A Workshop on Stakeholder Platforms for Collaboration in Cross Border Trade: Trends in building the Single Window Environment will be Jointly organized by UNECE and UNESCAP and hosted by the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC) on 23 October 2015 in Shanghai, China and is supported by the United Nations Network for Paperless Trade and Transport in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT), a regional expert network platform for sharing formation and experience in implementing paperless trade.

Background:
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), through its Centre for Trade Facilitation and electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) was the first international organization to recommend the Single Window concept as an instrument to simplify border formalities by arranging electronic submission of information to fulfil all cross-border regulatory requirements and to collaborate among the border agencies and trade community. When developing the recommendation, the core idea was to establish a platform for collaboration of public and private sector stakeholders, such as exporters, importers and Government agencies, for the simplification of business processes, using information technology as an enabling tool.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), as an intergovernmental body for the countries in Asia and the Pacific, where many of the successful Single Window implementation occurred, has long been involved in the collection of good practices on Single Windows and developed a Single Window Implementation Toolkit in collaboration with the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT) and UNECE, as well as WCO and other organizations.

Single Windows have been implemented mostly by developing countries and emerging economies. The countries followed a centralised Single Window concept where a single facility orchestrates the communication of the government agencies involved in import and export. The overall experiences of the central Single Window concept have been highly positive to the extent that the Single Window has become a measure under new WTO draft Trade Facilitation Agreement.

Many developed countries and emerging economies have now highly specialised and diversified supply chains and complex regulatory environments. To manage their information flows for efficient and secure cross border trade Government agencies and private sector stakeholders have started to develop important inter-organizational systems for information exchange between stakeholders. In a similar manner as Single Window, these systems allow collaboration between multiple stakeholders and are often referred to as the “Customs Single Window”, “e-Logistics Window”, “Maritime Single Window”, “Port Community System”, etc.

Some countries are now preparing to build connectivity between these domestic systems thus creating a Single Window Environment were the collaboration of the stakeholder systems provides a Single Window experience to its users. The overall design that describes the role of the stakeholder systems in the country and their relationship to each other is called the Single Window Architecture.

This workshop is organized by the United Nations Economic commission for Europe (UNECE) jointly with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and hosted by the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC). This workshop is supported by the United Nations Network for Paperless Trade and Transport in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT), a regional expert network platform for sharing formation and experience in implementing paperless trade.

Target Participants:
Government officials of the People’s Republic of China involved in the implementation and further development of the China Single Window system.

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