[Ecommerce] UN forum on trade facilitation

Tue Apr 8 00:31:01 2003

*  Parallel to the Forum, workshops on technical issues and intellectual 
property rights in trade facilitation will be organized, together with 
the European Patent Office and the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and 
Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT).

http://www.unece.org/trade/forums/forum03/index.htm

Second International Forum on Trade Facilitation : 14 - 15 May 2003
Sharing the Gains of Globalization in the New Security Environment

Background

Trade facilitation, i.e. the simplification, harmonization, automation 
and speeding up of the international flows of goods and trade 
information, has the potential of bolstering economic growth. In an 
increasingly globalized economy, it contributes directly to promoting 
supply chain linkages and reducing non-tariff barriers to trade. Above 
all, by saving precious resources, it has a strong potential for 
development. Neverteless, the benefits of multilateral trade 
facilitation have not been evenly distributed. The United Nations, in 
its Millennium Development Goals has committed all Member States and the 
UN organizations to work towards alleviating poverty, promoting 
sustainable trade and development, and spreading the beneficial impact 
of globalization and multilateral cooperation on a more equitable basis. 
In order for all countries to reap the benefits of increased efficiency 
through optimal trade procedures, targeted policy and practical measures 
should be adopted.

The second International Forum on Trade Facilitation in May 2003 will 
focus on trade and transport facilitation and customs cooperation, 
within the perspective of the needs of development and the heightened 
security requirements . More specifically, the Forum will discuss the 
effect of the new security challenges on global supply chains. The 
conduct of international trade has undergone fundamental changes, as the 
security emphasis has shifted from threats to trade to threats from 
trade. While some major actors in international trade focus on the 
identification and minimization of risks to the security of 
international flows of goods (especially in container trade), others are 
concerned with the new security requirements, which will impose an 
additional burden on their fragile economies. There is a great risk that 
transition and developing countries will not be able to share the 
benefits of globalization, and that they will be marginalized. The 
implications of these challenges and changes on the weakest participants 
in the global trading system will be felt more strongly. The United 
Nations should address these problems by providing a neutral forum for 
their discussion. It should look into the development of new 
international instruments in the area.

The Forum will build upon the broader definition of trade facilitation 
at the first International Forum on Trade Facilitation in May 2002. 
Trade facilitation is a complex area, which involves government 
regulations and control, business efficiency, transportation, 
information and communication technology and the financial services. The 
work on trade facilitation involves various actors with different 
agendas, which makes agreement on a joint course of action difficult to 
achieve. Therefore, it is important that all stakeholders - governmental 
agencies, the business community, and international and non-governmental 
organizations - address trade facilitation strategically through 
adequate policies on the national, regional and international levels, 
emphasizing assistance for the development of weaker partners.

Inefficient trade procedures and a lack of trade facilitation have a 
greater negative effect on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 
on enterprises in developing countries. The reason for this is that 
small-value consignments carry a disproportionately high cost burden due 
to the fixed costs that have to be paid per consignment. Addressing the 
problems of these “weaker” stakeholders is one of the principal 
objectives of the Forum. Recent studies within the Organization of 
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Asia Pacific 
Economic Cooperation (APEC) estimate that investment in trade 
facilitation would have a very strong effect, increasing exports from 
transition and developing economies by tens of billions of dollars. The 
greatest gains to developing and transition economies would come from 
improvements in border crossings and customs efficiency. The 
institutions that have done recent studies on the benefits from trade 
facilitation will be invited to present their findings at the second 
International Forum on Trade Facilitation.

The objective is to organize the Forum as a truly interactive event. The 
discussion will be initiated by a limited number of speakers and will 
involve panellists and participants from the audience. Several 
background concept papers will be prepared on: the effects of trade 
facilitation on income distribution, the sources of developing country 
concerns about trade facilitation, etc. They will be made available on 
the Forum web site (www.unece.org/forums). In addition, the Forum will 
raise awareness of the necessity for further work and research of new 
solutions, in collaboration with UNCITRAL, on legal issues in the 
facilitation and simplification of trade procedures and information 
flows. The Forum will address the issue of trade facilitation in port 
procedures.

Parallel to the Forum, workshops on technical issues and intellectual 
property rights in trade facilitation will be organized, together with 
the European Patent Office and the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and 
Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). It is expected that the Department for 
International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID) will present a 
study on the position and reservations of selected developing countries 
on the inclusion of trade facilitation in the WTO multilateral trade 
negotiations. This paper, based on interviews with key officials of a 
representative set of developing countries, attempts to understand the 
economic, political and legal reasons for these countries’ concerns. It 
suggests options for dealing with these concerns

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Objectives

The Forum is expected to define new, practical measures to progress 
trade facilitation in the new world environment. It will highlight 
possible ways of constructing an equitable mechanism of facilitating 
trade, where small and large countries and businesses will share the 
benefits. It will point to innovative methods for resolving the dilemma 
between heightened security measures and the necessity for faster 
movement of goods, services and information. In particular, the Forum will:

provide a neutral platform for an exchange of views and a policy debate 
among the various stakeholders in trade facilitation, especially on the 
issues of sharing the benefits and the balance between advancing 
security and trade facilitation;

provide a platform at which all the preparatory materials for the Fifth 
WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancún can be presented and compared;

offer a meeting place for representatives of Governments, business and 
international organizations, who can then influence the decision making 
processes in their countries or institutions;
	enhance the public and private sectors’ understanding of the benefits 
of trade facilitation which include:

    1. improving efficiency;
    2. creating jobs;
    3. promoting transparency;
    4. enhancing government revenue; and
    5. boosting competitiveness;

put an emphasis on promoting mechanisms for capacity building in 
developing and transition economies to give substance to the Doha 
Development Agenda of the WTO;
	underline the multidimensional aspects of trade facilitation;
	emphasize the necessity for more work on the legal aspects of trade 
facilitation;
	highlight the role of trade facilitation in successful e-business;
	identify areas where new instruments, including standards, are needed;

enhance the mechanisms of cooperation among Governments, international 
organizations and the private sector, including the possibility of 
making the best use of a combination of regional and global competencies;
	suggest harmonized methods for measuring progress in the implementation 
of trade facilitation;
	decide on follow-up action and implementation.

A publication containing the papers produced for the Forum will be prepared.

The Forum aims at bringing together the following groups of participants:

government policy makers at the level of ministers and deputy-ministers, 
heads of customs services, ambassadors to the UN and the WTO;

senior business executives and chiefs of large trade associations;

heads of international and non-governmental organizations, donor 
agencies, national trade facilitation bodies, and trade associations;

experts specializing in international trade, trade facilitation and 
globalization.

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Outcome

The Forum, which will be the major event on trade facilitation in the 
world in the months before the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancún, will 
contribute to creating a positive framework for implementing 
international instruments and proposing an attractive set of solutions 
regarding trade and transport facilitation. It will suggest ways in 
which trade facilitation can help improve the efficiency of supply chain 
logistics in a volatile international trade environment. In particular 
it will:

strengthen the global network for trade facilitation within the United 
Nations as a place for open policy debate on the issue;

adopt a practical United Nations initiative fostering trade facilitation 
around the world, focused on the next steps that Governments, the 
business community and international organizations should take;
	investigate the possibility of developing an international standard for 
security in trade procedures, which would apply equally to all;

contribute to building the political will necessary for implementing 
trade facilitation among various groups of countries;

make a substantive contribution to the preparations for the discussion 
of trade facilitation at the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancún, Mexico.

The Forum will encourage greater participation of developing and 
transition economies in the global trade facilitation debate.

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Why you should attend

The Forum is organized at the UN in Geneva, a city that increasingly 
becomes the global hub for trade diplomacy. The expected benefits of the 
Forum are:

for policy makers - to participate in a network of decision makers and 
experts who will influence the definition of the trade facilitation 
agenda for the future; to obtain information that will allow them to 
make informed decisions in formulating national strategies and trade policy;

for leaders of the business community – to make their position heard 
among policy makers and ambassadors to the UN and WTO; to interact with 
other major players in trade facilitation; and to make their companies 
better known to the international community;

for intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations - to become 
involved in a wide, cross-sector network of government and business 
leaders; to carry out “reality checks”; to progress inter-regional and 
inter-institutional cooperation in trade facilitation;
	for academics and experts - to contribute to and become part of the 
development of concepts and strategies for future trade facilitation.

Participants will discuss the opportunities for enhancing world trade 
and economic growth. They will become acquainted with the latest trade 
facilitation techniques and regulatory developments, especially with 
regard to the new security environment in world trade, and contribute to 
policy debate regarding trade facilitation.

For more details , please visit the Forum's web site: 
www.unece.org/forums or call :

Mr.Mario Apostolov

UNECE Trade Development and Timber Division

Tel.: +41 22 9171134
Fax: +41 22 9170037

e-mail: mario.apostolov@unece.org

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-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040