Sri Lankan to chair World Customs committee

by Kurulu Kariyakarawana

A Sri Lankan Customs official has been appointed to chair a top committee in the World Customs Organisation in Brussels, Geneva.

He is the first Asian to be elected.

Customs Director Tharake Senevirathne was elected Chairperson of the Harmonised Systems Committee of the World Customs Organisation at its 52nd Session in Brussels on Thursday.

Director Customs Policy, Planning and Research Tharake Seneviratne was proposed by the European Union representative and seconded by the representative of Australia, Customs Spokesman Director Leslie Gamini told the Sunday Observer.

The Customs Harmonised Systems Committee has the sole authority to decide on the classification of duty which is imposed on a variety of goods being imported and exported in all the member countries in the world.

The World Customs Organisation has a membership of 179 countries and is only second to the United Nations as a global body. The WCO represents 98 percent of international trade.

Tharake Senevirathne is an expert on the duty classification on goods with a career of 38 years in the Sri Lanka Customs Department.