UNUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Press Releases 1998

[Index]

UN CENTRE ACTS TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE

20 March 1998

The spotlight was recently put on trade facilitation at a WTO Seminar 9-10 March. UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport) met on 16-17 March and addressed some of the key questions raised at the Seminar. These included:

  • How can small and medium-sized enterprises obtain greater access to international trade?
  • How can paperwork and procedures for companies be reduced?
  • How can Governments be encouraged to introduce more modern frontier controls, such as audit and risk-analysis based controls?

UN/CEFACT has adopted new measures that address each of these issues.

Advance the participation of small and medium-sized companies in international trade and electronic commerce, such as:

  • by creating standardized electronic forms for the World Wide Web (WWW) that support Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). These will be based on the UN standard for designing international trade forms (widely used around the world for documents such as the European Union's Single Administrative Document), as well as on the UN international EDI standard, UN/EDIFACT (United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport)..
  • by designing simplified business procedures that combine changes in internal procedures with simplified guidelines on implementing UN/EDIFACT.

Combining electronic forms, improved internal processes and improved UN/EDIFACT implementation will open up new horizons for small and medium-sized companies to compete in the marketplace as Aelectronic equals@.

Promote effective and less costly methods of working, such as

  • more flexible and modern frontier controls

- recommendation to Governments

Reduce paperwork and procedures, such as

  • the procedures, documents and information required at each stage of the international trade transaction

- updated recommendation to Governments

International location codes

A new recommendation for the UN Location Code has also been approved, widening the scope of the Code and increasing the speed of approval of new codes. UN/LOCODE is used worldwide by the tourism and shipping industries, as well as organizations such as IATA and EUROSTAT to identify locations where trade takes place.

Making global commerce a reality

To make global commerce a reality, UN/CEFACT believes that business and administrative processes must be made more effective and transparent. Combined with information technology, these processes provide substantial benefits to both enterprises and governments, such as:

  • simplified procedures
  • integrated supply chains
  • effective trading communities
  • reduced cycle times
  • streamlined business
  • lower costs

UN/CEFACT's worldwide network

UN/CEFACT is unique in that its participants include government, business and trade representatives from UN/ECE and United Nations member States from all regions of the world, as well as representatives of other intergovernmental organizations. To reinforce its unique international scope, UN/CEFACT has set up a network of partnerships between its secretariat and the secretariats of UNCTAD and the other regional economic commissions of the United Nations (located in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, Africa and Western Asia).

Chairman

UN/CEFACT is chaired by Mr. Henri Martre, President of AFNOR, the French national standards organization. Mr. Martre was previously Chief Executive Officer of AĆ©rospatiale.

For further information on UN/CEFACT

Further information can be obtained from the UN/CEFACT secretariat:

Mr. Hans Hansell
UN/CEFACT
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations, Room 442
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Tel: +(41 22) 917 24 57
Fax: +(41 22) 917 00 37
E-mail: [email protected]

UN/CEFACT on the Internet
You may also wish to visit our website: http://www.unece.org/trafix