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UN/CEFACT to showcase country experiences of using Single Windows to streamline cross-border trade

UN/CEFACT to showcase country experiences of using Single Windows to streamline cross-border trade

USD 1.5 billion – that’s the annual saving in logistics costs in Thailand following an investment of USD 7.5 million in setting up a national Single Window, based on UN/CEFACT Recommendations.


Speeding up border crossing for trade with tools like Single Windows – which make it easier to input all regulatory and commercial information at a single entry point - has been a key preoccupation of countries for many years. The cost savings they enable can help to catalyze the economic growth needed to finance actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In fact, the implementation of Single Window facilities is now a best endeavor obligation under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.


A Single Window for trade brings great, tangible advantages, but it also implies a great deal of work, bringing together all of the needs of relevant agencies into one streamlined and harmonized process. It requires these agencies to work together and coordinate their responses and eventually their inspections through a single entry point. Such a facility also requires the private sector to submit quality data which can be reused by all of government. The implementation of a Single Window can also be very different from one country to another, depending on the legislative environment and the trading priorities of the country.


The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) has invited a number of countries to present their national implementations of Single Windows in order to share best practices and challenges. It will also be an opportunity to see how these facilities really function and ask questions to the implementors. Implementers from the European Commission, Canada, Morocco, Senegal, Malaysia and others will present their experiences.


UN/CEFACT recommendations are the cornerstone for successful Single Windows, providing the basis for the scope of Single Windows at the WTO, World Customs Organization and for national implementation.


The Single Window conference will be held during the UN/CEFACT London Forum on 29 October 2019 and is open to any expert free of charge (registration prior to the event is obligatory to access the building).


The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), hosted by UNECE, is an international forum for experts from every country to participate in the development of global technological standards, Recommendations and Framework Agreements to promote international trade through the simplification, harmonization and standardization of trade procedures and processes, envisaging the eventual elimination of paper-based transactions in both public sector regulatory systems and  private sector supply chains.


More information on the Single Window conference: http://www.unece.org/uncefact/34thcfforum-conf-swbestpractices.html


More information on the UN/CEFACT Forum: http://www.unece.org/uncefact/34thuncefactforum.html
More information on UN/CEFACT: www.unece.org/cefact