Introduction
- The provisional agenda for the forty-third session of the
Working Party on Facilitation of International Trade Procedures has
been established in accordance with decisions taken at its forty-
second session.
- 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. It is expected that the experts of GE.1 and GE.2 will
have a joint session on legal 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 in the conference room the Monday,
18 March 1996 starting at 10.00 and continuing until 13.00 and the Thursday, 21 March
starting at 15.00 and continuing until 18.00. The meeting on 18 March will present the
nterim 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 1996 will be to
debate and discuss the 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 is the adoption of the agenda
(document TRADE/WP.4/194/Rev.1).
Item 2 - Election of Officers
- In accordance with the Commission's Rules of Procedures
and established practice, the session is expected to elect a
Chairman and Vice-Chairmen for the year 1996. At the March 1995
session, Mr. T. Blomfeldt (Finland) was elected as Chairman. Mrs.
N. Willenz-Gardner (the United States of America) and Mr. D. Dima
(Romania) were elected as Vice-Chairpersons of the Working Party
for 1995.
Item 3 - Matters arising from the re-engineering process of
the Working Party
- Document TRADE/WP.4/R.1199
contains the report of the
Bureau on the work of the three re-engineering teams established at
the September 1995 session of WP.4. The secretariat will inform
the Working Party of the decisions taken at the forty-fourth
session of the Committee on the Development of Trade in December
1995 on the WP.4 re-engineering.
Item 4 - Trade facilitation and UN/EDIFACT in economies
in transition
- At its thirty-sixth session, the Working Party agreed to
include this item in the agenda of its further sessions. Document
TRADE/WP.4/R.899 represents an
input of the secretariat on the
subject. At the September 1995 session of the Working Party,
delegations were invited to comment on measures to be taken in the
field of trade facilitation to assist economies in transition.
Item 5 - Matters arising from the fifty-third session of the
Meeting of Experts on Data Elements and Automatic Data
Interchange
- The Chairman of the Meeting of Experts will present
proposals forwarded by the Meeting to the Working Party for action.
Item 6 - Matters arising from the fifty-third session of the
Meeting of Experts on Procedures and Documentation
- The Chairman of the Meeting of Experts will present
proposals forwarded by the Meeting to the Working Party for action.
Item 7 - Matters arising from the joint session on legal
matters of the Meeting of Experts on Data Elements and Automatic
Data Interchange and the Meeting of Experts on Procedures
and Documentation
- The Chairman of the joint session on legal matters of the
Meetings of Experts will present proposals forwarded by the session
to the Working Party for action.
Item 8 - Cooperation with other international bodies and
organizations
(a) Inland Transport Committee
- The secretariat will present a report on activities within
the framework of the ECE Inland Transport Committee relevant to the
facilitation of international trade procedures that have taken
place since the forty-second session of the Working Party.
(b) Intersecretariat Task Force
- The secretariat will report on activities within the
Intersecretariat Task Force on cooperation between ECE, UNCTAD and
ITC in the field of Trade Facilitation.
(b) Other international organizations
- Other developments relevant to trade facilitation which
might have occurred within international organizations could be
reported under this item of the agenda.
- It is recalled that oral statements made at the sessions
concerning recent progress should be supplemented by written
contributions for reproduction and distribution.
Item 10 - Programme and organization of work and priorities
- In light of progress made since its twenty-eighth session
(September 1989), when the current version of the Programme of work
(Annex to document TRADE/WP.4/165) was approved, the Working Party
agreed to further discuss this item on the basis of the proposals
made by delegations. Documents TRADE/WP.4/R.946,
TRADE/WP.4/R.899
and TRADE/WP.4/R.1000 and its
Corr.1 are secretariat inputs on the
subject.
Item 11 - Other business
- The Working Party will discuss the question of raising
awareness on its work and deliverables.
Item 12 - Adoption of the Report of the forty-third session
- The Working party decided in its September 1995 session to
issue its Report from that session after having received written
comments from Heads of delegation. The report was issued subject to
the clearance of the Working Party's Chairman.
- For the Report of the March 1996 session, it is proposed
that the same procedure be adopted.
_____________
|
