[Index]
Trade facilitation must have a place in
Russia's market reform
UNECE Workshop on Trade Facilitation,
Moscow, 22-23 November 2004
hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry
of the Russian Federation
The recent joint Workshop on Trade Facilitation,
held in Moscow, catalysed the launch of a
trade facilitation programme in Russia. The
Workshop was held under the auspices of the
UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE),
in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of
Economic Development and Trade, the Russian
Federal Customs Service, and the Russian Chamber
of Commerce and Industry.
Russia’s bid to join
the World Trade Organization emphasized the
timeliness of the meeting, as trade facilitation
this year became part of WTO’s core
negotiating agenda in its “July Package”.
In addition, the $140m Russian-World Bank
Customs modernization project proposes a trade
facilitation programme.
According to Vitaly Aristov,
a senior official at the Russian Ministry
of Economic Development and Trade, this was
the first event held in Moscow to focus specifically
on the core idea of trade facilitation. Earlier
activities dealt with particular aspects,
such as related GATT articles or the first
Russian EDIFACT Board.
The meeting gathered together
representatives of key Russian public institutions,
international experts, and representative
of the freight forwarding, express carrier,
banking, software and inspection industries,
all of whom have a special interest in trade
facilitation. This was the first time that
they all came together to discuss the mutual
benefits of promoting trade facilitation.
The participants agreed to
pursue a partnership between public and private
institutions and to establish a national trade
facilitation committee under the Russian Chamber
of Commerce and Industry. They will explore
projects based on UNECE’s recommendations
and standards.
Such projects could include
a regional “Single Window”1
project with the local government, Customs,
the Chamber of Commerce, and the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) office in Moscow.
Another project could be a series of specialized
capacity-building seminars on topics of interest
to Russian business or State institutions.
A further project could assist in developing
a trade facilitation component in the Eurasian
Economic Community (EurAsEC), a five-country
regional initiative of Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
Alexey Kaulbars, another
senior official at the Ministry of Economic
Development, presented his institution’s
vision for reforming Customs procedures. On
their side, executives of the Customs Service,
which was recently transferred under the responsibility
of the same Ministry, presented the Customs
modernization and computerization programme.
The current stage of market
reforms requires stronger support to Russia’s
SMEs and middle class through trade facilitation;
while better trade procedures are needed to
meet the terrorist threat to the security
of international trade flows.
For further information,
please contact:
Mario Apostolov
Regional Adviser, UNECE Trade
Palais des Nations, Room 437
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)22 917 11 34
Fax: +41 (0)22 917 00 37
E-mail: [email protected]
__________
1 A “Single Window”
allows parties involved in international trade
and transport to lodge standardized information
and documents with a single entry point to
fulfil all import, export, and transit-related
regulatory requirements.
Ref: ECE/TRADE/04/N02