Press Releases 1997

[Index]

A NEW CENTRE: NEW WAYS OF WORKING IN THE UN SYSTEM

19 March 1997

Today, with the inauguration of its Centre for the Facilitation of Administration, Commerce and Trade (CEFACT), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) has inaugurated an innovative reform showing how UN bodies can re-organize their work to leverage collaborative efforts, work more effectively with the private sector and delegate technical decisions to field experts.

Background

Two-thirds of world trade originates from UN/ECE member States, who have also pioneered the reduction of tariff barriers to trade internationally. With reduced tariff barriers came a realization of the importance of procedural trade barriers and a great interest in seeing procedural barriers reduced or eliminated. Thus, for well over thirty years, the ECE's Working Party on Facilitation of International Trade Procedures (WP.4) has developed trade facilitation techniques, recommendations and norms which have been implemented in governmental and commercial sectors across the world. These techniques, recommendations and norms are also widely used and promoted within the UN system by other Regional Commissions, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), thus making WP.4 a good example of a centre of excellence within the UN system.

In recent years, the reduction of tariff barriers around the world has prompted UN member States to become even more interested in the reduction of procedural barriers to trade and related techniques such as electronic data interchange. As a result, over 1,500 experts, principally from UN/ECE countries, but with increasing representation from other regions, contribute to the work of

WP.4. Significantly, these experts come mainly from the private sector around the world, but also include key government experts. The results of their work has been published and approved by WP.4, but their input so far has been channelled through informal meetings and support structures maintained outside the UN's formal structure.

What has changed

In response to new technological developments, a desire to officially recognise the contributions made by the above mentioned experts, and the need to make better use of available resources, WP.4 launched a re-engineering exercise over two years ago. This has resulted in its transformation into The Centre for Facilitation of Procedures and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport (CEFACT) which was unanimously approved by the Commission on 7 February of this year and which held its first meeting today. During this first meeting the Centre elected as its Chair, Mr. Henri Martre, former president of Aérospatiale and President of AFNOR, the French national standards organization, the following were elected as Vice-Chairs: Mr. Harvey Bates, Advisor to the Australian Government; Ms. Bernadette Curry, Electronic Commerce Manager for the US Department of the Treasury; Mr. Kenji Itoh, Executive Director of JASTPRO, the Japanese national trade facilitation organization; Mr. Santiago Mila, Trade Facilitation Manager for the International Association of Ports and Harbours and Mr. Ray Walker, Advisor to the UK Department of Trade and Industry. Mr. Ray Walker was also elected Chairman of the CEFACT Steering Group which is responsible for managing implementation of the work programme.

The new Centre is dedicated to facilitating international transactions through the development of recommendations and tools that simplify and harmonize procedures and information flows. Its ultimate objective being to improve the ability of business, trade and administrative organizations to exchange products and relevant services effectively, thus contributing to the growth of global commerce.

Within the new Centre, work has been re-organized in order to streamline decision making, leverage collaborative efforts and delegate technical decisions to field experts. This has been accomplished by:

the establishment of a system of "empowerment" whereby informal technical groups work under well-defined mandates, terms of reference and procedures;

allowing and encouraging the full participation of non-ECE country delegations, interested international organizations and recognized NGOs within the Centre's meetings and management structure;

the secretariat's development of an international support network based upon focal points in interested UN Regional Commissions and an inter-secretariat task force which coordinates the work undertaken by the ECE, UNCTAD and the ITC in this area.

The participation of so many private sector experts and their associations in the Centre's work, under clear mandates, is a unique feature of the Centre forging new cooperative relationships between private business and intergovernmental organizations. Because of their, often direct, participation as well as their cooperative relationships with the UN/ECE Trade Division, this also results in the channelling of end user requirements beyond the UN/ECE to other organizations such as the WTO, ISO, the World Customs Organization (WCO), the other Regional Commissions, UNCTAD, ITC, and UNCITRAL.

The establishment of CEFACT also provides an opportunity to strengthen relationships with the World Trade Organization. The UN/ECE is committed to expanding its collaboration with the World Trade Organization, especially in light of its Singapore declaration which highlights the importance of trade facilitation.

Thus the restructuring of the Working Party into a Centre widens participation in the work, allows the Centre to concentrate on policy and management issues and delegates technical issues to informal technical groups. This will result in better focused activities and increased efficiency.

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