In 2004 the United Nations continued
to promote trade as a means to foster economic development
and eradicate poverty. UNECE's role in trade is
to strengthen the trade policy infrastructure, develop
and maintain effective trade-related standards and
recommendations, help establish fair and business-friendly
regulatory environments, and promote the implementation
of recommended trade facilitation and electronic
business measures. During 2004, the UNECE saw significant
achievements in three areas: standards setting;
implementation; and the development of supporting
networks of institutions and experts.
In October 2004, the Centre for
Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT)
approved a "Single Window" recommendation,
whose implementation will facilitate the participation
of small and medium-sized companies in international
trade by providing them with a single location for
import and export formalities. In addition, UN/CEFACT
approved the Core Components Specification, which
is expected by many to form the cornerstone of the
next generation of electronic business standards.
The UN Code for Trade and Transport
Locations (UN/LOCODE), used around the world by
major postal, customs and shipping organizations,
was updated and approximately 6,000 entries added
or revised.
In the area of agricultural quality
standards, a new standard for bovine meat (beef)
was approved and almost 20 existing standards and
recommendations were updated to meet new requirements
from consumers and traders.
In 2004 the EU decided to completely
harmonize the technical content of 36 of its directives
on the marketing of agricultural goods, covering
95% of trade in fruit and vegetables in the EU,
with the corresponding UNECE standards. Together
with the expansion of the EU and the corresponding
expansion in the application of these standards
to 25 countries, these developments represent a
significant increase in the use and application
of UNECE standards in trade.
Twelve members of the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) signed an agreement
on regulatory convergence based on recommendation
L (on regulatory harmonization) from the Working
Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization
Policies. Implementation of this agreement will
create a harmonized regulatory regime for domestic
and imported products and thus contribute to the
development of both intra-regional and international
trade flows.
Templates (detailed specifications)
were completed for 12 documents used in international
trade under the United Nations Electronic Documents
project (UNeDocs) and published on the Internet.
These constitute a proof of concept of UNECE's approach
to improving paper documents and creating an online
environment that is friendly to SMEs and will allow
them to move seamlessly between the use of paper
and electronic documents.
A compendium of work undertaken
by the Committee for Trade, Industry and Enterprise
Development was published, containing over 500 documents
and providing an important reference work for practitioners
in the field.
During 2004 the creation of an
updated Internet site for the network of national
organizations promoting the work of the Committee
as well as the organization of a number of meetings
- both in Geneva and in the field - facilitated
the development of UNECE's unique network comprised
of practitioners, business, and policy-makers. The
most important of these meetings included: the May
2004 Executive Forum on Competing in a Changing
Europe, which discussed policies and strategies
for better integrating the "new neighbours"
of the EU into an enlarged trading community; a
High-level Workshop on Economic Security in Europe,
organized jointly with OSCE, which addressed threats
and challenges to trade and economic security; and
a Workshop on Trade Facilitation that saw participants
from throughout the world discuss how to implement
tools and techniques designed to facilitate trade
and foster development.
Major challenges for 2005
will include further intensifying trade facilitation
activities. Experts believe that trade facilitation
can bring even greater benefits than further reductions
in customs duties. For this to become a reality,
close collaboration with other international organizations,
and focus on concrete, easy to implement results,
is key. Economic development and political stability
in the region will depend on helping less developed
transition economies better integrate into the regional
and global economy.
Promoting trade and economic development
will include such activities as an International
Forum on Trade Facilitation (20-21 June) which will
deal with such issues as managing the demands of
security and trade facilitation. Efforts will also
be made to support less advantaged countries in
implementing trade facilitation under Articles V,
VIII and X of GATT in the WTO negotiations. The
cooperation between UNECE, EU and the OSCE Economic
Dimension will be enhanced, especially regarding
CIS and South East Europe trade issues, including
regional trade agreements and free trade arrangements.
The problems of facilitating trade
in landlocked countries in the region will be addressed.
In the context of the forthcoming World Summit on
the Information Society (Tunis 2005) the UNECE will
help in bridging the digital divide by working with
the other UN regional commissions in the UN ICT
Task Force. New external resources to continue and
expand the scope of trade and environment linkages
in the Russian Federation and the CIS will be raised.
In the context of creating and
maintaining standards in support of trade, the UNECE
will develop a Memorandum of Understanding with
the OECD to define a mutually supportive cooperation.
It will identify a legal framework for intellectual
property rights issues within UN/CEFACT, so that
software companies can participate in the development
of standards and tools for electronic business.
It will deliver core components based on UN/CEFACT
Modelling Methodology (UMM) to support a fully usable
e-business framework for private and public organizations.
A UN/CEFACT task force to define the standards for
electronic documents for trade will be established
as well as a task force on "Single Window"
standards and interoperability.
In order to help to harmonize regulations
and practices, an international forum will be organized
on market surveillance to assist countries in transition
adopt best practices relating to market control.
The UNECE will also build on the
action plan for agricultural trade and quality in
the Republic of Moldova and promote similar development
in Azerbaijan and Georgia. It will provide assistance
to countries in the region in implementing regulatory
harmonization. The UNECE will promote the implementation
of UNeDocs as an instrument to ease the transition
to paperless trade, especially electronic invoicing,
in cooperation with regional and business-sector
partners.