WCO hosts a global conference on transport and ...

February 1, 2005

1 February 2005

WCO hosts a global conference on transport and trade facilitation

Global Facilitation Partnership for Transport and Trade: Moving Forward with the WTO and Beyond

The following news release was issued by the World Customs Organization (WCO) on 31 January 2005. CSCB President Carol West attended the “Global Facilitation Partnership for Transport and Trade” meeting discussed in this release.

The WCO hosted a gathering of “Global Facilitation Partnership for Transport and Trade” (GFP) on 26 January at WCO headquarters in Brussels. Participants of over 100 representatives from governments, intergovernmental organizations, lending institutions, the private sector, and academics gathered to discuss the way forward for transport and trade facilitation, especially in light of the commencement of the WTO negotiations on trade facilitation.

The meeting started with the welcoming address of the WCO Secretary General Michel Dante. He addressed two recent events. With respect to the WTO negotiations on trade facilitation, he confirmed the commitment of the WCO to actively continue its contribution to the work of the WTO on Trade Facilitation and emphasized the importance of the WCO role in this field. He also stressed the important agenda of supply chain security and facilitation and briefed ongoing WCO work on framework of standards on security of the supply chain.

His welcoming address was followed by those of the World Bank and the WTO representatives. The WTO aspired that the GFP could become a useful framework to enhance co-ordination within governments at the national level, co-operation among international organizations and co-operation with the private sector.

This GFP meeting focused on the important role of capacity building on trade facilitation and had two sessions, namely: Assessing Needs – Perspectives and Tool and Mobilizing institutional Support – An exercise in International Co-operation. In the first session, the representatives of the ACP Secretariat, ICC, OECD, WCO, and the European Commission presented their views and strategies on capacity building activities in the field of transport and trade facilitation. In his presentation, the WCO Deputy Director, Ray McDonagh, highlighted some of the useful WCO tools that the WCO had developed, namely, the WCO Diagnostic Framework, the WCO Self-Assessment Check List, and the WCO’s Time Release Study which IT software would become available soon in co-operation with the World Bank.

The speakers of the afternoon session, i.e. representatives of UN/ECE, UNCTAD, UNIDO and the World Bank introduced their capacity building activities and stressed their efforts to enhance co-operation with the other stakeholders, in particular intergovernmental organizations.

Each session was followed by panel discussions which provided an interactive exchange of views amongst the panelists and the audiences. There was particularly active participation from the private sector on the issues of transport and trade facilitation reflecting their high degree of interest in this important agenda.

The meeting gathered over 100 participants from a wide range of background including governments, intergovernmental organizations, lending institutions, the private sector and academics. The meeting realized the objectives of the GFP, i.e. pulling together all interested parties, public and private, national and international, who want to help achieve significant improvements in transport and trade facilitation in the world.

The next GFP meeting will be hosted by UNCTAD in September 2005.


Topic(s): 
International Initiatives
Information Source: 
World Customs Organization (WCO) / World Trade Organization (WTO)
Document Type: 
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