Governments worldwide have set up trade facilitation bodies as platform for dialogue, exchange and cooperation between private and public stakeholders on trade facilitation issues. When governments involve private sector firms in such National Trade Facilitation Bodies, most do so through formal membership targets for professional associations. However, this has not always been sufficient to encourage effective participation of private sector firms in the operational activities. Under what conditions can more active engagement of private sector firms be secured and encouraged? Investigating this question is key to help governments leverage private sector expertise and input for trade facilitation reforms, and to help micro, small and medium enterprises to overcome barriers for participation.
UN/CEFACT guidance for setting up such bodies recommends appropriate representation of private sector firms in National Trade Facilitation Bodies and reiterates the benefits of broad private sector mobilization for inclusiveness and impact of trade facilitation reforms. UNECE Recommendation No 4 on National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFB) lists the following private sector stakeholders as recommended members of an NTFB: importers, exporters, freight forwarders, carriers, banks, and insurance companies.
However, at the operational level, engaging private sector at the right level in a continuous manner has been challenging for many trade facilitation bodies. Issues to overcome are logistics, fragmentation of private sector, different levels of knowledge, leadership, culture and mindset. Private and public sector representatives not only have diverging interests they also have different expectations from dialogue structures and how they can impact change on the ground. Trade facilitation bodies that are successful in bringing in private sector views and members have invested resources and efforts in bridging gaps between the expectations and interests remain high, objectives of the private sector
This White Paper aims to take stock of existing challenges and constraints for effective private sector mobilization and provide guidance on how to create investments and arrangements that encourage private sector participation in NTFB and other forms of public-private consultation related to trade facilitation. |