Recommendation for Trade information Portal
other
Project Details
Project Purpose
Under the TFA, Member State's obligations regarding publication and availability of information include the following: • Publishing promptly a range of information related to importation, exportation and transit requirements and procedures (see TFA Article 1.1 a-j in ANNEX); • Making available through the internet a description of importation, exportation and transit procedures, the required forms and documents, and contact information on enquiry points (whenever practicable, also in one of the official languages of the WTO); • Establishing an enquiry point (or several) to answer questions from governments, traders and other interested parties, and notifying their contact information; and • Notifying to the Trade Facilitation Committee the official places and URLs of websites where the Member has made available the above information. WTO also developed Background Note to outline the relationship between TFA and SPS Agreement. (https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/sps_e/tf_sps_e.pdf). In the Background Note, it has stated that as regards to publication and availability of information, there are several intersections between the TFA and the SPS Agreement where SPS requires prompt publication of SPS regulations such as laws, decrees or ordinances which are applicable generally and to establish an SPS enquiry point to answer reasonable questions from other Members and provide relevant documents regarding SPS measures, control and inspection procedures, pesticide tolerance, etc. As a trend set by International Organizations to regulate the publication and availability of trade information, there are ongoing efforts by many countries to establish Trade Information Portal to meet the regulatory requirement for global trade such as WTO TFA, SPS Agreement, etc. With the rapid implementation of Single Window system, the development of Trade Information Portal should be taken into consideration as it requires similar nature of governance/framework to implement it i.e. coordination of information gathering/updates from various government agencies, harmonization/unification of enquiry points and process/procedures to be published etc. Therefore, it is timely for UN/CEFACT Domain group to look into/recommend a best practices for such implementation.Project Scope
The proposed project scope are: 1. To develop a framework/mechanism for development/implementation of Trade Information Portal and perhaps a model agreement on how to share this type of information between countries. 2. To identify Global Trade Agreements/Measures that regulate such implementation and it’s requirements. Recommend ways to harmonize/standardize such requirements 3. Propose a standardized model of data exchange to share information between information portals and potentially directly accessible by economic operators. 4. Build case studies of existing implementations.Project Deliverables
Deliverable 1: UN Recommendations for Trade Information Portal Deliverable 2: Case Studies template Deliverable 3: BRS, schema and CCL harmonization/contributionExit Criteria
Exit Criteria for Deliv. 1: Public review logs demonstrating that all substantial comments have been addressed; ready for publication. Exit Criteria for Deliv. 2: Template presented to the Bureau for potential use Exit Criteria for Deliv. 3: Public review logs demonstrating that all substantial comments have been addressed; ready for publication.Project Team Membership and Required Functional Expertise
Membership is open to UN/CEFACT experts with broad knowledge in the area of: Regulatory cross-border requirements and data modelling In addition, Heads of Delegations may invite technical experts from their constituency to participate in the work. Experts are expected to contribute to the work based solely on their expertise and to comply with the UN/CEFACT Code of Conduct and Ethics and the policy on Intellectual Property Rights.Geographical Focus
The geographical focus of the project is global.Initial Contributions
• WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation • The Agreement on The Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)Resource Requirements
Participants in the project shall provide resources for their own participation. The existence and functioning of the project shall not require any additional resources from the UNECE secretariat.Project Proposal Files