This workshop is organized with the assistance of the international resource person, Prof. Janusz Kozakiewicz and Mr. Mikheil Tushishvili, Programme Officer, UNEP DTIE.
The objective of Customs training workshop on monitoring and control of Ozone Depleting Substances was to provide the customs and enforcement officers of Albania with the necessary practical skills and knowledge to identify HCFCs and HCFCs containing equipment and to enable customs officers to get acquainted with the ODSs regulations and other legislation regarding ozone issues and create awareness amongst customs officers on their role in enforcing Montreal Protocol at the national level.
The meeting had the following other objectives to:
- Share with the customs and enforcement officers information on the global aspect of trade in ODS as well as on the most frequently used ODS smuggling methods and present actual cases of illegal trade in ODS, specifically HCFCs
- Demonstrate to the customs and enforcement officers the practical application of refrigerant identifiers in identification of ODS and describe procedures for safe handling of ODS
- Allow the customs and enforcement officers to learn how illegal HCFC shipments may be spotted based on analysis of customs documents and through the use of refrigerant identifiers
- Facilitate discussion between customs and environmental officers aiming at development of suggestions regarding improvement of enforcement of the ODS legislation in Albania
The Concept Note and Agenda of the workshop are contained in Appendices 7 and 8 to this report. The Participants were approximately 20 officers from the General Directorate of Customs (customs officers from various points of entry and customs sections – computer and data processing unit, document processing unit, administration unit, enforcement officer etc.). The representatives of the Refrigeration Association which exist in Albania were also present (one was also acting as National Consultant).
The workshop was opened by Mr. Redi Baduni, Director of Environment, Ministry of Environment of Albania and the other persons who addressed the workshop during opening session were: Mr Mikheil Tushishvili (Programme Officer, UNEP), Ms Mimoza Vokshi (Head of the NOPIU) and Mr. Aleksander Muçko (Director of Anti-trafficking, General Directorate of Customs). Short introduction to the workshop programme was also made by the International Consultant.
The role of International Consultant was to deliver certain presentations and conduct practical exercises as well as facilitate discussion leading to development of recommendations on possible improvements of enforcement of monitoring and control of ODS trade by the customs. Indeed, most of the presentations (dealing with global and regional context of trade in ODS, HS customs classification of ODS, illegal trade in ODS and identification of ODS) were delivered by the International Consultant
[1]. There were also presentations delivered by NOPIU Head (on ozone layer protection), representative of UNEP DTIE (on iPIC system and Customs Awards), National
Consultant (on safety in handling ODS), representative of the Ministry of Environment (on national ODS legislation) and representative of Customs (on national procedures related to monitoring and control of trade in ODS).
The programme of the first day of the workshop was aiming at providing the participants with the background information related to ODS in the context of trade and during the second day the participants were able to test their knowledge gained during the first day through the practical exercise (designed by the International Consultant and prepared by the National Consultant under the guidance of International Consultant) on identification of the unknown ODS contained in cylinders based on review of the information contained in customs documentation and on visual examination of the cylinders only and then to check their guess by conducting direct analysis of the cylinder contents by using refrigerant identifier. The results of that exercise were satisfactory since the participants were able to identify the contents of most of the unknown cylinders based only on customs documentation and visual examination of the cylinders.
In the final part of the workshop the participants were split into 3 groups and asked to discuss the possible improvements of the national ODS legislation dealing with monitoring and control of ODS trade and of the enforcement of that legislation by the customs. The recommendations developed by those groups were then presented to the plenary and eventually approved. The list of the approved recommendations from the customs training workshop is contained in Appendix 10 to this report. At the end of the workshop the participants received from UNEP representative pen-drives containing a number of UNEP publications dealing with trade in ODS and prevention of illegal trade in ODS and also certain specific publications recommended by the International Consultant.
