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