matters including Customs co-operation with various countries in the East Asia Region.

Jun joined the WCO in 2014 as the first official in charge of Post-Clearance Audit.

He started his career as an intelligence officer in Japan Customs.  After experiencing some border posts, he was transferred to Ministry of Finance to develop and manage capacity building activities.  After he finished his term as a vice Consul at the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, he was assigned as a PCA auditor.  He has experiences in auditing multinational companies in Japan as well as SMEs.  Before start working in the WCO, he served as an expert trainer at the Customs Training Institute of Japan for both domestic and international trainees. He is an accredited WCO Technical and Operational Advisor in Valuation Control via PCA (2012).

Ms Mette Werdelin Azzam is a Senior Technical Officer in the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels, Belgium, where she has been working since 1 September 2010 as Head of Origin Sub-Directorate in the Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate.

Ms Azzam holds a Higher Technical Certificate in international business (BTS de commerce international) from a business school in Paris, France. She graduated from the Danish Customs and Tax College in 2000 and has been working in the Danish Customs Administration until February 2008 where she was posted in Brussels as Danish Customs Attaché. From December 2005 to January 2008 Ms Azzam was responsible for origin matters at the Customs Headquarter in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ms Azzam has an extensive theoretic and practical knowledge of rules of origin legislation, both in the preferential and the non-preferential areas.

She is responsible for the technical part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in the Harmonization of Non-Preferential Rules of Origin within the Technical Committee on Rules of Origin (TCRO) under the auspices of the WCO. She is the WCO liaison officer in the meetings of the WTO Committee on Rules of Origin (CRO) in Geneva.

Ms Azzam has several years of training experience within the fields of customs legislation and customs procedures. As Head of Origin Sub-Directorate she is responsible for Capacity Building and Technical Assistance activities mainly for developing countries in the area of origin legislation.

Marcus Wilson

Marcus is the Managing Director of Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a London-based organisation that tracks the movement of weapons, ammunition, and related materiel in conflict affected countries. Marcus has a Masters degree in history, from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and has worked for several NGOs and research institutes in the field of arms control and armed violence prevention since 2008. 

Izaak joined the WCO Secretariat in 1997 from which he retired as Deputy Director, Tariff and Trade Affairs, in 2007. Before joining the Secretariat he worked from 1978 in the Dutch Ministry of Finance, dealing with the development and implementation of the Harmonized System.

From 2005 onwards he was facilitator in the WCO’s private sector training programme on Harmonized System, as well as the WCO’s annual Knowledge Academy for Customs and Trade.

From 1989 till present he is adaptor of the ‘Handboek voor in- en uitvoer’ (‘Handbook for imports and exports’), Section Combined Nomenclature – explanatory notes and rulings, a publication of Sdu, The Hague, The Netherlands. This handbook is used by Customs, private companies, institutes and other professionals in the field of international trade.

Toshihiko joined the WCO in 2014 as Technical Attaché in the Origin Sub-Directorate, Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate.

He previously worked for Japan Customs and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) of Japan in a number of areas, including Rules of Origin, HS classification, Customs clearance, duty collection and international cooperation.

Before joining the WCO Secretariat, he worked in the Tariff Policy and Legal Division, Customs and Tariff Bureau, MOF, dealing with several FTA negotiations on Rules of Origin as well as coordination and supervision of origin work in Japan Customs.

In the Origin Sub-Directorate, Toshihiko is in charge of origin infrastructure, advance rulings, certification and verification of origin, and HS related matters.