Introduction
- The provisional agenda for the fifty-third session of
the Meeting of Experts on Procedures and Documentation (GE.2) has
been established in accordance with decisions taken by the
Working Party on Facilitation of International Trade Procedures
at its forty-second session in September 1995.
- The provisional timetable presented below has been agreed upon by the Bureau of the Working
Party on Facilitation of International Trade Procedures for its forty-third session and for the
sessions of its Meetings of Experts. t is expected that the experts of GE.1 and GE.2 will have
a joint session on egal issues in the morning of 21 March 1996.
a.m. p.m.
Monday 18 March 1996 Informal Meeting GE.1
Tuesday 19 March 1996 GE.1 GE.1
Wednesday 20 March 1996 GE.2 GE.2
Thursday 21 March 1996 GE.1/GE.2 Informal Meeting
Friday 22 March 1996 WP.4 WP.4
- Informal meetings of delegations will take place the Monday, 18 March tarting at 10.00 and
continuing until 13.00 and the Thursday, 21 March tarting at 15.00 and continuing until 18.00.
The meeting on 18 March will resent the interim reports from the three ad hoc groups established
at the September 1995 session to develop the plans and terms of reference necessary for
implementation of the Re-engineering proposal approved at the September 1995 WP.4 meeting.
The meeting on 21 March will be to debate and discuss these same documents. In the context of
trade facilitation work, the word "delegations" refers not only to countries but also to
international organizations regularly represented at meetings.
Item 1 - Adoption of the agenda
- In accordance with the Commission's Rules of Procedures, the first item on
the provisional agenda (document TRADE/WP.4/GE.2/102) is the adoption of
the agenda.
Item 2 - Election of Officers
- In accordance with the Commission's Rules of
Procedures and established practice, the Meeting is expected to
elect a Chairman and Vice-Chairmen for the year 1996. In 1995,
Mr. E. Goffin (Belgium) was elected as Chairman and Mrs. C.
Wallen-Rahlen (Sweden) and Mr. A. Filippov (Russian Federation)
as Vice-Chairmen of the Meeting of Experts for 1995.
Item 3 - Programme of work and priorities
- In the light of progress made since the twenty-eighth
session of the Working Party (September 1989) when the current
version of the programme of work (TRADE/WP.4/165) was approved,
the Meeting of Experts agreed to start with its amendment on the
basis of the proposals made by its Chairman. Document
TRADE/WP.4/R.1000 and its
Corrigendum 1 are the secretariat
inputs on the subject.
- Document TRADE/WP.4/R.1199
contains the report from
the Bureau on the work of three re-engineering teams established
at the September 1995 session of WP.4 and information on the
decisions taken by the forty-fourth session of the Committee on
the Development of Trade in December 1995.
Item 4 - Analysis of the International Trade Transaction (ITT)
- Document Trade/WP.4/R.1200 contains the report by the
steering group of the Maintenance Agency for the International
Trade Transaction (ITT) modelling activities since the 52d
session of GE.2.
Item 5 - Implementation of ECE/FAL Recommendations
- The Meeting of Experts considers during its sessions
the questions of implementation of specific measures falling
under the respective programme items of work. In accordance with
the decision taken by WP.4 at the session in September 1994, the
secretariat published all the Recommendations approved by the
Working Party (document ECE/TRADE/200).
(a) Recommendation No. 4 "National Trade Facilitation
Organizations"
- To encourage a discussion on the development of
national and regional committees on facilitation of international
trade procedures and the revision
of Recommendation 4, the secretariat has amended the list of
existing committees and focal points (document
TRADE/WP.4/R.898/Rev.6).
(b) Recommendation No.10 "Ships' codes"
- Document TRADE/WP.4/R.1201
prepared by ICS contains proposals for revision of this
Recommendation.
(c) Recommendation No.12 "Measures to facilitate transport documents procedures"p>
- Document TRADE/WP.4/R.1218
prepared by ICS is an information paper on the implementation
of this Recommendation.
(d) Recommendation No. 17 "PAYTERMS - Abbreviations for Terms
of Payment"
- Document TRADE/WP.4/R.1202
prepared by the secretariat
contains the evaluation of this Recommendation.
(e) Recommendation No.18 "Facilitation measures related to
international trade procedures"
- It is expected that the Chairman of the Meeting will
report on the main issues of the World Bank study on Pre-Shipment
Inspection (PSI). Delegations will report on the activities in this
field and possibly on other issues in respect of Recommendation
No.18 on the basis of the position paper prepared by the IECC in
cooperation with the delegation of the United Kingdom
(TRADE/WP.4/R.1203)Document TRADE/WP.4/CRP.47 is a report of the International Federation of
Inspection Agencies on the PSI procedure prepared in accordance with the decision of the September
1995 session of GE.2.
Item 6 - Revision of the Kyoto Convention
- Document TRADE\WP.4\R.1204
is a discussion paper on
the subject taking into account document
TRADE\WP.4\R.1172, which
contains the Customs segment of the Recommendations made at the
UNCTAD Symposium on Trade Efficiency held in Columbus in October
1994.
Item 7 - Trade documents names and functions
- At the previous session it was agreed to revert to
this subject after finalization of the WP.4 re-engineering
process.
Item 8 - Aligned forms and the Trade Data Elements Directory
(UNTDED)
- Document TRADE/WP.4/R.1205
prepared by the secretariat
contains the ISO methodological information on the subject.
- Document TRADE/WP.4/CRP.46
contains the report from the Legal Rapporteurs. This document is
for information and discussion.
Item 10 - Other business
- Documents ECE/TRADE/201, ECE/TRADE/202, ECE/TRADE/203,
ECE/TRADE/204 and ECE/TRADE/205 contain respectively the
published versions of revised Recommendations No.3, 5, 9, 11, 16 and new Recommendations No.24, 25 and 26 approved at
the session of WP.4 in September 1995.
Item 11 - Adoption of the Report of the fifty-third session
- In accordance with established practice, the Meeting
of Experts will adopt the Report of its fifty-third session in
the form of a summary, prepared by the secretariat, of decisions
taken during the session, to be presented to the Working Party
for approval.
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