WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
IP/C/W/581 
17 October 2012 
 
 (12-5637) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of  
Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION FROM 
OTHER INTERGOVERNMEN TAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
WORLD CUSTOMS ORGANIZATION (WCO) 
   At its meeting of 5 June 2012, the Council fo r TRIPS agreed to invite intergovernmental 
organization observers to the Council to update th e information on their technical and financial 
cooperation programmes relating to the im plementation of the TRIPS Agreement. 
 The present document reproduces the information which has been received from the World 
Customs Organization (WCO) by means of a communication dated 11Octoberr 2011. 
 Communications from other intergovernmental or ganizations will be circulated as addenda to 
this document. 
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I. GENERAL REMARKS 
1. In 2011/2012, illicit trade in counterfeited a nd pirated items has continued to evolve, 
comprising a broad range of commodities which im pede economic and social development and pose 
an ever greater threat to the health and security of consumers worldwide.  Consequently, this issue 
continues to be of great concern to the WCO and its 179 Member Customs administrations, posing numerous challenges.  
2. The challenges faced by the WCO and its Memb er Customs administrations, in addition to 
their efforts to combat counterfeited and pirate d commodities, are illustrated in the WCO's annual 
Customs and IPR Report 2011
1.  About 20,932 seizure cases have been reported amounting to 
143 million items (1,830 tons) by the CEN (Customs  Enforcement Network) database from Member 
Customs administrations throughout all six WCO regions2.  
3. As the WCO's  mission is to improve the effec tiveness of Customs administrations in terms of 
facilitating and securing international trade, the WCO has taken the vital responsibility of  providing 
and assisting its Member administrations with an ex tensive range of capacity building activities.  The 
                                                      
1 The extract of the Report is downloadable from 
"http://www.wcoomd.org/files/1.%20Public%20files/PDFa ndDocuments/Press%20releases/Extract_Customs_I
PR_2011.pdf " (English) and 
"http://www.wcoomd.org/files/1.%20Public%20files/PDFa ndDocuments/Press%20releases/Extrait_Douane_DP
I_2011.pdf " (French) 
2 Six WCO regions : North Africa, Near and Middle East (MENA), West and Central Africa (WCA), 
East and Southern Africa (ESA), South America, Nort h America, Central America and the Caribbean (AMS), 
Europe (EUR), and Far East, South and South East Asia, Australasia and the Pacific Islands (AP). IP/C/W/581 
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  WCO is also engaged in the provision of tools fo r its Member Customs administrations to enhance 
their effectiveness in the realm of enforcement, and more particularly, in combating the illicit trade of 
counterfeited and pirate d goods across borders. 
II. TECHNICAL COOPERATION BY THE WCO SECRETARIAT FOR WCO 
MEMBER CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATIONS REQUESTING ASSISTANCE 
A. TOOLS TO ASSIST MEMBER CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATIONS IN COMBATING COUNTERFEITING 
AND PIRACY  
4. In response to a request from Member administ rations, the WCO Secretariat has continued its 
work on the Information Repository of Legislati on on Border Measures for Counterfeiting and Piracy3 
in close cooperation with Member administrati ons, as well as feedback from other international 
organizations such as WTO and WIPO.   
5. Key objectives of the Information Repository in clude:  (1) to learn from the experiences of 
the WCO Member Customs administrations in their implementation of the TRIPS border measures, and (2) to provide a reference when designing  capacity building activities in this area.  
6. The current version of the Compendium consists  of:  (1) list of IP legislation for border 
measures against importation of counterfeit trademark and pirated copyright goods, (2) flow charts on 
border enforcement procedures, (3) case studies on specific items, (4) lists of Customs central 
divisions/units, and (5) list of contact points for the private sector.   
7. The WCO Secretariat is continually engaged in the development and the deployment of 
Interface Public Members (IPM) to its Member Customs administrations and rights holders.  IPM is a 
WCO permanent training tool to strengthen the opera tional capacity of Customs officers via enhanced 
communication between Customs and rights holders. 
8. Since its launch in June 2010, 44 Member administrations are regularly accessing the tool, 
with this figure set to increase in the coming mont hs.  Approximately 55 rights holders have signed up 
to the tool, and have begun uploading informatio n in the system.  This figure represents over 
400 internationally-recognized trademarks. 
B. WCO' S TRAINING / SEMINARS AND CAPACITY BUILDING IN COMBATING COUNTERFEITING 
AND PIRACY  
9. Capacity building is a key component to ensu re the most effective enforcement worldwide 
and is a key priority of the WCO IPR progra mme.  The WCO provides technical assistance and 
capacity building, focusing on the application of  risk assessment, targeting techniques and the 
exchange of information.  The WCO endeavour s to qualitatively and quantitatively improve its 
outreach activities based on the organization's in-house expertise.  
10. Below is the list of training and capacity bui lding activities in combating counterfeiting and 
piracy provided by the WCO (September 2011 - September 2012) (including those funded by other organizations): 
1. Regional and Sub-regional Training Seminars 
Georgia (October 2011, 3 countries) 
Kenya (June 2012, 17 countries) 
                                                      
3 Previously reported to the TRIPS Council as "IPR Legislation Compendium on Border Measures", 
whose name was changed in order to better capture the nature of the work.   IP/C/W/581 
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  Japan (May 2012, 26 countries) 
Japan (September 2012, 23 countries) 
  
2. National Training Seminars  
Honduras (September 2011) 
Moldova (November 2011) Mexico (February 2012) Ukraine (May 2012) 
Vietnam (July 2012) 
 
3. Diagnostic Mission 
Burkina Faso (November 2011) 
 
4. Action Plan (Follow up for diagnostic missions) 
 Lao PDR (January 2012) 
 
5. Operational Exercises 
 Operation TIGRE 2 (December 2011, 12 count ries from Central and South America and the 
Caribbean) 
 Operation Vice Grips 2 (July 2012, 16 countries from Western, Central and Eastern Africa) 
 11. In order to deliver training and capacity build ing in an effective and flexible manner, the 
WCO maintains an accredited pool of experts in th e field of combating counterfeiting and piracy. 
These experts are drawn from Member Customs administrations.  As of September 2012, a total of 40 accredited experts (including provisionally accred ited ones) are available to support the WCO's 
training and capacity building. 
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