The Committee on Trade
In 2006, the Committee on Trade approved its new
mandate in support of the UNECE Reform. An important aspect of the Reform
was a request by member States to all UNECE committees that they develop
synergies and joint projects among their subsidiary bodies, with the other
UNECE committees and United Nations regional commissions, and with other international
organizations.
In fact, the Committee on Trade and its subsidiary bodies have long recognized
that working closely with other bodies is crucial to better defining and fulfilling
their roles in today’s challenging and evolving environment. In the
future, the Committee and its subsidiary bodies will continue to further foster
and strengthen cooperation with all relevant stakeholders in order to ensure
that the contributions of UNECE to trade in the UNECE region are distinct
and make full use of the Commission’s comparative advantages, in particular
as a forum for private-public dialogue.
In 2007, the Committee will pursue research work directed at identifying
the most critical outstanding non-tariff barriers to trade among the countries
of Central Asia, and how the standards, recommendations and other instruments
developed by the Committee can be used to overcome these barriers.
The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business
(UN/CEFACT)
Completing an international transaction currently involves a number of different
procedures, with traders supplying different sets of data to government agencies
and business counterparts when buying, shipping, and paying for their goods.
This can entail considerable time and cost for both the buyer and the seller
as well as for each of the different players in the transaction (e.g. transporters,
freight forwarders, Customs authorities, financial institutions).
UN/CEFACT is working to achieve simpler, more transparent and more effective
processes for global commerce. Part of this work supports “end-to-end
interoperability”, i.e. “seamless automatic cooperation amongst
computer systems between a buyer and a seller”, in which data can be
supplied once at the outset and then be re-used to support the whole “buy-ship-pay” cycle.
For this to be achieved, agreements need to be reached on the harmonized data
required along the entire supply chain by industry, government and transport
applications.
UN/CEFACT is working to support greater efficiency in these processes. It
is doing so in partnership with other intergovernmental organizations as well
as with the involvement of a wide range of experts from around the world,
each of whom contributes to the storehouse of knowledge that is being made
freely available for use in business, Government and trade. In particular,
the results of this ongoing UN/ CEFACT work are helping traders, trade intermediaries
(such as banks and transport companies) and government administrations to
significantly streamline and improve their data exchange systems.
In 2006, at the UN/CEFACT annual session, stakeholders put their priorities
in sharp focus and reached agreement on an integrated strategy in going forward.
The next UN/CEFACT Plenary, in May 2007, will continue to examine the challenges
ahead and practical next steps towards achieving key deliverables.
The Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards (WP.7)
The UNECE Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards (WP.7) develops
commercial quality standards for fruit and vegetables, as well as other agricultural
produce. These standards are widely used by traders as well as by the EU and
in many countries as the basis of legislation in this area. At the same time,
the OECD Scheme for the Application of International Standards for Fruit and
Vegetables (the “OECD Scheme”) adopts the UNECE standards as OECD
standards and publishes explanatory material that helps inspectors to interpret
these standards in a harmonized manner.
As part of the UNECE Reform, member States decided that UNECE should strengthen
its work in the area of agricultural quality standards and that “consultations
should be initiated with the OECD in order to concentrate the activities of
the two organizations within the ECE.”
This proposal would:
• Be more efficient because work on explanatory brochures often brings
to light changes needed in the standards, or vice versa.
• Provide an important opportunity to expand participation in the development
of the explanatory brochures (to participate in the OECD Scheme a country
must be admitted as a paying member).
• Result in explanatory brochures being available in Russian as well
as in English and French (the two official languages of OECD).
• Be less costly for delegates, many of whom attend meetings on similar
material at both UNECE and OECD.
• Provide one focal point for the development and maintenance of both
the standards and their implementation brochures.
To support this transfer, the UNECE secretariat has prepared a draft transition
plan which, after discussion at the sessions of the Specialized Sections on
Standardization of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables and on Dry and Dried Produce,
was endorsed by the Committee on Trade in June 2006. The plan was presented
at the November 2006 meeting of the OECD Scheme, which decided to call an
extraordinary meeting in April 2007 to further consider the document.
In addition to coordinating the proposed transfer of activities from the
OECD, in 2007 WP.7 will pursue its ongoing work of developing and updating
UNECE agricultural quality standards and promoting the application of these
standards through seminars and workshops throughout the UNECE region.
The Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization
Policies (WP.6)
In the UNECE region, diverging product regulations and standards are a critical
impediment to trade, especially among the EECCA and SEE countries. Only a
few mutual recognition agreements exist among the countries of these regions.
Therefore, the certificates accompanying the goods are often not recognized,
which can result in significant added costs and delays. The Working Party
on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6) recently developed
an International Model for Technical Harmonization (Recommendation “L”),
which comprises a set of voluntary mechanisms and principles for good regulatory
practices for countries wishing to align their regulatory regimes in specific
sectors or product areas.
In March 2005, the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Community (Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)
signed an agreement on the principles of harmonization of technical regulations
based on Recommendation “L”. More recently, work on the Recommendation
and related sectoral projects was presented at the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly
of the CIS, which decided to recommend that the national parliamentary committees
in the CIS use Recommendation “L” in drafting national legislation.
In addition, WP.6 has developed two sectoral projects based on Recommendation “L”,
on telecommunications products and earthmoving machinery, while preliminary
work is under way for two more, on the safety of pipelines and equipment for
use in explosive environments.
A further challenge confronting the countries of the UNECE region is the
protection of intellectual property rights and the proliferation of counterfeit
goods. The latter can be life-threatening – for example, adulterated
or contaminated foods, hazardous toys, substandard electrical products and
shoddy car or aircraft parts. The UNECE Advisory Group on Market Surveillance
(“MARS” Group) under WP.6 has drafted a proposal urging Governments
to enlist those authorities charged with enforcing product safety in the fight
against counterfeit and pirated goods, where they could complement the efforts
of Customs, police and intellectual property agencies, and outlining how this
could be done. The “MARS” Group’s proposal will be submitted
for final consideration and approval as a new UNECE Recommendation at the
WP.6 annual session in November 2007.
Mr. Alexander Šafaík-Pštrosz
Chairperson, Committee
on Trade
The economies of the UNECE region are very diverse. One indicator is the
wide disparity in the average total costs that firms incur to export one container
of standard goods – including packing, internal transport, clearing
Customs, and shipping from the port of exit. These costs range from $420 in
Finland to more than ten times as much ($4,300) in Tajikistan ( http://www.doingbusiness.org
). As this example shows, securing a competitive position in the global market
by establishing timely, reliable, efficient and cost-effective procedures
for international trade transactions can present a considerable challenge,
especially for exporters in countries with developing economies.
To achieve these goals, countries need a broad yet cohesive collaborative
effort from private companies, business associations, financial and insurance
institutions, forwarders, governmental agencies and standard- setting organizations,
as well as Customs authorities and other bodies. The Committee on Trade supports
these efforts by developing international standards and recommendations to
support trade facilitation and the sharing of best practices for simplified
and harmonized international trade procedures.
Two important aspects of the Committee’s work are the development
of international technical and quality standards and the promotion of harmonization
and mutual recognition of national standards and conformity assessment procedures.
The most basic foundation of international trade is that the buyer and the
seller speak a commonly understood language. Internationally agreed standards
provide just this. The existence of standards, for example, allows for long-distance
trade in agricultural products, because they allow the buyer to purchase and
the seller to ship goods based on a mutually understood description of those
goods, thus minimizing potential misunderstandings.
The 2006 UNECE reform made sweeping changes to the Committee’s mandate,
shifting its focus squarely to international trade with an emphasis on the
facilitation of international trade, specifically simpler and better integrated
trade procedures, e-business, common agricultural quality standards and the
harmonization of technical regulations. The work of the Committee, the only
United Nations body dealing with these issues, has a worldwide impact. Currently,
any producer that engages in international trade cannot do so efficiently
without using or referring to the standards elaborated by the Committee and
its subsidiary bodies. Indeed, when countries want to support the efforts
of their producers and contribute to their success in international markets,
the standards elaborated by the Committee on Trade are often the instruments
of choice. The involvement of a broad range of stakeholders in the work of
the “new” Committee on Trade is highly appreciated.
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