RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/C/W/297
13 September 2001
(01-4307)
Council for Trade in Goods
WTO WORKSHOP ON TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND
CAPACITY BUIDING IN TRADE FACILITATION
10-11 May 2001
Report by the Secretariat
_______________
I. INTRO DUCTION ................................................................................................................. ...2
II. AGE NDA ...................................................................................................................... .............3
III. FACTUAL SUMMARY OF THE PRES ENTATIONS AND DI SCUSSIONS...................5
SESSION 1 ............................................................................................................................... .....6
SESSION 2 ............................................................................................................................... ...14
SESSION 3 ............................................................................................................................... ...24
SESSION 4 ............................................................................................................................... ...32
IV. COMPENDIUM OF ALL PRESEN TATIONS AND DIS CUSSIONS..............................40
SESSION 1 ............................................................................................................................... ...42
SESSION 2 ............................................................................................................................... .102
SESSION 3 ............................................................................................................................... .134
SESSION 4 ............................................................................................................................... .174
V. ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS AND
OBSERVE RS ...................................................................................................................... ..199
VI. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORM ATION ON SP EAKERS.....................................................220G/C/W/297
Page 2
I. INTRODUCTION
Following a request made by Members at the informal meeting of the Council for Trade in
Goods of 12 February 2001, the WTO Secretariat organized a Workshop on Technical Assistance and
Capacity Building in Trade Facilitation on 10 and 11 May 2001. The workshop's objective was to
provide a forum for an exchange of views among all relevant parties on the role of technicalassistance and capacity building in trade facilitation. Members were to be given the opportunity to
share their experiences, take stock of past and present assistance programmes and assess the expertise
of the various providers of technical assistance. The workshop was also intended to contribute to the
development of a better understanding of the needs of recipients.
In four sessions, twenty-four speakers gave overviews on current technical assistance and
capacity building programmes, on the experiences of both donors and recipients in the execution ofsuch programmes as well as on private sector initiatives in this area.
Panellists comprised representatives from intergovernmental organizations (IMF, Inter-
American Development Bank, UNCTAD, World Ba nk and World Customs Union), donor (Canada,
European Communities, Japan, Netherlands and United States) and recipient Members (Bangladesh,Bolivia, Costa Rica, Jordan, Philippines, Senegal and Turkey) as well as representatives from the
private sector (CrossStreetTrade, Gateway Serv ices Ltd, ICC, IECC and NTT Communications
Corporation).
The following report consists of an introduction (I), the workshop's agenda (II), a factual
summary of the speakers' presentations and discussions (III), a compendium of all presentations and
transcripts of the general discussions (IV), additional communications received from Members and
Observers which had been made available to participants at, or immediately after, the workshop (V)
and a short biographical note on the speakers (VI).G/C/W/297
Page 3
II. AGENDA
Welcoming Remarks by the Director-General of the WTO, Mr. Mike Moore
SESSION 1 Overview of Technical Assistance Activities by Intergovernmental Organizations
Speakers 1. Mr. Leonid Lozbenko, Deputy Secretary General, World Customs Organization
2. Mr. Jean Gurunlian, Director, Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade
Efficiency Division, UNCTAD,with
3.  Mr. Maxence Orthlieb, Economic Affairs Officer, Services Infrastructure for
Development and Trade Efficiency Division, UNCTAD
4.  Mr. Peter Kalil, Chief, Integration, Trade and Hemispheric Issues Division,
Integration Department, Inter-American Development Bank
5. Mr. John S. Wilson, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World
Bank
6. Mr. James T. Walsh, Senior Economist, Tax Coordination Division, International
Monetary Fund
                          General Discussion
SESSION 2 Overview of Technical Assistance Activities by Donor Members
Speakers 7.  Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, Director, International Affairs and Research Division,
Customs and Tariff Bureau, Japan
8. Mr. John Clarke, Coordinator, WT O Affairs, WTO Division, DG Trade,
European Commission
with
9. Mr. Johan Robert van Kuik, Tax and Customs Administration, Ministry ofFinance, Netherlands
10. Mr. Mark Linscott, Attaché, Office of the United States Trade Representative
11. Mr. William A. Claypole, Director, Strategic International and Domestic
Partnerships Division, Canada  Customs and Revenue Agency
with
12. Mr. Pierre Trudel, Manager, Training and Technical Assistance, Origin andValuation Policy Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
General DiscussionG/C/W/297
Page 4
SESSION 3 Overview of Experiences by Recipient Members
Speakers 13. Mr. H. Cahit Soysal, Director General of Turkish Customs
14. Mr. Georges M. Jereos, Deputy Co mmissioner, Philippines Customs
15. Mr. José E. Gutiérrez Ossio, Director, Reform and Modernization Programme,
Bolivia Customs
16. Mr. Mahmoud Wafa, National Project Di rector, ASYCUDA Project, Jordanian
Customs Department
17. Mr. Mobarak A. Molla, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh18. Mr. Ibrahima Diagne, Director of Marketing and International Cooperation,
Ministry of Commerce, Senegal
General Discussion
SESSION 4 Roles for Private Sector Participation in Technical Assistance and Capacity
Building
Speakers 19.  Ambassador Ronald Saborío Soto, Costa Rica
20. Mr. Julian Oliver, Director General, IECC21. Mr. Michael J. Moffett, General Manager, Gateway Services Limited (GSL)
with
22. Ms. Comfort Boohene-Osafo, Deputy Commissioner for Research and
Monitoring of Customs Excise & Preventive Service, Ghana
23. Ms. Sue Welch, Chief Executive Officer, CrossStreetTrade, Inc., United States24. Mr. Noriyoshi Osumi, Executive Manager, NTT Communications Corporation,
Japan
General DiscussionG/C/W/297
Page 5
III. FACTUAL SUMMARY OF THE PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS
Welcoming remarks by Mr. Mike Moore, Director-General, WTO
In his welcoming remarks, the Director-General referred to the Members' request to organise
this workshop which he interpreted as a reflection of  two facts. First, it underlined the importance that
delegations attached to the issue of trade facilitation and secondly, the request bore evidence of a
growing awareness that trade facilitation needs to be bolstered with comprehensive technical
assistance, and that administrative capacities in developing countries require enhancement and reform.
Mr. Moore noted that the benefits of trade facilitation had been amply documented and that
many countries were actively pursuing steps to facilitate import and export transactions. It could be
seen from the national experience papers that Members were recognizing that simplified and moretransparent trade procedures would benefit traders, consumers manufactures and administrations
alike. The workshop would offer a possibility to compare notes in that respect and to make
recommendations.
Commenting on reform requirements with regard to trade procedures, Mr. Moore remarked
that such reform would oblige a government to turn  its customs authority into a "customs service".
This would not be an easy task as it posed a host of challenges which would be difficult for any
government to meet.
The Director-General noted that a lot of technical assistance was already being delivered by
intergovernmental as well as regional organizations and bilateral donors. But despite their hard work
and many tangible improvements, problems would remain.
The workshop would provide a timely opportunity for donors, recipients, international
organisations and private sector representatives to exchange experiences on trade facilitation-relatedtechnical assistance projects, to assess the expertise of the providers of technical assistance and to
develop a better understanding of the needs of recipients. Mr. Moore expressed his hope that this
information would be a valuable basis on which to identify roles and complementarities of different
actors and to develop a more cooperative and coordinated assistance approach in the future.G/C/W/297
Page 6
SESSION 1:  Overview of Technical Assistance Activities by Intergovernmental Organizations
1.1 Mr. Leonid Lozbenko, Deputy Secretary General, World Customs Organization
At the outset, Mr. Lozbenko stressed the importa nce of trade facilitation and remarked that it
was the right time to raise this issue and address the readiness of customs administrations to support
their governments in facilitating world trade. Trade facilitation was to be achieved through the use of
effective selectivity methods and the implementation of international instruments and conventions
which simplify and harmonize procedures.
Customs were an important factor in this process as governments relied upon effective
customs administrations to implement a wide range of policies to enhance a country's fiscal, economicand social progress.  Mr. Lozbenko noted that if customs were not efficient, there was no efficient
trade.  He underlined that instead of being associ ated with problems, customs needed to be looked at
as part of the solution.
Mr. Lozbenko observed that it was governments which set priorities with customs carrying
out the tasks assigned to them.  International organizations and the business community were also
important in the identification of objectives, which was why it was essential to involve all
stakeholders in the trade facilitation process.
Commenting on how he sees the pathway, Mr. Lozbenko remarked that the WCO would
identify it along the following three lines:  instrume nts and trade rules, procedural best practices and
institution building and organizational best practices.  As for the first element, he referred to the HS
Convention and the WTO Agreements on Customs Valuation and Rules of Origin. Turning to best
practices in terms of customs procedures, Mr. Lozbenko drew attention to the revised Kyoto
Convention which he described as a "100 per cent customs convention."  On the issue of institutionbuilding, the Deputy Secretary General pointed at the WCO's Customs Reform and Modernization
Programme which he reported to be "flying now by itself".
Mr. Lozbenko then dealt with target population, objectives, financial resources, geographical
distribution and area specific allocation of WCO technical assistance activities. He highlighted
corruption as one of the biggest problems that needed to be overcome for any trade facilitation
programme to be successful.
On the question of lessons learnt, Mr. Lozbenko referred to the new role of customs from
simply being a revenue collector to playing a major part in trade facilitation issues. He stressed the
necessity of customs administrations to become customs services.
Finally, the Deputy Secretary General turned to what he perceived to be the next challenges,
highlighting increased border control capacity, harmonization of data elements, single window and
one step solutions as issues of special importance. He concluded by stressing the role of customs in
supporting trade facilitation activities.G/C/W/297
Page 7
1.2 Mr. Jean Gurunlian, Director, SITE, UNCTAD
Mr. Gurunlian highlighted the great importance given to trade facilitation by UNCTAD over
the past 30 years. He noted that trade facilitation accounts for almost half of UNCTAD's overall
technical assistance activities and remarked that UNCTAD had been active in practically alldeveloping countries as well as in many countries in transition.
Following Mr. Orthlieb's outline of specific UNCTAD technical assistance activities in this
area, Mr. Gurunlian dealt with lessons learnt in the course of their execution. He noted that while
previous attempts to introduce international standards in developing countries had shown little
success, a later approach based on the development a nd implementation of specific tools, such as the
ASYCUDA customs system, had proven to be very successful.
However, in some cases, improvements had been limited by corruption. In this context, Mr.
Gurunlian highlighted the importance of reforming the business process. Whilst there had been some
changes and some administrative corruption had been eliminated, much remained to be done.
Reforms would require political will at the highest governmental level. Without such political
will, newly introduced systems would work technically, but not produce the desired results. The
necessary changes needed further joint effort and cooperation amongst all international organizations
involved in trade facilitation.
Mr. Gurunlian then turned to transit issues, noting that GATT Article V does not fully
guarantee free transit. In order to tackle the various kinds of administrative hurdles, UNCTAD had
developed a new transit system which was currently being  introduced in several countries. He further
referred to the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, noting that it was "extremely difficult to
implement" and that many developing countries feared any change in their customs administrationswould reduce their income. To address those conc erns, UNCTAD was working on methods within the
ASYCUDA system to help countries implement the Valuation Agreement, while at the same time not
losing  revenue.
Mr. Gurunlian expressed his view that the new technologies, in particular internet, would
change everything as they opened new ways of doing things. He stressed the need to strengthen
telecommunication systems, particularly in developing countries, as those new technologies requiredperfectly working telecommunications for their effective operation. Today, they were not able to
benefit from the many advances of e-commerce and the new technologies as telecommunications in
developing countries was still very weak. Mr. Gu runlian observed that "better telecommunication"
can usually be found where there is "good" competition policy and a certain liberalization. It was
therefore important to also look into those issues in order to avoid developing countries being leftaside from future developments in the area of  trade facilitation.G/C/W/297
Page 8
1.3 Mr. Maxence Orthlieb, Economic Affairs Officer, SITE, UNCTAD
In his presentation, Mr. Orthlieb gave an overview of UNCTAD's technical assistance
activities in the area of trade facilitation.  Assistance aims at reducing costs caused by inefficiencies in
international trade procedures and practices and at increasing both awareness and use of ICT-basedtools.  Among the benefits expected to arise from trade facilitation, Mr. Orthlieb mentioned overall
import cost reduction, increased competitiveness of exports through decreased transaction costs, new
options for improved door-to-door logistics and increased customs revenue collection and control.
Mr. Orthlieb introduced two ICT-based tools developed by UNCTAD: ASYCUDA and
ACIS. Regarding the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), he mentioned that this
software should be part of a customs reform and modernization programme. ASYCUDA supportsmodern customs policies with reformed and faster clearance procedures and allows an improved
valuation of imports and exports, increased customs revenue collection and control and the timely
production of trade statistics.  Furthermore, international EDI standards are introduced. He noted that
ASYCUDA is provided freely to customs administrations and implemented under UNCTAD
supervision, thereby adapting to the respective local conditions. In the countries where it has beenimplemented, ASYCUDA forms part of a government's commitment towards customs modernization
and reform.
Turning to the Advance Cargo Information System (ACIS), Mr. Orthlieb explained that this
system was a tool box of computer applications to produce management information and to addressmulti-modal cargo transit and transport resource problems.  ACIS is made up of independent modular
software applications (port, rail, road and lake tracker) exchanging data in industry-accepted
standards. Every application is independent of the others but designed to enable all operations to
cohabit and freely exchange data.  ACID allows users (e.g. a railway company) to identify bottlenecks
and deficiencies in cargo transport along their networks and take the necessary steps to remove them.It provides users not only with advance and "spot" information on the position of cargo but also
produces monthly traffic statistics and performance indicators for macroeconomic planning.  In
promoting business partnerships and transparency, ACIS further contributes to a changing
transportation culture. UNCTAD technical assistance for the implementation of ACIS not only
provides both the necessary software applications and hardware equipment but also ensures training
of user/operator staff and continuous technical support during the project's life.
Coming to trade facilitation measures in general, Mr. Orthlieb noted that the challenge is to
make best use of existing physical infrastructure by fostering the "software" dimension of
international trade and transport (legal environment,  business practices, etc.) as well as by eliminating
outdated procedures and multiple non-standardised documents. Trade facilitation not only includes
the harmonization of laws and regulations but also the simplification of procedures and thestandardization of available means. UNCTAD is working towards the establishment of a sound legal
and institutional framework for trade transactions, commercially viable reforms in the trade and
transport sectors, appropriate consultation mechanisms and effective transit agreements.
In his concluding remarks Mr. Orthlieb stressed that, in order to make technical assistance
successful, cooperation with other UN departments, international and regional organizations as well
as with national customs administrations was required.G/C/W/297
Page 9
1.4 Mr. Peter Kalil, Chief, Integration, Trad e and Hemispheric Issues Division, Integration
Department, Inter-American Development Bank
Mr. Kalil started his presentation by giving an overview on trade facilitation activities of the
IDB in the areas of (a) customs, (b) support for the implementation of international agreements and
(c) infrastructure.  He briefly introduced the IDB as a regional development bank and highlighted the
support for national efforts to reform and modernize customs administrations as one of its main
focuses within the area of trade and integration.
On customs-related trade facilitation activities Mr. Kalil noted that the IDB was financing
modernization and reform projects both on a national and regional basis. The IDB currently supports
national projects in 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries focused on facilitation and controlthrough institutional strengthening.  All of these projects include components related to organizational
structure, procedures, customs infrastructure and human resources and training. As for regional
customs projects, he briefly described three of the most notable ones.
Turning to the implementation of internationa l agreements, Mr. Kalil highlighted the IDB's
support for the FTAA process. He noted that business facilitation was one of the topics the FTAA
process had specifically focused on with IDB support. In this context, Mr. Kalil reported the adoption
of a set of business facilitation measures consisting of 11 transparency measures and 8 measures
relating to customs. He further mentioned a regional training programme the IDB was jointly
financing with the WTO to train Latin American public officials in WTO-related matters. Another
initiative referred to by Mr. Kalil was the financing of a special trade facility to build trade policy
capacities including capacities to negotiate trade agreements.
As for infrastructure, Mr. Kalil pointed out 2 initiatives of special relevance: the South
American Infrastructure Integration Initiative and the Plan Puebla Panama. In the first one, the IDBwas supporting a process to integrate the South American continent in the transportation, energy and
telecommunications sectors with the objective to promote economic and social development as well
as integration and regional competitiveness.  One of the Working Groups that had been established in
this context would exclusively focus on the facilitation of border crossings. The Plan Puebla Panama
had a similar objective but with the focus on Mexico and Central America.
Turning to lessons learnt, Mr. Kalil highlighted the importance of technical cooperation for
institutional strengthening as well as an incentive for countries to adopt business facilitation measures.
Within technical cooperation, the most important single factor was for a customs administration to set
up a sound human resources management system. He also highlighted the importance of the
ownership factor, stressing the need for governments to have the political will to undertake reforms
and to extend attention beyond the initial approval to the implementation phase.
As for challenges, Mr. Kalil referred to efforts to help countries strengthen their institutional
capacities and to enhance co-operation between customs administrations and trade officials as the
greatest  ones.  The undertaking of long-term institutional and policy reforms beyond political cycles
would further constitute a main challenge. Finally, Mr. Kalil stressed the importance of coordinationamong donors.G/C/W/297
Page 10
1.5 Mr. John S. Wilson, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
Mr. Wilson gave an overview on recent World Bank experience related to trade facilitation
and development. His presentation included an outline of the Bank's mission and objectives, an
introduction into its trade-related lending, a reference to some of the World Bank's projects in the areaof trade facilitation and reflections on lessons learned and future challenges.
On the World Bank's missions and objectives, Mr. Wilson briefly referred to the Bank's
history and highlighted its main function as  a development organization. The Bank would
increasingly focus on least developed countries wh ile also being engaged in lending activities
associated with middle-income and more advanced developing countries. He indicated that the Bank
had moved over the last years to directly address non-tariff barriers to trade.
After briefly outlining the Bank's overall lending profile, Mr. Wilson turned to trade-related
lending, noting that it accounted for approximately 25 per cent of all World Bank lending provided in
1999.  Estimated Bank lending related to trade facilitation over that year had not only addressed
customs but also covered investment in standards, assistance in the adoption of standards and supportfor government regulatory reforms.  All of those elements were considered key components of trade
facilitation by the Bank.
Mr. Wilson then moved to World Bank projects relating to trade facilitation, highlighting
three particular examples: a programme in South Eastern Europe focussing on customs, a transportmodernization project in Honduras and a programme dedicated to government regulatory reform in
Malawi.
As for lessons learned, Mr. Wilson made the following observations:
(a) The importance of a long-term perspective;
(b) The fact that modernization is costly; In this context, he noted that the bank had to balance its
trade facilitation-related activities against a portfolio of equally costly programmes in other
areas such as support for AIDS-related research or programmes to improve water quality;
(c) The relevance of government ownership, as without such leadership, none of the activities
would succeed;
(d) The importance of the existence of a transparent legal framework as critical to the success of
reforms;
(e) The fact that there are synergies of reform, which is why customs, standards and regulatory
structures needed to be viewed in the same framework;
(f) The need for more empirical evidence to help make decisions. In this context, Mr. Wilson
briefly mentioned three projects: the establis hment of a U.S. Trust Fund in support of a
project on trade facilitation and standards in Sub-Saharan Africa to gather empirical evidence
and data on the costs of trade facilitation measures,  the building of a global technical barriers
to trade database on the costs of meeting regulatory requirements for market access and
expanded work on trade facilitation in APEC.
Finally, Mr. Wilson turned to next steps, stressing the need to focus on Uruguay Round
implementation across WTO disciplines that goes beyond seminars. He noted that while the WTO
principles in these areas were sound, next steps should include a comprehensive agenda within a new
Round. Mr. Wilson further underscored the importance of donor coordination which he described as a
critical factor. He concluded by recommending the establishment of a standard forum to helpcoordinate donor assistance related to standards.G/C/W/297
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1.6        Mr. James T. Walsh, Senior Economist, Tax Coordination Division,  IMF
Mr. Walsh started his presentation by briefly describing the role of the IMF, highlighting its
three main activities of (a) surveillance of a member 's exchange rate policies, (b) financial assistance
to countries with balance-of-payments problems and (c) technical assistance in areas such as designand implementation of fiscal and monetary policy, institution building, collection and refinement of
statistical data and training.
As for technical assistance activities, Mr. Walsh noted that they had rapidly increased with
the expansion of the IMF's membership and the adoption of market-oriented reforms by many
countries, forcing the Fund to prioritise its initiatives.  On the kind of technical assistance provided by
the Fund, Mr. Walsh explained that the IMF would not finance projects but would deliver assistancedirectly by providing experts and organising training programmes.  He remarked that while assistance
projects used to have a single focused objective with relatively short time spans, recent programmes
have grown both larger and more complex. The IMF had taken formal steps to coordinate its
assistance policies and cooperate with multilateral and bilateral agencies to minimize conflicting
advice and redundant activities. This has led to a more integrated approach to the planning andimplementation of technical assistance.
Turning to the Fiscal Affairs Department, Mr. Walsh stated that it would provide policy and
technical advice on public finance issues both indirectly through contribution to the work of its
regional departments and directly through technical assistance.
Assistance on customs administration reform  would focus on revenue mobilization by
providing advice on legislative and procedural changes required to secure revenue in the most
efficient way.  As areas of  particular relevance in this reform process Mr. Walsh highlighted (a) the
existence of transparent legislation, (b) simple up-to date procedures and a revenue control strategybased on risk assessment as well as (c) selective controls targeted at high-risk goods and enterprises.
Effective post-release controls would be the centrepiece of any revenue control strategy and a better
way of both improving revenue performance and speeding up the release of goods (As for release
times, it was important to remember however, that was not only customs influencing this factor).
Countries should make an effort to align their legislation and procedures with the international
standards, legislation should be as simple as possible and tariffs should be reduced and made less
complex.G/C/W/297
Page 12
General Discussion Following Session 1
The representative of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe outlined the
activities of the UNECE as a provider of technical assistance. He explained that while the UNECE's
work in the area of trade facilitation was generally focussed on standards, the Commission would alsoprovide assistance in two instances:
The first case related to support for the establishment and the activities of national trade
facilitation bodies in transition and developing countries in compliance with the UNECE's Trade
Facilitation Recommendation no 4. Those bodies, also  known as PRO-Committees, were described as
independent entities consisting of members from business, NGOs and government agencies with a
joint interest in facilitating international trad e. Those bodies would push for the implementation of
trade facilitation measures in their respective countries.
Secondly, the UNECE would provide technical assistance through its regional advisor for
trade facilitation. This advisor would carry out field work in support of trade facilitation-related
projects and play a key role in several regional initiatives.
The UNECE representative presented the revised version of a Compendium of Trade
Facilitation Recommendations and of the UNECE 's Trade Recommendation no 18: "Facilitation
Measures Related to International Trade Procedures".
 Referring to the presentations made by the Panellists, the representative of Mexico underlined
the importance of coherence of technical assistance and remarked that such coherence would not be
found within the WTO unless there was a multilateral agreement on trade facilitation. He mentioned
GATT Article VIII as a basis for preparing such an agreement as this provision dealt with everything
relating to administrative procedures and instruments concerned with trade facilitation. This should bethe area where WTO activities should focus in order to come up with an agreement.
The representative asked Mr. Gurunlian for his assessment of the possibility of having a
multilateral agreement on trade facilitation against the background of the existing obstacles and the
lack of resources in developing countries.
Addressing Mr. Wilson, the Mexican representative wondered why a recent handbook
prepared by the World Bank did not deal with issues  relating to trade facilitation. He suggested that
the World Bank should develop a manual that focused on trade facilitation-related technical assistance
to support developing countries in this area.
Mr. Gurunlian noted that UNCTAD was not a standard-setting organization but used
standards developed by other organizations such as the WCO and the UNECE. An effort had however
been made in the course of the preparations  for the 1994 Trade Efficiency Summit with the
establishment of an Ad Hoc Group on Trade Efficiency which tried to combine the recommendations
of all the various bodies working on trade facilitation. Some of the guidelines developed by that
Group had been adopted by ministers while others had been left as general recommendations of theUNCTAD Secretariat.
On the question of whether one could go further, Mr. Gurunlian suggested that the answer
was probably "yes". If it was to be a WTO agreement however, such an accord would need both
cooperation and input from the standard-setting organizations, in order to avoid duplicating work thatwas already being done elsewhere. Mr. Gurunlian expressed his view that it was useful to look at
trade facilitation from a wider perspective, which not only focused on customs but also included port,G/C/W/297
Page 13
transportation and even telecommunications issues. However, before starting any new process one
should first explore what already existed in this area.
Mr. Wilson responded to the question of the Mexican delegate by noting that the World
Bank's Handbook for Trade Negotiators was currently under revision. He explained that what had
recently been released was only an early draft.  A number of chapters had not out yet been included as
they were about to be revised, including one on customs and one on regulatory reform. Mr. Wilson
underlined the importance of trade facilitation and stated that the World Bank was prepared to
augment the material on that subject.G/C/W/297
Page 14
SESSION 2:  Overview of Techni cal Assistance Activities by Intergovernmental Organizations
2.1      Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, Director, International Affairs and Research Division, Customs
and Tariff Bureau, Japan
Mr. Mikuriya gave an overview on trade facilitation-related technical assistance activities of
the Japanese Customs and Tariff Bureau and findings through his organization's experiences. In the
first part of his presentation, he outlined the objectives of those activities, explaining that assistance
was aimed at supporting the modernization of customs administrations to fulfil their main three tasks
of collecting revenue, facilitating trade to promote trade and investment and protecting the society
from the inflow and outflow of hazardous goods .
Japan’s method was to share its experience on modern customs techniques. Elaborating on
those techniques, Mr. Mikuriya highlighted risk management as an important instrument to strike thebalance between facilitation, border control and revenue collection. He argued that customs activities
should be expanded to pre- and post clearance, as those methods would allow for an acceleration of
trade flows while at the same time providing for control and ensuring revenues. In this context, Mr.
Mikuriya underlined the usefulness of automation and the application of information technology to
assess the risk of a cargo. He further pointed out the advantages of building up a database to storerelevant information.
Coordination with and among government agencies would be another key to facilitate trade.
In this context, Mr. Mikuriya referred to an inte rface of computer systems with other agencies as an
example that had shown very positive results in Japan. Information exchange between customs was
essential to speed up both customs control for revenue purposes and the protection of society.
As for the reduction of clearance times, it would be important to bear in mind that customs
could not deal with this problem alone. It was necessary to have a more active involvement of, and
cooperation amongst, other government agencies.
In addition to applying modern customs techniques it was essential to integrate customs
procedures into international standards, particularly the ones laid down in the WTO Agreements on
Valuation, TRIPS and Rules of Origin as well as in the revised Kyoto Convention. Mr. Mikuriya
noted that the Japanese Customs and Tariff Bureau would now put emphasis on building capacity toimplement the above-mentioned WTO Agreements over the next five years.
Coming back to technical assistance, Mr. Mikuriya stressed the importance of support to be
demand-driven.  He also underlined the necessity of providing maintenance and follow-up monitoring
of assistance projects. Furthermore, for support to be successful, it would be essential to secure
commitment at the highest political level. In addition, other governmental agencies and the private
sector must be involved.
Turning to what he have found through his organization's experiences and perceived to be the
main challenges for the coming years, Mr. Mikuriya noted that a training method inviting trainees
from different countries at one time has an additional positive effect as it encourages exchanging
views and experiences among trainees, which promotes self-help efforts in the recipient countries. Inaddition, Mr. Mikuriya referred to WTO/WCO instruments-related training that needed to be carried
out in a more practical manner. The application of information technology and the computerization of
customs were also huge challenges. Mr. Mikuriya further pointed at the need to build trust among
customs as a difficult but necessary task. Finally, it was necessary to improve coordination between
bilateral donors and international organizations in order to avoid duplications and provide for efficientuse of limited resources.G/C/W/297
Page 15
2.2 Mr. John Clarke, Coordinator, WTO Affairs, WTO Division, DG Trade, European
Commission
In the first part of his presentation, Mr. Clarke gave a factual overview of European
Commission technical assistance related to trade facilitation, outlining key facts and figures on costsand types of programmes carried out.  He noted that projects with a customs component particularly
covered areas such as the modernization of customs procedures, the training of officials in modern
customs techniques, the introduction of programmes for customs integrity, the simplification of
customs and trade documentation and efforts to improve border-crossing infrastructure
.
Mr. Clarke reported the adoption of a new approach by the present Commission with regard
to management and organisation of assistance programmes. Under this new strategy, a higher
proportion of aid and assistance programmes was managed directly rather than through the allocationof funds to programmes that were delivered by other international agencies.  This would provide for
better targeting of such projects. The Commissi on had further reorganized its administration for
technical assistance purposes, allowing for a more decentralised approach in certain areas.  What had
not changed was that programmes were demand-driven, i.e. decided upon request of recipients with
details negotiated and agreed with them.
Mr. Clarke then turned to key lessons learnt from practical experience with technical
assistance programmes. First, there was room for better coordination with other donors and for
increased coherence. More transparency would lead to better sequencing and synchronisation of
programmes and create overall synergies. Secondly, in choosing programme consultants,consideration should be given to the fact that expertise often lay with governments. This expertise
should be used more systematically, as government experts also provided the continuous links
between individuals and administrations that were required for the long-term maintenance of
programmes.  On the question of scope, Mr. Clarke mentioned the necessity to assess the extent to
which success would require a more integrated approach.  Furthermore, he observed that recipientcountries often lacked the staff to be trained as well as the basic infrastructure to implement
programmes, requiring programmes to be selected in accordance with a country's level of
development. In addition, governments must be committed to reform at the political level and a
variety of players in the recipient country need to be involved in both planning and implementation of
the respective programmes. Also, the private sector ought to be encouraged to work directly withgovernments and donors to support capacity building.
In his concluding observations, Mr. Clarke stated that trade facilitation was an area where
assistance to developing countries was essential. He noted that with the expansion of trade, it would
become even more necessary for governments to modernise and streamline their procedures if they
wanted to avoid getting sidelined by the global economy. A third observation related to the quantity
and quality of assistance which could both be improved.  If trade facilitation was to be taken up post-Doha, it had to be matched with a substantial action plan for assistance to build capacity.  The WTO
could provide a platform for transparency as well as for better coordination between the different
interested agencies, donors and recipients. Finally, Mr. Clarke argued that the establishment of some
basic trade facilitation provisions in the WTO would create three major potential benefits in terms of
improving technical assistance: it would demons trate the political commitment of governments to
streamline procedures, set common and globally agreed standards and targets at which programmes
could be aimed in a coherent way, and it would create an important motivation for the private sector
to invest in capacity building.G/C/W/297
Page 16
2.3   Mr. Johan Robert van Kuik, Tax and Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance, the
Netherlands
Mr. Van Kuik’s speech focused on the practical experiences of the Netherlands customs
administration with technical assistance programmes. He first noted that trade facilitation is not only acustoms issue, and hence trade liberalization will not bring about trade facilitation by itself. Mr. Van
Kuik stressed the importance of other official rule s and bodies, which intervene in trade, such as
veterinary inspections, sanitary controls and the like. Other issues which merited notice in his view
included production and order practices, insurance and banking requirements and transport. All of
these can significantly affect international goods traffic.
Mr. Van Kuik reminded the audience of the two main tasks of customs: (1) the levying of
duties (fiscal task) and (2) ensuring compliance with prohibitions, regulations on specific goods (non-
fiscal task). He pointed out that simplification of customs procedures is relatively simple in the fiscal
field, because of post clearance audits and recovery possibilities. The non-fiscal part poses a much
harder problem because many import prohibitions  and restrictions can only be enforced at the border.
The Netherlands customs authority is primarily a control and enforcement agency, not a trade
facilitator. It does its utmost to carry out its control function in a way that least hinders trade. Mr. Van
Kuik explained the need for constant dialogue with the clients through MoUs, regular meetings and
"client-coordinators", which allowed to grant sometimes greatly simplified procedures for reliable
clients.
Drawing on the experience in the EU, Mr. Van Kuik noted that it was of particular
importance to establish direct links between customs officers and agencies in donor and recipient
countries. Dutch customs have a relatively large number of technical assistance programmes. Mr. Van
Kuik presented some details of the collaboration with China, from which an important number oftrainees from middle management have visited the Netherlands for training.
Joint assistance was provided with the WCO and UNDCP as partners of the Netherlands
Customs Agency. He expressed his belief that for future WTO activities in the area of capacity
building, there would be the need for close co-ordination with other organizations like the World
Bank, IMF, WCO, UNCTAD and UN/CEFACT.
Based on the experience of the last years, Mr. Van Kuik presented 4 main recommendations
for a possible WTO engagement:
(1) A good organization has to be put in place to co-ordinate, monitor and evaluate assistance.
(2) There is need to prioritise assistance and to  take into account the sometimes limited absorption
capacity.
(3) Training activities should include the training of middle management of administrations, because
it tends to be more stable than top levels.
(4) It is important to closely collaborate with other international organizations.
In conclusion, Mr. Van Kuik stated that the most important concept for a WTO involvement
in trade facilitation is the concept of a single window, i.e a single agency, where all data of relevance
for imported goods are lodged. The only logical agency to perform such a role is customs. The
introduction of this concept on a world-wide level requires top-level political commitment, which is
where the WTO could play an essential role.G/C/W/297
Page 17
2. 4       Mr. Mark Linscott, Attaché, Of fice of the United States Trade Representative
Mr. Linscott started out by noting that trade facilitation was essentially a very simple concept,
dealing with the ease with which imports and exports can cross international borders. Customs
administration was the interface for this concept, which is why technical assistance in the area ofcustoms was essential. He noted that apart from facilitating cross-border movements of goods,
reforming a country's customs laws would further increase economic return from trade, improve
transparency and reduce opportunities for corruption.
Mr. Linscott stated that the U.S. government had been assisting developing and transitional
economies world-wide to reform and modernize customs laws and operations. Assistance had been
given in harmonizing tariff structures and customs practices to comply with WTO requirements aswell as in measures to ameliorate customs administration in order to reduce processing times,
facilitate border crossings and generally improve efficiency. He presented activities carried out by the
U.S. Customs Service to promote the development of foreign customs administrations in order to
facilitate and standardize international trade.
Turning to technical assistance,  Mr. Linscott noted that such assistance was given by the U.S.
Customs Service for all aspects of customs activities including customs monitoring technology,
general management improvement, and automation and import/export procedures. He then gave a
brief overview of some U.S. projects in trade fa cilitation, highlighting special activities carried out to
support developing and transitional countries in the Asian, American, European, African and Middle
East region.
Mr. Linscott then set out to give a trade policy perspective for the provision of technical
assistance in the area of trade facilitation. This relates firstly to capacity building and the necessity of
needs assessment in this process. The identification of shortcomings and demands was a jointresponsibility of both donors and recipients. Recipients often required assistance to make out their
needs.
Secondly, technical assistance should not just be an afterthought, as often had been the case,
but rather an integral part of any possible WTO work programme that might be developed on trade
facilitation.
Third and finally, Mr. Linscott stressed the importance of coordination, in particular among
donors. He linked the apparent lack of coordination with an insufficient level of political commitment
for coordination. Coordination was not only important among donors but also amongst customs
administrations and trade policy experts.G/C/W/297
Page 18
2.5 Mr. William A. Claypole, Director, Strategic International and Domestic Partnerships
Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
Mr. Claypole started by making a few introductory remarks on the Canadian technical
assistance and trade facilitation agenda. He remarked that he was struck by the similarity of
approaches and conclusions that had been made in previous presentations and found that the Canadianexperience validated these points. Mr. Claypole explained that Canada had divided its approach to
technical assistance into four broad areas:
First, technical assistance had to be practical and demand driven. There had to be a demand
for the Agency's services both from the recipien t and the international side. Technical assistance
further had to be measured and compared against international norms.
Secondly, any assistance project needed to be based on a plan: both sides, donor and recipient
had to know the objectives, the time frame, the funding strategy, the partnerships and the benchmarks
success was to be measured against. Priorities had to be set and coherence was required.
As for partnerships, such cooperation needed not only to exist between donors and recipients
but also among the various government departments.
On the question regarding overall objectives, Mr. Claypole referred to ownership of the
assistance projects by the recipient to ensure that its benefits were sustained.
Coming back to the approaches pursued by the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency in its
technical assistance activities, Mr. Claypole noted that they would include bilateral as well as regional
and international strategies. He referred to work with the WCO as well as to initiatives through
regional groupings such as APEC or the FTAA as particularly successful engagements. Finally,
Mr. Claypole mentioned several new initiatives started over the last years, before handing over toMr. Trudel.G/C/W/297
Page 19
2.6 Mr. Pierre Trudel, Manager, Training and Technical Assistance, Origin and Valuation
Policy Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
Mr. Trudel reported on lessons learnt in the course of the numerous technical assistance
programmes executed by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.
He noted that one of the first things they had learnt was that there needed to be clear
objectives, rules and obtainable rules. Secondly, donors had to identify the means by which they
intended to deliver their assistance and to clarify when, to whom and how to go about it. In this
context, Mr. Trudel pointed at the establishment of a strategic international framework that facilitates
the decision making as a useful tool. Thirdly, it was essential to secure commitment and support at
senior political and management level. He ment ioned that the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
would require the recipient country to identify a core group responsible for the implementation of a
project in order to ensure some sustainability. Furthermore, it was necessary to involve other
government departments and the business community, to bring about the dialogue, the direction, the
priorities and consensus required to support the changes.
Mr. Trudel stated that Canada would also assist recipients in the assessment of their needs,
priorities and targets. In this context, he noted that donors would not have any answers, as they could
not understand all the local issues, but what they co uld do is support recipients in identifying their
needs.
Assistance must be mindful of a sustainable knowledge transfer, which was why the Canada
Customs and Revenue Agency would train a core group with the responsibility to train others (“train
the trainer” concept). On the question of approaches, Mr. Trudel remarked that the Agency would
prefer a step-by-step or building block approach. Also, he noted that while theory was important, a
hands-on strategy using realistic case studies was particularly effective. In any case, it was essential to
provide for evaluation, follow-up and post-implementation.
As for the ways of delivering assistance, bilateral, regional and international methods would
all be worthy and necessary. The Canadian experience would indicate however, that a regional
approach holds special promise. In all cases, assist ance must be flexible and tailored to the particular
needs of the recipient country.G/C/W/297
Page 20
2.7 Mr. William A. Claypole, Director, Strategic International and Domestic Partnerships
Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (continuation)
Following up Mr. Trudel on lessons learnt, Mr. Claypole elaborated on possible
improvements. He expressed his view that it would be most useful to take trade facilitation-related
technical assistance to a broader international framework that would allow for the setting of priorities,the establishment of standards and work from agreed benchmarks as it would help funnel activities
and energies from donors. As part of that internationa l framework, he noted that he would like to see
some kind of fiscal coordination in order to avoid conflicting training.G/C/W/297
Page 21
General Discussion following Session 2
The representative of Nepal described the special problems encountered by land-locked
countries in the area of trade facilitation on the basis of the situation in Nepal, particularly pointing at
infrastructure problems. He briefly outlined the various transport and trade facilitation projects carriedout by the government of Nepal, describing their main components.
The Nepalese representative then presented the transport and trade facilitation measures
implemented with the assistance of various donors, especially UNCTAD and the World Bank. He
highlighted reforms introduced by those programmes and improvements achieved. Despite those
achievements, long-term benefits were in some cas es endangered as continued funding was uncertain.
Stressing the importance of sustainability of the re form process, the representative of Nepal  called
upon donors to continue their support and allow for the prolongation and persistence of previously
initiated reform projects.
The representative of Mexico commented that presentations made in the course of the
workshop so far had mainly focussed on customs, which is why he was wondering whether trade
facilitation was only to be understood in terms of customs. If the idea was to have a trade facilitation
agreement that would only focus on customs, he was wondering how that could be compatible with
other WTO Agreements such as the ones on Customs Valuation, Import Licensing, Preshipment
Inspection or Rules of Origin as well as with the dispute settlement mechanism.
He expressed his view that it was essential  to provide for technical assistance and capacity
building  within the WTO. He argued that if there was a need for an international framework, not just
for technical assistance but for trade facilitation as a whole, the question would arise as to whether
there was a need for a trade facilitation agreement within the WTO, linked to dispute settlement which
would include technical assistance, or whether one would not simply need an administrative parallel
agreement that coordinated and ensured consistency in the provision of technical assistance at
bilateral, regional or multilateral level. If one was looking at technical assistance by means of a
program of action without having a trade facilitation agreement, there would be no coherence. In this
context, the Mexican representative inquired about APEC experience in this respect. He also asked
whether trade facilitation should not also include banking, telecommunications or transport.
Reporting on the APEC experience, Mr. Claypole noted that although trade facilitation efforts
had originally focussed on customs, APEC members had realized that one had to go beyond that,
which is why trade facilitation was now approached from a broader perspective, including issues such
as electronic commerce, or standards. He expressed his view that trade facilitation had to be
something that went beyond merely customs. Customs was one important, but  not the only, aspect.
 The representative of the United States drew attention to the double role of some of the
speakers as both panellist in the workshop and representatives of their countries in the informal
meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods schedul ed back-to-back to the workshop. He highlighted
some of the issues that had been discussed, such as what kind of mechanisms exist for technical
assistance and how they could be improved upon, and noted that there was a consistent themeconcerning the need for coherence and coordination among donors. On the question as to "what is
trade facilitation", the representative stated that although one had been focussing on customs-related
trade facilitation issues in the informal CTG process, this did not mean that the trade facilitation
agenda could not be broader. He argued however, that the proper context for these issues was the
informal CTG process and that those questions should be addressed there rather than in the course ofthe workshop.G/C/W/297
Page 22
The representative of the Philippines expressed her appreciation and support for the view
expressed by several speakers that trade facilitation was not limited to customs issues. Referring to
Mr. Clarke's mention of a change in the EC's technical assistance management strategy from
allocating funds to programmes delivered by other agencies to a more direct programme management,
the  representative of the Philippines then asked Mr. Clarke for more detail about the EC's approach tothis point, in particular against the background of a need for more coordination which had been
stressed by many speakers throughout the workshop.
 Referring to the intervention made by the representative of the Philippines, Mr. Clarke
explained that the change he mentioned in hi s presentation was a modification in the European
Commission's approach in the sense that the Comm unity was not passing over whole blocks of funds
with a fairly broad mandate to another agency anymore, but would now decide on a programme-by-
progamme or country-by-country basis with the region concerned what specific kind of projects the
Commission would like to see implemented. The actual delivery of a programme may still be done by
another international agency.
The representative of India stated that he shared most of the comments made by the delegates
from Mexico and the Philippines. Referring to various speakers' finding that the capacity of countries
to absorb technical assistance and to move forward in the area of trade facilitation would vary, the
Indian representative expressed his hope that an international framework would be developed for
technical assistance that took into account the dive rgent conditions in different countries. He further
asked the donors for their personal assessment on whether an international conformity agreement wasstill far away and whether they considered such an  agreement to be helpful in assisting developing
countries to address trade facilitation issues.
The representative of Senegal concurred with the view that trade facilitation should not be
restricted to customs matter but needed to be understood from a broader perspective. Quoting the
present mandate of the Council for Trade in Goods w ith respect to trade facilitation, the representative
expressed his opinion that it was necessary to clarify this mandate and reach an understanding of its
scope. Developing countries particularly could not see trade facilitation as only covering a
streamlining of import and export procedures, as this would just be a facilitation of imports to their
countries. There were many other constraints in developing countries, such as problems of access to
infrastructure which constituted restraints in the facilitation of their exports, which is why a global
perspective on trade facilitation needed to be taken into account, particularly by donors.
Referring to the reported priorities of the IMF in the area of trade facilitation, the Senegalese
representative then noted that the fiscal mission of customs administrations was becoming even more
important in the case of developing countries. This could be contradictory to the objective of
facilitating trade. Even if trade facilitation was not by itself a hindrance to customs performance interms of revenue, by introducing trade facilitation reforms, many developing countries would
encounter fiscal difficulties as customs were not bringing in enough funds. What was therefore
required was an approach that reconciled customs reform with domestic revenue performance.
Customs administrations had to be freed from their fiscal mission in order to be able to have an
overall economic goal that facilitates trade. As long as international organizations did not make thisthe focus of their concern, assistance given to developing countries in the area of trade facilitation will
not be truly effective for them.
 Mr. Walsh from the IMF commented that in many developing countries, revenue collected
from customs administration still amounted to a large portion of total tax revenue. The fiscal role of
customs would continue to be extremely important for developing countries which is why the IMF put
emphasis on setting up mechanisms that would allow for the collection of an appropriate amount of
revenue.G/C/W/297
Page 23
As a second point Mr. Walsh clarified that the IMF saw efforts to facilitate trade through
customs as being complementary, rather than mutua lly exclusive to the role of customs as a revenue
collector. If customs had an approach based on risk assessment, supported by post-release reviews and
audits, it would not only speed up the passing of goods through customs but also improve revenue
collection by being able to audit books and records of the importers.G/C/W/297
Page 24
SESSION 3:  Overview of Experiences by Recipient Members
3.1     Mr. H. Cahit Soysal, Director General of Turkish Customs
In his presentation, Mr. Soysal provided information about the Modernization Project of
Turkish Customs. This project had been initiated as one of the three components of the PublicFinancial Management Project agreed upon with the World Bank.
Mr. Soysal described the focus of the modernization of Turkish Customs as being (a) the
modification of customs legislation and customs procedures according to international standards, (b)
the  development and implementation of computer systems and (c) the reorganisation of customs
administration.
Fundamental changes in customs legislation were required, with the aim of creating a balance
between customs control and trade facilitation, while at the same time respecting obligations arisingfrom other agreements and conventions a country had committed itself to.
A new customs law had been introduced providing for simplified procedures and post release
control. The reform process was further supported by the implementation of new customs software.
Mr. Soysal reported that the introduction of new technologies had resulted in a flatter organisational
structure.
However, change had to be approached carefu lly, taking into account the implications for
both individuals and groups within an organisation. In  order to be successful, changes must be led by
top management during the whole transition process.  Mr. Soysal recommended the assignment of a
project  leader with the authority to actually make the changes happen.
To address concerns arising from new situations, communication was essential. The nature
and motivation for the change, as well as the expected benefits, should be communicated to all
stakeholders at an early stage to minimise uncertainties and eventual distortions. Fears linked with the
introduction of new technologies could be eliminated by intensive training. It was further essential tomonitor and reinforce the process of change and to immediately respond to emerging difficulties.
As a last point, Mr. Soysal turned to future challenges, highlighting the expansion of
e-commerce technologies as a key development that would open new opportunities but also bear risks.
It was vital to be aware of risks and prepare for their management.G/C/W/297
Page 25
3.2      Mr.  Georges M. Jereos, Deputy Commissioner, Philippines Customs
Mr. Jereos started his presentation by outlining the mission and objectives of Philippine
customs, mentioning the collection of revenues, the prevention of smuggling, the enforcement of
certain laws as well as several supervision and control functions.
After briefly describing the working environment at the Bureau of Customs, Mr. Jereos
introduced the Philippine Tax Computerization Project, highlighting significant factors that
contributed to the success of the project. He also elaborated on specific strategies applied in its
execution, such as the entering into an agreement with the private sector for the establishment of an
Entry Encoding Center, the creation of an ad hoc Risk Management Group, the pilot testing of a
system in one of the main ports before spreading the usage to other ports or the introduction of aSuper Green Lane System.
Turning to lessons learned, Mr. Jereos listed top management support, flexible strategies, the
involvement of all stakeholders in all phases of the project, skills of the major players and the change
of management programmes as positive ones, while also pointing out negative experiences such asinflexible work plans, missed deadlines, insufficie nt financial resources or slow financial accounting
and reporting.
Mr. Jereos noted that technical assistance provided by the World Bank had been very
successful due to a number of factors such as the immediate identification and addressing ofimplementation problems, sufficient attention paid to the development impact and flexibility by the
World Bank in suggesting or approving modifications.
On the question of future changes in  the area of trade facilitation, Deputy Commissioner
Jereos referred to the challenge of coming up with an effective and speedy customs clearance processfor legitimate imports without sacrificing revenue efficiency. As for solutions, he pointed at the use of
risk assessment and post-entry audits.
Finally, Mr. Jereos highlighted benefits from a well-coordinated relationship with donors,
referring to the more effective implementation of technical assistance projects, the avoidance of
duplication of activities, the creation of a more transparent working relationship amongst donors and
the facilitation of program implementation.G/C/W/297
Page 26
3.3   Mr. Jose E. Gutiérrez Ossio, Director, Reform and Modernization Programme, Bolivia
Customs
Mr. Gutiérrez Ossio presented the Customs Reform and Modernization Programme of the
Bolivian Customs. He started by giving the audience a brief background of the Bolivian situation withrespect to customs prior to the initiation of the reforms, noting that after 10 years of meagre progress
in modernizing the customs system, the Bolivian government had required assistance from the IMF in
1997 to implement a reform programme. The IMF recommended a strategy based on modern
legislation and simple procedures. After initial difficulties, the Bolivian government then backed up
the reform process by enacting the new General Customs Law in July 1999.
Based on the IMF recommendation, the PROMA programme was elaborated, whose main
objectives are to facilitate trade, improve collection of trade taxes and to fight corruption.
As the main requirements for capacity building, Mr. Gutiérrez declared simple, transparent
customs procedures, computerized transactions, simple ex-post controls and highly qualified
personnel appropriately equipped.
With respect to the facilitation of procedures the objectives were to reduce clearance times
and to have procedures applied consistently to all customs operations. As for results, Mr. Gutiérrez
reported the reduction of the physical inspection rate and noted that inspection is now based on
random selection.
As for ex-post controls, Mr. Gutiérrez recounted the introduction of such procedures allowing
for determination of non-compliance, and the use of ri sk assessment. With regard to personnel issues,
Mr. Gutiérrez reported the elimination of all ad honorem personnel as a main result of the reforms.
Furthermore, vacancies are now filled by public competitions. Improvements were further made in thearea of infrastructure  and equipment. All these measures contributed to an increased trust in the
customs administration.
He summarized the main results of the reform programme as follows:
• Customs collections went up despite decreased tariff rates, showing that that there is no a-
priori trade-off between trade-facilitation and in creased tax-collection; it is the quality of the
controls which really matters;
• Shorter judicial procedures;
• Establishment of a new and highly credible customs police
• Judges, prosecutors and lawyers have been trained in the new customs administration;
Mr. Gutiérrez concluded by drawing some lessons from the reform programme:
• Institutional reforms need time to produce the desired results;
• Those reforms need constant support from both public and private institutions;
• They also need political back-up, especially where they go against vested interests;
• Credibility is a necessary condition for success of any such reform and to this end
transparency is a key factor.G/C/W/297
Page 27
3.4 Mr. Mahmoud Wafa, National Programme Director, ASYCUDA Project, Jordanian
Customs Department
Mr. Wafa talked about the implementation of the ASYCUDA System in Jordan as a means to
facilitate trade.
He reported that the ASYCUDA system had been adopted in response to the quest to improve
Jordan's economy by strengthening its capacity to generate revenue through the provision of efficient
services to the trading community. The project further aimed at simplifying and modernizing
international trade and customs procedures and improving the administrative and legal environment
for investment promotion.
The ASYCUDA system was implemented and institutionalised in two phases with very
positive results. Among the lessons drawn from the experience with the project, Mr. Wafa highlighted
the importance of:
(a) strong political support and commitment at the senior level,
(b) the backstopping by all stakeholders,
(c) having the same dedicated staff employed throughout all stages of the project,
(d) securing government ownership by having it co ntribute significantly to the financing of the
project,
(e) concurrently facilitating procedures of other trade-related government departments and(f) complementing technical assistance with ot her reforms within the Customs Department.
Mr. Wafa also stated that sustainability issues were the most critical ones in such projects and
could best be achieved by institutionalising the project’s functions within the Customs Department.
Furthermore, the issue of coordination between bilateral donors and international organizations couldbe “tricky”, which is why he recommended having all parties agree on a single set of rules at an early
stage.
Mr. Wafa noted that in phase II, the objectives not only included the strengthening of sub-
regional co-operation on customs modernization and the ensuring of sustainability of the project, but
also covered the contribution to the growth of the Jordan economy through ASYCUDA as a vehicle to
increase trade efficiency in the following fields: a) cooperation with traders, b) partnership with tradeoperators and c) the introduction of more reforms.
In conclusion, Mr. Wafa expressed his view that the lack of efficient and transparent trade-
related services such as customs, transport, banking, insurance and telecommunications posed a risk
of excluding developing countries from the emerging global economy.G/C/W/297
Page 28
3.5   Mr. Mobarak A. Molla, Project Director, Customs Administration Modernisation
Project, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh
Mr. Molla presented recent experiences of Bangladesh with regard to trade facilitation
initiatives. At the outset, he clarified that while his presentation would focus on customs reforms,reforms were taking place in Bangladesh within the wider scope of export diversification and
government encouragement of the commercial sector to expand and improve its economic
performance.
Mr. Molla described the number of current problems faced by Bangladesh in the area of
customs as ranging from outdated procedures, lack of transparency, harassment of importers to
limited information technology support for basic customs functions and non-existing linkages to otheragencies. Furthermore, Bangladesh would to a large extend depend on customs duties as a source of
revenue.
Against this background, Mr. Molla introduced Bangladesh's objectives in the area of trade
facilitation as well as the successes achieved so far. As for measures already undertaken, he referredto the introduction of pre-shipment inspection, accompanied by a rule limiting physical inspection by
customs to 5 per cent of all shipments under random selection of the officer performing the inspection
as well as to the reduction of clearing times of bills of entry.
Turning to ongoing initiatives to introduce further reforms, Mr. Molla highlighted the
Customs Administration Modernisation Project ai med at supporting export diversification, with
complementary parts covering customs reforms, trade and tariff policy reform and assistance for
companies seeking to establish and expand their markets. Among the measures planned under this
programme, Mr. Molla listed the simplification of customs procedures, the reduction of delays, the
introduction of risk measurement and of new systems to speed up the clearance process.
Mr. Molla also mentioned other initiatives in the context of trade facilitation such as the
implementation of a selectivity system at Bangladesh's main seaport, the development of a post audit
capability, the introduction of a new SAD-based bill of entry or the introduction of the ASYCUDA
++ system.
He concluded by expressing his view that partnership with the private sector was the key to
success.G/C/W/297
Page 29
3.6  Mr. Ibrahima Diagne, Director of Market ing and International Cooperation, Ministry
of Commerce, Senegal
Mr. Diagne set out to present Senegal’s experience with trade facilitation, which he reported
to have began with an evaluation of the establishment of the Trade Pont Senegal. He described theproblems revealed by a first assessment as stemming mostly from a complex network of
interdependent agencies and regulations, where a lot of processing had to be done manually. In
addition, the authorities had high expectations with respect to revenues.
Mr. Diagne then outlined possible ways to address these problems: These consisted firstly of
simplifying the rules, secondly of automation (mostly by switching from manual to electronic data
processing), and thirdly of training the personnel.
He suggested that the primary condition for success was the strong political will and constant
commitment by all parties involved, a clear vision, a sound strategy and sound project management.
He pointed out that one difficulty was to find the right structure and the right people to ensure
implementation. Furthermore, all of those processes needed financial resources. Mr. Diagne arguedthat donor concern was often limited to particular aspects of trade facilitation within donor interests.
Donors failed to grasp the full complexity of the implementation of trade facilitation measures.
Mr. Diagne then talked about how Senegal developed trade facilitation by approaching it
from two different angles: simplification of rules and procedures by the government on the one hand,and developing a partnership with the private sect or on the other. Automation was an important point
in the facilitation process. In this context, he stressed the importance of having systems that were
extensible and easy to maintain.
Summarizing the Senegalese experience in terms of customs procedures Mr. Diagne referred
to savings in time and the timely production of statistics data as positive aspects. The negative
experience pertained to automated management, which was difficult and costly to maintain. A second
important problem was the establishment of a relation of mutual trust between the customs
administration and other economic agents. The process had been hampered by elections and changes
in government.
As much as technical assistance is concerned, Mr. Diagne identified a number of weak points:
(a) Programmed definitions often fail to take proper account of local dynamics;
(b) There is not enough comprehensive insight into the problems at the highest levels of political
administration;
(c) Beneficiaries are not involved and donors tend to view a programme as finished, without the
wish to go further;
(d) Beneficiaries often lack a sense of ownership towards the project, when they do not feel really
involved – sufficient resources are vital to avoid this;
(e) The greatest weakness in his opinion is the evaluation process, which fails to adequately
address  scope, implementation and true impact of projects, because it is mostly conducted bypeople only loosely involved or in-sufficiently informed.
Mr. Diagne concluded from this, that those concerned have to be closely involved,
experiences sharing should be promoted rather than training lessons given by exterior experts, donors
should set up integrated programmes, which address many all aspects of trade facilitation,communication and economic modelling should be an integral part of such programmes, these
programmes should also be more region than sector or product based. Last but not least, it was
essential to care about the motivation of the human resources involved in implementation.G/C/W/297
Page 30
General Discussion Following Session 3
The representative of Canada expressed his appreciation for the speakers sharing both their
positive and negative experiences with technical assistance programmes and for identifying some of
the obstacles one would be facing if one was to move forward on trade facilitation. He then asked the
panellists to point out the biggest single challenge they had encountered and what they would consider
to be the most important next step in order to accomplish what they were trying to achieve in the area
of trade facilitation.
Taking up Canada’s question, the representative of Chile asked the panellists how they saw
the future in terms of predictability and stability. The representative of the United States asked the speakers whether their countries were still
using PSI regimes and if so, whether those arrangements were of temporary nature while pursuing
reforms and whether there were any problems encountered with PSI in terms of PSI impeding
progress in a reform process.
Two additional questions were raised by the representative of the European Communities.
Noting that the European Union was about to engage in a large number of technical assistance
projects with several developing countries, he asked the panellists to identify the principal short to
medium-term needs with respect to future tech nical assistance for their national programmes.
Addressed to the panellist from Senegal, the EC representative then asked for an
identification of the areas of trade facilitation-related technical assistance where it was particularly
difficult to attract donors and programme sponsors.
Responding to the question posed by the representative from the European Communities,
Mr. Diagne highlighted two specific problems. First, he reported that difficulties arise when donors
are not involved from the beginning, as most of them would have vertical approaches, making itdifficult to initiate solutions from the recipient side itself.
Secondly, donors would often not be aware of what others were doing and would come to
solve the problem they had in mind, even though the problem the recipient would like to have solvedwas a different one. Donors and recipients would often have different priorities and needs.
Furthermore, recipients would sometimes prefer to go  directly to a country with a particular practical
expertise rather than having an expert recruited by a donor coming to them and telling them what was
happening elsewhere, as the direct hands-on experience was much more intense.
On the question raised by the United States with regard to preshipment inspection,
Mr. Diagne reported that the PSI programme was currently suspended but only to make a call for
tenders in order to re-implement the system.
With regard to what needed to be done to improve and maintain trade facilitation, Mr. Diagne
stressed the importance of mastering the new information technologies. As for international standards,
he highlighted the importance of having a harmonized framework. This was particularly important for
regional trading organizations.
 Mr. Wafa identified the maintenance of confidence by the trading community as the biggest
challenge for Jordanian customs. Apart from this problem of trust, there was also a problem of
integrity.G/C/W/297
Page 31
As for the next step, he referred to efforts to find a balance between facilitation and control.
Such equilibrium could only be achieved by closer cooperation with the trading community and the
private sector.  For stability to occur one had to st rengthen the cooperation of customs with the private
sector.
Turning to the question raised by the United States, Mr. Wafa informed the audience that
Jordan was not applying any PSI regimes. Instead of doing so, it had decided to strengthen its own
structure, so as to be able to perform the inspections itself.
On the main short and long-term needs, Mr. Waf a referred to the implementation of the WTO
Customs Valuation Agreement, for which more assistance was required. Secondly post-clearance
methods and techniques had to be strengthened. He re again, Jordan was looking for a balance between
more trade facilitation and more control. Furtherm ore, his country would need help in enforcing
customs-related agreements such as the one related to intellectual property rights.
Mr. Soysal noted that it was also necessary to provide technical assistance to entities other
than customs (such as the Ministries for Agriculture, Health, Environment etc.),  in order to make
them familiar with the trade facilitation approach pursued by international organizations. It would not
suffice to have goods released in a couple of hours if one then had to wait for i.e. a laboratory
analysis. Those other entities should therefore be invited to meetings like this workshop.
Mr. Gutiérrez highlighted the implementation of the ASYCUDA system as the biggest
challenge Bolivian customs were currently facing. On the issue of stability and predictability of trade
facilitation,  he noted that communication was the key component that had to be taken into account.
As for  PSI, Mr. Gutiérrez noted that Bolivia was going to implement the WTO Valuation Agreement
and that as preshipment inspection was only allowed in the beginning, Bolivian authorities would
currently evaluate whether PSI was a convenient measure, paying special consideration to thequestion of revenue loss.  Turning to the biggest concern, Mr. Gutiérrez referred to training, as it was
essential to motivate personnel and provide them with the knowledge required for the performance of
their job.
Mr. Jereos identified the computerization of all core processes as the main challenge, as it
would limit opportunities for graft. Raising the le vel of integrity of customs would lead to the
acceptance of reforms and new processes by all stakeholders. Turning to long-term challenges,Deputy Commissioner Jereos highlighted the fact that as regards release times, players other than
customs (such as shipping lines, airlines, banks, exporters, port- or local authorities) were also
involved. An integrated approach with respect to trade facilitation that included those entities could be
a challenge in the long-term.
As for the question posed by the European Communities, Mr. Jereos referred to an
independent review of the operating systems with customs best practices  in mind as that might reveal
the best of what was already there while at the same time offering options for the systems'
improvement in the medium-term. Against a background of rapid technological development, an
updating and upgrading of equipment was something to look for in the long-term.
In response to the question of the United States, Mr. Jereos reported that the Philippines had
no pre-shipment inspection anymore, and no intention to go back to it, as customs was able to meet
the target with respect to the collection of taxes and duties.G/C/W/297
Page 32
SESSION 4:  Roles for Private Sector Participation in Technical Assistance and Capacity
Building
4.1 Ambassador Ronald Saborío Soto, Costa Rica
Ambassador Saborío Soto reported on Costa Rica's position with regard to trade facilitation.
He started by noting that after the gradual elimination of traditional barriers to trade, other obstacles
had persisted and in some cases even made international trade more difficult.
The removal of such obstacles (like excessive documentation requirements, slow and
outdated transport, transit and insurance procedures etc.) had therefore become a growing concern for
both traders and governments. Costa Rica had recognized trade facilitation as a cornerstone of acountry's development policy and as an essential component of the opening up of its markets.
A clear framework of principles and obligations was necessary to facilitate trade flows.
Particularly for a small economy it was essential to improve the competitiveness of its enterprises
through simple and fast import and export procedures. Ambassador Saborío Soto argued that tradefacilitation strategies must be part of any national liberalization and overall development policy.
Costa Rica would therefore attach great importance to trade facilitation both in the context of
incorporating it in multilateral trade negotiati ons and in negotiating Free Trade Agreements
bilaterally, such as the recently concluded treaty with Canada.
Benefits from facilitating trade were especially great for SMEs, particularly in developing
countries. Problems needed to be approached jointly by the public and private sector, which must be
fully involved in the reform process to support the public institutions by providing inputs required for
the enormous changes.
Nevertheless, one should not lose sight of the fact that governments are preparing the ground
for the new conditions; they must become agents of change. Ambassador Saborío Soto noted that to
achieve this change, capacity building at all levels of public and private entities was required. He
argued that it was important to not only focus on material and infrastructural matters but also to look
at the human factor, as it was the officials who were responsible for implementing those new systems.
Technical assistance would be essential for the enabling of trade facilitation measures in
developing countries; such assistance should take local factors into account and not be based on the
idea of simply translating a process from one country to another.
Mr. Saborío Soto noted that in Costa Rica, the opening of the country to foreign direct
investment had been one of the most significant sources of support for trade facilitation as it helped
create a new culture in both public administration and the private sector. Transparency and
coordination were also of crucial importance.
Finally, Ambassador Saborío Soto expressed his view that modernization, reform and the
adaptation of new processes had to be seen as dynamic rather than static processes and that any
strategy needed to be subject to continuous change.G/C/W/297
Page 33
4.2 Mr. Julian Oliver, Director General, IECC
Mr. Oliver gave an overview of trade facilitation and capacity building from a trade
association perspective. In the first part of his presentation, he briefly introduced the IECC and its
objectives. He noted that it was its vision to have free movement of documents and goods world-wide,
and their mission to promote trade facilitation and trade liberalization.
In particular, there were four issues IECC Members would like to take place: (1) the
ratification of the revised Kyoto Convention, (2) more liberalised air cargo traffic rights, taking into
account that nowadays the majority of traffic was cargo traffic, (3) more use of the ability to release
goods immediately and do the fiscal clearance afterwards by modern audit and electronic means and
(4) the launch of a new broad round of multilateral trade negotiations.
Mr. Oliver then gave a more detailed overview of the Express Industry and highlighted why
this industry needed trade facilitation. He referred to a forecast according to which by 2010, 80 per
cent of manufactured goods will cross borders before being sold.
Mr. Oliver then turned to three concrete examples of trade facilitation projects with IECC
involvement. First, he referred to an audit on transport facilitation that had been developed in
collaboration with the World Bank. In this context, Mr. Oliver noted that efforts to support developing
countries in upgrading their ports, roads and airports needed to be integrated into a modern trade
facilitation system, in particular a modern customs facility. The second project introduced by Mr.
Oliver related to efforts to speed up customs clearance in Malaysia. He reported that as a consequenceof this project, Malaysian revenues had increased while corruption was reduced. Finally, Mr. Oliver
turned to the Shanghai Model Port Project, which he described as the attempt to establish a modern
international state of the art port facility in Shanghai by 2003.
Coming to his next point, Mr. Oliver talked about successful engagements of the ICC in the
area of trade facilitation, especially referring to its collaboration in revising the Kyoto Convention and
in establishing the G7 data certification set. He also mentioned the ICC’s work in the business anti-
smuggling coalition BASC.
In conclusion, Mr. Oliver expressed his feeling that important progress had been made over
the last few years in the modernisation of customs, paying special tribute to the WCO. Despite these
advances, he voiced his preference for having some customs work bound into the WTO in the context
of a new Trade Round, as the WCO lacks enforcement powers.G/C/W/297
Page 34
4.3 Mr. Michael J. Moffett, General Manager, Gateway Services Limited (GSL)
Mr. Moffett first gave a general introduction to GSL, highlighting the general objective to
establish a trade and investment-facilitating environment in Ghana, while also attracting trade going
through Ghana to landlocked neighbouring countries, thereby establishing Ghana as a gateway to
West Africa.
The way of doing this was by modernizing both services and infrastructure and focussing on
front-line agencies to make them trade facilitators. The approach was one of partnership, involving
private companies as well as governments.
Mr. Moffett noted that the agreement between GSL and Ghana had as its objective to move
away from PSI by implementing a new destination inspection scheme. The goal was to speed up tradewhile at the same time not losing revenue.
Financed by private investors, the concept is based upon destination inspection coupled with
computerized risk management and x-ray tec hnology. A computerized risk-management system
would allow a selective approach to inspections, th ereby limiting the need for full physical inspection
and providing for more efficient resource allocation. Mr. Moffett highlighted the fact that the system
would facilitate legitimate imports and reduce compliance costs.
Training and knowledge transfer were crucial elements in this concept. GSL would train a
core group of people with the objective of making them trainers themselves.
As for problems encountered, Mr. Moffett men tioned initial resistance to the new system, to
which GSL had reacted with a large number of training and information seminars.
Turning to results, Mr. Moffett reported the reduction of physical inspection by almost 50 per
cent, thereby greatly reducing clearance times and port congestion. At the same time, revenues had
increased. Compliance had augmented due to the deterrent effect of the x-ray scanner.G/C/W/297
Page 35
4.4 Mrs. Comfort Boohene-Osafo, Deputy Commissioner for Research and Monitoring of
Customs Excise & Preventive Service, Ghana
Mrs. Boohene-Osafo reported on Ghana’s experience with its customs reform and
modernization programme. She stated that Ghana had found it necessary to move away from pre-
shipment inspection to a destination inspection scheme while at the same time enhancing revenue.
On the objectives of the reform programme, Mrs. Boohene-Osafo referred to the reduction of
clearance times from ten working days to one day by 2003, to the reduction of physical inspection of
goods to 20 per cent for dutiable goods and ten per cent for statutory free goods by 2002 and reported
that first improvements had already been made.
Ghana customs had benefited from the destination inspection scheme in many ways. Customs
officials had received training; the new systems would further provide th em with computerized
records of all transactions, which enabled them to verify values for tax purposes. Discrepancies
detected from scanning with x-ray as well as the introduction of post-clearance verification units had
enhanced revenue significantly. New technologies introduced in the course of the modernization
programme further facilitated the implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement.
Furthermore, the new destination inspection scheme had led to improved relations with the
Ghana Harbour and Ports Authority, which added to the faster clearance of containers.G/C/W/297
Page 36
4.5   Sue Welch, Chief Executive Officer, CrossStreetTrade Inc., United States
In her presentation Ms. Welch talked about building a trade platform that unites what she
described as the primary constituencies of trade: countries, associations, SMEs and global 2000, the
world’s largest trading organizations.
Developing countries were trying to promote both their traditional and emerging industries;
they were attempting to remove trade barriers through the negotiation of trade agreements and trying
to attract investment. In all of these efforts, th ey would need to modernize their trade facilitation
infrastructure.
As for SMEs, their biggest concern was about legislative stability in their own country and
about obtaining market information for countries th ey want to sell to. Finding and developing new
partnerships for SMEs was time-consuming and expensive and many would lack credibility in the
market. That is why SMEs particularly valued information.
Ms. Welch noted that one of the key issues in this context was the establishment of a
transparent payment process for customs, duties and fees. Another crucial factor especially for SMEs
was that a country establishes a centralized, internet accessible database for certain information (such
as the HS schedule).  A centralized site for international document creation was also important.
Ms. Welsh suggested that a good way to do all that was through virtual trade centers. Such a
center would have four areas: an information centre, allowing a potential exporter to get some basic
information, a trade tool center where he could take a trade readiness audit and which could also
provide for a global cost calculator, a community center where the exporter would register and give
more information on who he was and with whom he  wanted to trade with, and a fulfilment center,
providing the SMEs with the infrastructure to support their business operation. Such a virtual tradecentre would be beneficial to everyone; Governments could be providing services to the SME market,
attract investment and easily collect, standardize and disseminate information; associations could
increase offers to their membership and grow, and SMEs could enter the global economy.
As for next steps, Ms. Welch noted that countries and associations should start small and take
one step at a time, focusing on achievable targets. She concluded by calling for competitiveness.G/C/W/297
Page 37
4.6 Mr. Noriyoshi Osumi, Executive Manager, NTT Communications Corporation
In his presentation, Mr. Osumi outlined how the NTT Group contributes to trade facilitation.
Mr. Osumi first briefly introduced the NTT Group and highlighted its measures to promote
international trade. In particular, he referred to the following three activities:
1) Commissioned by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, NTT was providing
numerous training activities to developing countries. Those activities included the dispatch of
technical assistance experts and overseas cooperation volunteers and well as the acceptance of
trainers and the provision of computer courses.
2) NTT DATA had conducted a study of clearance and other related systems of Indonesia under
an Official Development Assistance (ODA) project, with the objective to a) contribute to thecreation of efficient and accurate customs services, b) improve the quality of customs
services, c) as well as the investment environment and d) to create adequate industrial policies
based on more accurate export and import data.
3) With the overall vision to provide for end-to-end integration of services and systems in order
to allow any business in any place to communicate with any other business, the NTT Group
had constructed B-to-G systems for trade facilitation as well as global B-to-B trading
networks and provided for a linkage between B-to-G and B-to-B systems through a
compatible translation between those two systems. As an example for such improved
efficiency in both systems, NTT Communications had been working on the Trade ElectronicData Interchange (TEDI) Project, which provided for secure and reliable networks by
connecting different enterprises such as manufactures, banks, shipping or insurance agencies.
TEDI would also enable the conversion of necessary documents to the required format.
In conclusion, Mr. Osumi noted that NTT would recognize the importance of the following
factors in offering trade facilitation-related technical assistance:
- strong leadership of the local governments concerned;
- participation of local experts with operational know-how;
- securing of local engineers with adequate skills;
- backup from industrialized nations in terms of financing and
- efficient technology transfers through the participation of private enterprises with
experience in similar projects.G/C/W/297
Page 38
General Discussion Following Session 4
 The representative of Mexico asked Mr. Oliver for his opinion on whether it was necessary to
create a binding agreement in areas such as preshipment inspection, where a WTO agreement would
already exist, without having analysed possible implications within the WTO,  or whether it would notbe better to go step-by-step and agree on some form of cooperation, or to make a thorough analysis of
the perspectives of each of the already existing WTO Agreements, or to modify or improve the
procedures, as there had to be internal coherence w ith the existing WTO rules in order to help private
sector initiatives to improve efficiency.
 Mr. Oliver replied that the WTO was the only international organization with an effective
dispute settlement mechanism while others, despite their useful work in drafting recommendations,
would lack the power of enforcement, which is wh y he was of the opinion that voluntary or best
endeavour practices were insufficient. The certainty that the rule of law brings would be a substantial
improvement over "the rule of the jungle". A new WTO Round would be a faster track compared with
waiting for best endeavours by individual countries.
 Mr. Clarke stated that the need for clear commitments at some point was evident and that the
possibility of such commitments was the value added to the WTO over any other international body.
In response to Mr. Oliver's statement he noted however that he would not see the WTO simply as an
enforcement agency and that rules in the WTO framework had to be negotiated from the trade and
trade policy point of view. He argued that alt hough the Kyoto Convention contained objectives and
standards that were worth looking into, one could not simply import a whole international convention
into the WTO and look it in place. Rather, one had to take an approach which suited the WTO
Membership in a broader sense.
Turning to Mr. Moffett's presentation on Ghana's experience with the new destination
inspection scheme, Mr. Clarke raised the question of the real long-term value of the x-ray scanner in
terms of improving customs, referring to some gove rnments' concerns that such a system would only
be a substitute for the much more important building up of a comprehensive management system
amongst customs.
 Referring to Mr. Oliver's statement that the WTO was the best body for the effective
enforcement of disciplines while at the same time noting the differences in levels of developmenteven among the same regional grouping, the representative of India asked how one could justify the
same set of binding rules for nations that were different even within a region.
 The representative of Canada concurred with the view of the EC with regard to developing
formal rules as opposed to simply incorporating conventions from outside. He stated that while one
could draw upon some principles and ideas of the Kyoto Convention, he would not think it was
possible to bring it right into the WTO. The WTO was  a unique organization with its own way of
doing things.
On the question concerning the usefulness of the x-ray scanner, Mr. Oliver remarked that he
had several additional questions such as whether there was a deadline for countries for reducing
physical inspection to close to zero and whether there was a provision for consulting with traders and
carriers affected by, and paying for, the x-ray machines. He also wanted to know if the system
exchanged data electronically with traders as he was of the opinion that electronic data exchange
could catch 99,99 per cent of illegal traffic, making x-rays unnecessary.
As for India's question on the application of the same rules, Mr. Oliver expressed his opinion
that to the extent that countries were operating in the same field, the same rules would have to apply.G/C/W/297
Page 39
It was part of globalization that if a country wanted to take part in the benefits of a global market, it
had to accept global rules.
 Mr. Osumi commented on the enforcement question raised by the representatives of Mexico
and India from the private sector perspective. In his experience compliance could often not be
enforced with regard to many trading partners, but was essential, as a lot of business would be lost in
case of non-compliance. There was enormous scope for education in this context. Due to the
tremendous economic tremendous interest behind, compliance had to be a whole industry effort.
The representative of the Philippines wanted to know how long it took the private sector to
reach their current level of technological development. She concurred with Ms. Welch's conclusion
that it was important to start small, select one process with a high probability of successfulimplementation and then build upon this success.
The representative of the United States raised several questions with respect to the new
inspection system in Ghana. He inquired a bout the interface between the computerized risk
management system and the physical inspection rate, wondering why the latter was still as high as 20per cent with the use of risk management. He was further seeking confirmation of information
according to which the fees associated with GSL or inspection activities were imposed on the
importer and calculated on an ad valorem  basis, and posed the question whether – if that was actually
the case - such a fee structure was trade facilitating.
. Mr. Moffett noted that under the previous PSI scheme the fees charged for the inspection had
been one per cent of the CIF value of the import. The current x-ray destination inspection fee was
confidential but would be less than that. As for the question regarding the benefits of the new
inspection scheme he referred to the deterrent effect as well as to gains in terms of speed.
The representative of the ICC  (and SITPRO) expressed his support for a rules-based trading
system and considered the revised Kyoto Convention a good basis for the discussion of a WTO rules-
based agreement. He noted that he had been concerned about some remarks referring to trade
facilitation as complicated, stressing that it was a subject of tremendous importance for both the
national and the world economy(ies). He was further concerned that the workshop had not yet resulted
in a more coherent approach with regard to technical assistance and capacity building that was needed
by developing countries.
The representative noted that the private sector had to see the efficient use of public funds to
fully engage in capacity building. Funds needed to be directed to achieve the same goals, which is
why clearly defined objectives agreed upon by all international organizations involved in training and
capacity building would be "an excellent start". He concluded by expressing his hope that theworkshop would initiate such a process as some  progress with regard to coherence in capacity
building and training was urgently required.G/C/W/297
Page 40
IV. COMPENDIUM OF ALL PRESENTATIONS1AND DISCUSSIONS
Welcoming Remarks by Mr. Mike Moore, Director-General, WTO
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you today to the Workshop on Technical Assistance
and Capacity Building in Trade Facilitation.
Three months ago, WTO Members requested the Secretariat to organize a forum that would
allow all the relevant parties to exchange their views on the role of technical assistance and capacity
building in trade facilitation. This request reflects two facts:
First, it underlines the importance Members att ach to this subject. In a radically changed
multilateral trading environment with tariff barriers gradually being reduced, governments havebecome increasingly aware of the importance of addr essing non-tariff barriers to global trade. Both
developed and developing countries more and more focus on trade facilitation issues as key
impediments to trade and economic development.
 The benefits of trade facilitation have been amply documented, be it in terms of simplifying
and aligning procedures and documentation requir ements, or in automating customs procedures with
the ultimate objective of helping to cut costs and accelerate delivery of goods across borders.
More important than any study assessing the bene fits of simplified trade procedures is the fact
that many countries are actively pursuing steps to facilitate import and export transactions. The manynational experience papers that Members have been discussing at the Council for Trade in Goods bear
witness to Members' recognition that simplified and more transparent trade procedures benefit traders
through time and money savings, manufacturers  through cheaper and more reliable availability of
intermediate products, consumers  through lower prices, and last but not least, administrations  through
increased efficiency and enhanced control effectiveness.
This workshop offers a possibility to compare notes in that respect. Many countries are facing
similar challenges in reforming and modernizing th eir trade administrations, and some may be in a
position to offer solutions or make recommendations.
But the request to hold this workshop also reflects a second fact: Members have become
increasingly aware of the necessity to bolster trade facilitation with comprehensive technical
assistance, and to reform and enhance administrative capacities in developing countries.
Reform of trade procedures requires a government to turn its "customs authority" into
"customs service." Trade facilitation has once been called the "plumbing of trade policy," because it is
not a particularly glamorous subject, yet contributes to the necessary infrastructure for trade.  Likeother infrastructure issues, reform of trade administration is no easy task: it poses a host of challenges
which are difficult for any government to meet. It typically involves legislative amendments, the
embracing of technological changes, training, and outreach to the business community. At the same
time, governments need to protect revenue and suppress the entry of illicit goods into their territories.
A lot of technical assistance in this area is already being delivered. Intergovernmental
organizations like the World Bank, UNCTAD, the UN/ECE, the IMF, the Inter-American
                                                     
1 The compendium consists of the papers that have been submitted by the panelists. In those cases
where the Secretariat did not receive a full paper, the co mpendium contains a transcript of the speakers' oral
presentation.G/C/W/297
Page 41
Development Bank or World Custom s Union – to name just a few - as well as regional organizations
and donors on a bilateral basis currently execute a large number of assistance projects with the
objective to reform and modernize trade administration.
Despite hard work and many tangible improvements, problems remain. Take APEC, where a
set of common objectives, backed by targeted technical assistance, is being implemented for some
time. A recent APEC Business Facilitation survey shows that business still perceives the complexity
and lack of transparency of customs procedures to be the most serious impediment to  trade in the
region. There is no reason to believe that other regions fare any better in the assessment of traders.
This workshop provides a timely opportunity for donors, recipients, international
organisations and some private sector representatives to exchange their experiences on technicalassistance and capacity building projects in trade facilitation.  It will put Members in a  position  to
take stock of nature and scope of past and current assistance programmes, to assess the expertise of
the various providers of technical assistance, and to develop a better understanding of the needs of
recipients.
Such information may be a valuable basis on which to identify the roles and
complementarities of different actors and programmes, and, as appropriate, to develop a more
cooperative and coordinated approach in the future.
I am confident that both presentations and debate will contribute to a better understanding of
the issues involved and provide valuable input for future work.
I wish you a successful workshop!Thank you.G/C/W/297
Page 42
SESSION 1:  Overview of Techni cal Assistance Activities by Intergovernmental Organizations
1.1  Mr. Leonid Lozbenko, Deputy Secretary General, World Customs Organization
Trade facilitation is extremely important for all of us. I am representing here the WCO and I
would like to start by saying that the WCO is a big international organization. I think this is the right
time to press the button about trade facilitation and the readiness of customs administration to support
their governments in facilitating the world trade. Why it is the right time from our stand point?  
The most recent survey of the WCO showed quite clearly that the majority of our Member
states and member administration say that there is a need for not only to put together all the
instruments which actually allow to operate smoothly but also to start implementing all that andhelping least developed countries and countries in transition to use all those instruments.  
The WCO represents the interest of 156 member, countries of all geographic regions of the
world and at all stages of social-economic development and as I have mentioned already, all the
governments rely upon effective and efficient customs administrations to implement the wide range ofpolicies for their fiscal, economic and social progress. It is not a secret that the modern customs
administration carries out its important control function by targeting resources to areas of serious risk
and from our stand point the efficient trade facilitation is achieved through the use of effective
selectivity methods and the implementation of international conventions and instruments which
simplify and harmonize processes.   
I would like to remind all of you that every international transaction is a transaction in which
customs is involved at least twice. So when we are talking about trade efficiency, it is absolutely clear
that if customs is not effective and efficient, there is no efficient and effective trade. That is probably
the reason why so many international organizations, donor agencies and private enterprises areinvolved in customs modernization and are actually looking at customs as one of the solutions. In this
context, I would like to stress again that we do not wa nt to be looked as part of the problem but as part
of the solution.   
I would like to remind all of us what customs can actually do. When we meet with a number
of senior policy makers and with politicians, it is them who are actually setting up policies and
priorities. We have to explain to the Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance and Trade the scope ofactivities customs can actually perform. That is what we call a political menu. To better target our
technical assistance we must actually send this message across to the most senior politicians and
inform them what they can expect from the customs administration. It is absolutely obvious that
customs is probably not very much visible but it is involved in nearly every part of human life. A look
at this transparency shows quite clearly how many areas are involved in customs activities, whichmeans that all those institutions are also taking care about customs. That is the reason why customs is
very high on the agenda for a number of international organizations.    
The next slide says something about what we also call the "triangle of influence", which
means that in every particular country, all the problems are falling within this triangle. If you look athe top it is the government which is always in charge and which sets up priorities and it is customs
who only says : "Yes Sir! We are going to do that!"  
But it is also trade and business community which have a lot to say to the government in
order to identify their priorities. That is the reason why we keep saying: all the problems as well as allthe solutions are within this triangle, so we are all in the same boat. This is the internal situation in
every economy.   G/C/W/297
Page 43
If you look at the external environment of this triangle you will see that it is institutions like
the WTO, WB, IMF and some other big and important international players who actually talk to the
most senior national politicians who in their terms define the priorities. It is the WCO which is
dealing with Director Generals of customs. And it is mostly international institutions like theInternational Chamber of Commerce who are talking for the business side. All of this give us a very
clear picture of what kind of cooperation we are look ing for. The most important problem for us right
now is to devise a very clear message for the important, political influential and financial institutions,
like the WTO, WB, IMF, UNCTAD, etc and to send this message across. That is what we have
already developed within the WCO. We had deve loped a paper which we are ready to offer to
anybody who is meeting with the senior politicians  to just give a very brief information on what
customs is all about, what can they do, what are the problems and what are the potentials.  
How do we see the pathway? We identify it along these 3 lines: instruments and trade rules,
procedural best practices, institution building and organizational best practices. As far as instruments
and trade rules are concerned we are talking about things which are very well-known to all of you.
Harmonized commodity description and coding syst em, well-known as HS convention. Nearly 97 per
cent of world trade is being done in HS. The next one is the WTO Valuation Agreement, and I should
definitely thank the WTO for an excellent cooperat ion in this regard, especially thank the Chairman
for helping us with that. Another important thing is the WTO rules of origin which are being drafted
and developed right now.   
Best practices in terms of customs processus and procedures. We are very often asked: " What
are the benchmarks?", "What are the best examples of customs administration?" Previously we had
written a lot of papers and some of you have probably read the papers from the WCO, ICC and from
various Symposia. Now, a couple of years ago, the WCO has endorsed the revised Kyoto Convention,
which we call a blue print of customs for the 21st century. This is 100 per cent customs convention. Itcontains 600 legal provisions and if customs administration want to have all the processes compatible
with their partners, they should use the revised Kyoto Convention principles.  
As far as the institution building is concerned, the WCO has developed a customs reform and
modernization programme (CRM), which is flying now by itself. We can see that more and more
international organizations, donor countries and private sector institutions are getting involved in this
kind of endeavours in different parts of the world.   
What is our target population? If you look at the last two columns of this slide, you will see
that it is the middle lower income and low income countries that are the target population for the
WCO when it comes to technical assistance and capacity building activities. We have
recently received about 337 request for assistance. Now you can imagine how we can cope with thisnumber of requests.   
What are the objectives of the TTA? It is self-explanatory. I simply want to attract your
attention to a couple of last points of this transparency: increase customs integrity.  Nothing  is going
to happen unless we fight corruption. We are very much aware of that and the WCO has alreadydecided and developed a special programme, which is now an integral part of all our customs reform
and modernization projects globally. It is also related to how countries can assess themselves and how
they can go ahead in fighting corruption. We have piloted this programme in 4 regions of the world
and the responses we have received so far are excellent. We expect that our customs administrations
as well as politicians and trade people and people from the private sector will use it in their every daywork.   
As for promotion of basic trade principles, that is where we go hand in hand with the WTO.
Those principles are due process, non-discrimination, least-trade restrictiveness and predictability.   G/C/W/297
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How do we do our training in technical assistance and capacity building? This slide clearly
indicates what we are doing and I would like to draw your attention to the last point. Annually we are
delivering about 200 activities to the value of 2 million US$. Of this amount, we only have 0.4 million
from the WCO budget, which we call "customs cooperation fund"; the rest is being provided by oursponsors. I would like to use this opportunity to th ank all of them who are represented here, especially
our Japanese friends who are very supportive in providing funding for training and technical
assistance. If you look at the geographical dist ribution of the TTA in 2000/2001 you would see that
we are trying to spread it equally all over the world but here again, we face the problem of a lack
of resources. We had 337 requests for assistance – but the maximum what we can cover is what you
can see on this transparency. You might be surprised that Europe with 48 member administrations
which constitutes about 31 per cent of the membership only got 18.25 per cent of everything. But it isclear to everybody that it is our colleagues from EC who are doing an excellent job here as well as
people from UNCTAD and I would like to praise them for their excellent job in this region. The major
problem for us are African countries. Western and Central Africa is the most problematic region. We
would therefore like to ask our colleagues from the international institutions and donor agencies
to give more attention to that region. I know that WTO is very supportive in that respect with their
Integrated Framework programme.
As for the allocation of our activities per areas, I would like to draw your attention to the
second part of this slide which indicates how we are going to redistribute our assistance next year.
Right now it is based on the first 3 priorities identified by our member administrations. You can seeon the first part of the slide, that we have 6 of them and 7 on the second one. Why is that so? The
reason for this is that more and more administrations are looking for computerization or
automation. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to support all of those activities, but our
colleagues from UNCTAD will definitely touch upon this subject and say much more about what is
going on in this area.  
Lessons learnt. As I mentioned already I would like to start with the overall misperception
about the role of customs. This is a major problem for us. Very often we hear things like: "If the
overall level of import tariffs is going down (close to zero sometimes), if the overall e-
commerce volumes are sky rocketing what is the role of customs? Why do we need this institution?" I
would like to go back to the previous slide, wh ich shows that a significant number of our members
still rely on the revenue received from customs activities very very much. Secondly, it has to be notedthat the role of customs is evolving over time from being just a revenue collector, to playing a major
role in trade facilitation issues by being the agen cy which is enforcing the law on behalf of all
national agencies involved in foreign trade. This is extremely important to understand for all of us,
and is an approach which corresponds exactly with what has been said by the Director General of the
WTO in his welcoming remarks: Instead of having a customs administration which always says:"Yes Sir!" it must be a custom service. That is the major role of the WCO for the future: to help and
develop customs administrations in that direction. That is how we see the future trade facilitation
challenges. We are definitely going to work on the harmonization and simplification of procedures
and processes. This is one of the priorities and there is no need to explain how important it is.   
But there is another thing which is important to mention. Going hand in hand with the WTO
in enforcing the law we see more and more requests from regional and sub-regional entities; people
are coming to the WCO for experience and expertise in terms of how to work together, what are the
best practices in terms of transit, single documents, procedures, etc. It might be our next challenge and
we would like to pay more attention and put more resources to make that available to our members.
Increasing border control capacity, that is where we are talking about infrastructure
and computerization. Definitely we do not have the resources to build-up check points but we do have
resources to provide ideas to give advice in-close cooperation with our friends from WB, IMF,
UNCTAD. I think we can do a lot in this area.  G/C/W/297
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Harmonization of data elements and requiremen ts - again you probably have heard already
about the G 7 initiative of having common customs data elements and data bases. We are now
considering to pick it up and to put it on our agenda. Finally, single window and one step solutions -
there is no need to even to talk about that. Everybody knows what we are talking about. As for e-commerce, I have already mentioned that is might be our next challenge.  
In conclusion I would like to say that it is actually the right time for the WTO to press the
button and to actually call upon everybody who is involved in providing training in technical
assistance and capacity building to discuss the way forward. For the WCO, our major objective is to
get together with all providers of technical assistan ce and to deliver this coherent message to the most
senior politicians about the role of customs in the modern society in terms of supporting the tradefacilitation activities. 
Thank you very much. G/C/W/297
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1.2  Mr. Jean Gurunlian, Director,  Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade
Efficiency Division, UNCTAD
I am very happy to be here today to speak about trade facilitation. UNCTAD has given an
enormous importance to trade facilitation in the past 30 years. Some of you participated in the TradeEfficiency Summit that we organized in 1994, which was hosted by the USA, and at which time we
identified many practical obstacles to trade. We also adopted, among others, ministerial level
guidelines for trade facilitation.
We have a very large programme on trade facilitation. Trade facilitation accounts for almost
half of UNCTAD's technical assistance programme. The total amount we spend is around 10 million
dollars a year and that does not include the contributions that go directly to the countries that weassist. Therefore the programme may be spending around 20 million dollars yearly on trade
facilitation. We have been active in practically all developing countries and, more recently, in many
of the countries in transition.
I will not make a presentation on our activities myself – Mr. Max Orthlieb, who will be the
Chief of our Trade Facilitation Section as of the first of next month will make that presentation. If
time allows, Mr. Chairman, after Mr. Orthlieb's presentation I would like to say a few things about the
lessons that we can draw from our work in all these countries. Of course, this could take the whole
session, so I will try to be very brief and identify what I feel are some key factors that should be
discussed by this audience. I would also like to ment ion one or two issues that are directly related to
the WTO, and maybe hint, if we have the time, something about the future. Also, Mr. Lozbenko
mentioned that e-commerce will change everything. What I think will change everything are the new
technologies. Will that affect developing countries and how, and will that affect trade facilitation and
how? I might say a few words about this after Mr. Orthlieb's presentation.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.G/C/W/297
Page 47
1.3  Mr. Maxence Orthlieb, Economic Affairs Officer, SITE, UNCTAD
UNCTAD Technical Assistance in Trade Facilitation
This document presents the UNCTAD’s technical assistance in the field of Trade Facilitation.
It covers activities related to: (1) multimodal transport, trade facilitation and transit issues; (2) the
Advance Cargo Information System (ACIS); and (3) the Automated System for Customs Data
(ASYCUDA)
The document focuses on the main features of these activities, on their practical
implementation, and on the benefits that might be derived from such an implementation.
MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT AND TRADE FACILITATION
Background
1. The United Nations International Symposium on Trade Efficiency was held, at Ministerial
level, in Columbus, Ohio, in October 1994.  It aimed at the identification of measures to improve theefficiency of international trade transaction and provide a favourable international transport and
trade-related environment. Concluding the Symposium, the Columbus Ministerial Declaration on
Trade Efficiency1 stressed that "adoption of trade efficiency measures can significantly lower the
costs of trade transactions.  Estimates place the costs of trade transactions at 7 to 10 per cent of the
total value of world trade". The Declaration put forth a set of practical actions, recommendations andguidelines for Governments, international and national organizations and enterprises. They address six
areas which were considered ripe for tangible re sults for international trade: customs, transport,
banking and insurance, information for trade, business practices, and telecommunications.
2. These practical actions, recommendations and guidelines foster transparency, predictability
and uniformity throughout the trade transaction process.  The basic underlying principles are:
a) Laws and regulations must be harmonized ;
b) Administrative and commercial formalities, procedures and documents must be simplified ;
and
c) The standardization  of means is essential, whether it relates to tangible elements such as:
modal infrastructure (including interfaces), vehicles (including unit loads and handlingequipment), information technology, etc., or to less tangible ones such as commercial
practices and services.
3. The benchmarks for such an harmonization, simplification and standardization are
recommendations that have been agreed on, over the years, by intergovernmental andnon-governmental organizations, in the form of conventions (UNCTAD, WCO, IMO, ICAO,
UNICITRAL, UN-ECE, GATT/WTO, etc.), international standards (ISO, AEN, etc.) or best
commercial practices (ICC, CMI, etc.).
                                                     
     1 "Columbus Ministerial Declaration on Trade Efficiency", Report of the United Nations International
Symposium on Trade Efficiency, TD/SYMP.TE/6, November 1994.G/C/W/297
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Main features
4. International trade requires efficient door-to-door logistics chains, and simple trade
formalities, procedures and operations. This implies to improve the quality of international transport
and logistics, to adapt commercial practices to international standards and to remove unnecessary
trade barriers.
5. The efficient operation of transport modes and interface facilities - resulting from reduced
physical barriers and institutional interference and simplified legal regimes - is a necessary
precondition for effective improvement of international trade transactions.  However, actions must
focus not only on developing appropriate physical feat ures (the "hardware") of the transport networks,
but - more importantly - on raising the performance of transport operators and auxiliary services, onchanging the commercial behaviour of users, and on introducing innovative relations between public
institutions and transport providers and users (the "software") of international trade and transport.
6. This process requires extensive coordination at many different levels, including institutional,
operational and physical development of networks, as well as between the private sector andgovernment agencies.  It calls for a though trade facilitation examination of the common impediments
and opportunities facing the national transport and trade-related sectors.
7. Because of the resulting variety of emerging  political, economic, and technological issues, a
dialogue between concerned parties becomes essential to elaborate acceptable transport andtrade-related policies. The globalization of the national economies, the information and
communications technology (ICT) that facilitates exchanges among users, carriers, and government
regulators, and the growing relationship between logistics management and multimodal transport have
revolutionized the goods transport industry and increased the need for improved policy coordination.
This implies that due account is given to the interlinked roles of the three main players closelyinvolved in the trade and transport sectors of a country:
- the Government  (e.g. Ministries of Transport, Trade, and Finance, including
Customs, and related institutions), in designing and implementing national laws and
regulations regarding trade and transport;
   - the Services Providers  (unimodal carriers, freight forwarders, multimodal transport
operators, banking institutions, insurance companies, etc.), by offering
market-oriented trade and transport solutions within the framework of national and
international trade and transport practices ; and
   - the Traders , i.e. the transport users (importers and exporters), who can benefit from
such solutions in their international trade transactions.
8. Therefore, to foster a closer relationship between these three groups, a proper consultation
mechanism must be set up. This mechanism, as recommended in the UN-ECE/CEFACT
Recommendation No.4
2 could serve as a national forum to propose, discuss, consult and reach
consensus between commercial parties and governmental authorities on facilitation measures to
improve international trade and transport.  As a result of a joint public and private initiative, this
forum would aim at providing a coordinated, cohe rent and harmonious environment to enhance the
competitiveness and quality standards of a nation's trade and transportation system.  In this context,
the private sector must not only be seen to play a leading role, it must be the de facto driving force.
                                                     
2 UN-ECE/CEFACT Recommendation No. 4 “National Trade Facilitation Bodies”
(TRADE/CEFACT/1999/11), March 1999, and its supporting document: “Creating an efficient environment for
Trade and Transport” (TRADE/CEFACT/2000/8), March 2000.G/C/W/297
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9. With a view to building  up a service infrastructure to improve the competitiveness of
developing countries and countries in transition in the international market place (para. 148 of the
Plan of Action3 of the Bangkok Declaration4 a typical framework for the introduction of trade
facilitation could include the following actions:
a) To assess the gap between local practices and internationally agreed [best] practices regarding
trade and transport, including issues on modal infrastructure, vehicles, traffic flow management and
transport operations, on multimodal transport, as well as on the use of information technology where
appropriate;
b) To identify the most suitable combination of measures to be implemented locally through
simplification, standardization and harmonization with  a view to making local practices conform with
internationally agreed best practices, leading to a sound legal and institutional framework together
with commercially viable reforms and instruments wh ich will facilitate the development of efficient
trade and door-to-door transport logistics operations;
c) To foster local professional associations in the fields of trade and transport, in order to
strengthen their negotiation capacity in the national dialogue and to participate actively in
international fora where agreed best practices are established; and
d) To prepare the various concerned parties from the public and private sectors to introduce
changes and adapt new practices through the establishment of adequate training programmes ininternational trade and door-to-door transport logistics.
10. Under this framework, technical assistance proj ects would globally lead to an improved use
of existing trade and transport infrastructure and, as such, would complement the implementation of
large donors’ financed transport infrastructure projects.  Furthermore, they would create awareness ofpractical and commercial measures to foster foreign trade and would assist in identifying new market
opportunities.
Implementation strategy
11. In the area of multimodal transport, trade facilitation and transit issues, the UNCTAD
technical assistance takes a comprehensive and cross-sectorial approach towards improved efficiencyin international trade and transport-related transactions.
12. The implementation strategy of the technical assistance aims at the full transfer of know-how
in order to assure long term sustainability of the recommended changes.  It caters for continuous
progress evaluation and adjustment.  The activities are carried out in the three phases: the pre-projectphase (Phase I); the preparatory phase (Phase II); and the implementation phase (Phase III).
PHASE I -
THE PRE-PROJECT  PHASE .
13. When UNCTAD receives a request from a country for technical assistance, it will make a
preliminary assessment of  the  existing conditions in that country as regards trade facilitation,
transport logistics, as well as Customs procedures and business information.  This assessment
encompasses a review of the existing trade and transport regulations, documents and procedures, an
identification of the possible measures to be introduced and the determination of intervening
institutions and critical path for consequent administrative reform.  This phase will reconcile thevarious measures on trade and transport already recommended in other projects and will obtain
                                                     
3 Plan of Action (TD/386), Ba ngkok, February 2000.
4 Bangkok Declaration: Global Dialogue & Dynamic Engagement (TD/387), Bangkok, February 2000.G/C/W/297
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appropriate feedback from a national consultation body (e.g. a Trade Facilitation Committee) on
possible means for their immediate implementation.  It will also prepare the introduction of modern
transport/trade-related technologies (EDI, ACIS, AS YCUDA, etc.).
14. A workshop on international trade and transport (Project Mobilization Workshop - PMW)
will be organized to create awareness, among theses Officials and executives, on the strengths and
weaknesses of the local economy and on the opportunities and threats of present global trends such as
globalization of production and liberalization of serv ices.  This brainstorming workshop will lead to
the identification of the main areas in which changes in present practices are required.  It will also set
the basis for the establishment of a National Facilitation Committee.
15. Further, UNCTAD will ascertain the level of commitment and resources that the Government
and the private sector will dedicate to a possible project.  An outline of the proposed changes will be
included in a draft project proposal explaining the activities for Phases II and III. Subject to final
agreement of the project between the Government, the donor and UNCTAD, the project proposal will
be finalized into a full Project Document and presented to the Government.
16. This phase will have an estimated duration of 3 months between the approval of the project
and the submission of the revised Project Document. In addition to the participation of one UNCTAD
staff, it will require the participation of an intern ational consultant specialized in international trade
and transport issues, for a period of two weeks.
PHASE II - THE PREPARATORY PHASE
17. When the Project Document has been approved and funding obtained, UNCTAD will proceed
with the implementation of the second phase of the project.  Phase II will complete the assessment
initiated in the Phase I, i.e. a more detailed study of the procedures, operations and relevant legislationwill take place.  It will lead to the design of specific/basic measures, related to the best use of existing
infrastructure and the development/strengthening of trade-related services, which can be reasonably
implemented within the local context.  Assistance wi ll be provided in the preparation/drafting of new
regulations, documents and procedures regarding trade and transport.  Proposals will be made to
carry-out the suggested administrative changes through existing or exceptional channels.  Assistance
will also include the preliminary analysis and actions for the installation of modern technology, if
deemed necessary.  Finally, the necessary environm ent for the changes to become effective will be
identified in the form of human resource development and training programmes.
18. The areas covered will, inter alia , be: institutional and legal frameworks in accordance with
modern international commercial practices, the intr oduction of international codes, the stream-lining
and simplification of commercial procedures, the review of existing Customs clearance proceduresand corresponding recommendations for improvement, and the alignment of forms to the United
Nations Lay-out Key.  Consideration will also be gi ven to the relationships between traders, transport
intermediaries and transport providers, the modernization of national transport regulations and
Customs law to conform to modern transport conventions, the Kyoto Convention and other Customs
and transit conventions, the commercial and practical application of technological developments andmodern decision-making tools for logistic s users and providers (e.g. ACIS), etc.
19. While some reforms can be achieved and introduced early on in the project, others need
amendment to laws and may therefore take much more time to be implemented. Follow-up of such
reforms will be made in Phase III.
20. Under the supervision and backstopping of UNCTAD staff, Phase II will be carried out by
international consultants specialized in the fields of  transport/freight forwarding, trade facilitation, and
trade and transport law. To complement locally the work of the international consultants, nationalG/C/W/297
Page 51
professionals will be recruited. On the basis of the international consultants’ and national
professionals’ reports, UNCTAD will prepare a synthesis of the recommendations resulting from
Phase II.  These recommendations will be presented and discussed during a seminar, the conclusions
of which will serve as a basis to review and finalize the activities to be carried out during the third and
last phase of the project.  A work plan for the implementation of the recommendations introduced inPhase II  will be elaborated together with an estimate of the resources required.  This Phase II might
last approximately five to six months.
PHASE III - T
HE PILOT IMPLEMENTATION PHASE
21. This phase relies on the effective functioning of the National Facilitation Committee.  It
covers the implementation and execution of the proposals on trade and transport formulated in theprevious phase, including the establishment of institutional and legal frameworks, the design of
modern procedures and regulations, and the assistance to traders and logistics service providers on
trade and transport issues, as well as the installation of any particular computer hardware and related
equipment, the initial operation of these systems and the start-up of any training/human resource
development package. A substantial training programme for traders and transportintermediaries/providers staff will be delivered during this Phase.
22. It is only at the end of Phase II that the required tasks for Phase III will be clearly identified
and costed.  Phase III might take approximately nine to twelve months. Although the precise expertise
required will come out from the conclusion of Phase II, it is expected that this expertise will cover thesame areas, for a duration to be determined.
23. The three phases have a total duration of 18-24 months and will only succeed with strong
political commitment and support from the highest levels and with the full-time availability of
competent and motivated National Counterpart Teams.
Potential benefits to be derived from technical assistance in Trade Facilitation
24. The simplification of trade procedures has potential for considerable savings in time, money,
as well as in human and other resources and could result in substantial benefits for all economies.  The
savings potential through enhancement of trade facilitation can be a considerable portion of the value
of the goods traded, often exceeding the costs of tariffs and other duties and charges. Unlike the latter,costs incurred through inefficiencies in the transaction chain do not have redistributive effects, but are
dead-weight losses for the economy.
25. Trade facilitation is benefiting all actors in an economy: importers and exporters through time
and money savings, producers through cheaper availability of intermediate products, consumersthrough lower prices, administrations through increased efficiency, enhanced control effectiveness,
and the availability of accurate statistics, enabling governments to carry out appropriate economic
forecasting and base their policy choices on such information.
26. An improved administrative framework for trad e transactions would benefit especially small
and medium-sized enterprises (SME's), as these are usually at a disadvantage in coping with opaque
trade procedures and would, as a result, often opt to stick to their traditional markets. The introduction
of trade facilitation measures can thus expand tr ading opportunities for these companies, and help
increase the number of their potential trading partners.
27. Trade facilitation is a critical element in any country's economic infrastructure. In an age of
'just-in-time' manufacturing and distribution, a facilitative environment for imports and exports not
only benefits a country's trade, but is increasingly an important factor in the investment decisions of
the private sector.G/C/W/297
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28. Trade facilitation reduces the costs involved in the trade process and enhancing trade
opportunities, and is thus benefiting all countries. Trade facilitation consequently does not present a
situation necessitating the exchange of mutual concessions, but presents a 'win-win' situation in which
all countries stand to gain. Furthermore, the simplification of trade procedures will strengthen thefunctioning of the multilateral trading system as a whole.
Recent UNCTAD technical assistance projects in Multimodal Transport and Trade Facilitation
29. The most recent projects executed by UNCTAD in the area of Multimodal Transport and
Trade Facilitation were located in Mozambique and in Nepal.
30. In Mozambique, UNCTAD’s assistance was requested in the framework of a major World
Bank financed infrastructure project: the Road  and Costal Shipping Project (ROCS). UNCTAD ’s
contribution was carried out in 1994, for an amount of approximately USD 200.000.
31. In early 1998, His Majesty’s Government (HMG) of Nepal initiated the implementation of an
infrastructure development project (construction of three inland clearance depots at the border with
India).  To complement this project and to secure the best use of the future installed capacity, HMG
requested UNCTAD to execute a USD 3 million technical assistance project aimed at the promotion
of the trade and transport sector of Nepal.  UNCTAD’s contribution -which will terminate at the end
of 2001- covers the implementation of trade and transport measures, as well as the installation ofACIS and ASYCUDA.
The particular context of landlocked developing countries
32. The importance of efficient transit systems for land-locked countries, has been emphasized in
a number of studies, reports and other publications over the last 30 years. There is a general
understanding that, in spite of what has already been achieved to facilitate transit, national and
international efforts and resources are still required to eliminate existing physical bottlenecks - e.g.
inadequate port facilities and rail or road infra structures, poor transport equipment, insufficient
telecommunication facilities - and any remaining non-physical barriers to the smooth movement of
transit goods.  These bottlenecks result in high transit transport costs and long, unpredictable transit
times, major disadvantages undermining the competitiveness of landlocked developing countries andeconomies in transition.
33. Since the mid-1970s UNCTAD has offered technical assistance to help land-locked
developing countries and their transit neighbours to  intensify their cooperative arrangements for the
development of transit infrastructure, institutions and services in order to facilitate faster movement ofgoods in transit.  UNCTAD’s approach is to emphasize the importance of effective and close
cooperation and collaboration between landlocked developing countries and their transit neighbours,
at regional, subregional and bilateral levels.  Indeed, the shared recognition that transit transport
cannot occur efficiently without cooperation among neighbouring countries has led to the
establishment of a broad range of transport instruments. Countries which have taken concretemeasures to harmonize their transport policies and adopt common technical standards and legal
principles have experienced a significant overall reduction in transport costs. The complexity and
multilateral nature of transit transport require ap propriate intergovernmental machinery to monitor
and review progress in the implementation of international agreements and programmes. Moreover,
maintaining and improving common programmes and arrangements require considerable financialresources and technical capacity as well as political commitment on the part of Governments.
34. Priority areas of work where achievements have been made include: assistance in negotiating
and/or implementing bilateral and regional transit agreements and arrangements; streamlining andG/C/W/297
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harmonizing administrative and customs and admini strative procedures and documentation; assistance
in implementing policies and procedures to reduce tran sit costs;  assistance in institution building and
human resource development in the transit sector, and development and implementation of customs
and transport information systems.
35. Much of UNCTAD’s earlier technical assistance support work was concentrated in Africa,
but more recently, assistance has been extended to other countries and regions, notably, the newly
independent and developing states.  In Central Asia, in cooperation with the Economic Cooperation
Organization (ECO) a Transit Transport Framew ork Agreement was adopted (1998). A similar
agreement between the People’s Republic of China, Mongolia and Russia is currently being
negotiated with assistance from UNCTAD. This agreement establishes the basis of a sub-regional
regulatory framework that would make transit operations in North-East Asia efficient and costeffective, thus promoting the external trade of the sub-region and bolstering its economic growth. It
covers technical issues such as customs pro cedures, vehicle dimensions and maximum vehicle
weights.
36. UNCTAD continues to work closely with  regional integration groupings (ECOWAS,
COMESA, SADC, ECO etc.), which play a major role  in promoting regional standards, procedures,
documentation and practices designed to facilitate faster movements of goods in transit.
5
37. In Southern Africa, for example, the six landlocked developing countries and their transit
neighbours acting under the auspices of COMESA and SADC, have made significant progress in
transit facilitation.  This includes: the operation of harmonized axle load limits; adoption of COMESA
carrier licensing; and the application of a regional third-party motor insurance scheme.  In particular,
UNCTAD is providing assistance to Zambia and the United Republic of Tanzania for implementing a
SADC commitment on development of Road Traffic Information Systems in Member States.  The
systems adopted in each country should be able to communicate with each other to assist in lawenforcement.
THE ADVANCE CARGO INFORMATION SYSTEM
Background
38. In the mid eighties UNCTAD studied the situation of the transport chain components of some
developing country transport systems and identified the physical and non-physical obstacles toimproving such systems. One major conclusion was that there was a need for a programme of action
to monitor cargo movements.
39. That programme of action developed into establishing a transport logistics information system
called the Advance Cargo Information System (ACIS) . It is a computer-based system, tracking
transport equipment and cargo, based on high-pow ered software developed by UNCTAD, using
computer and telecom equipment purchased according to UN regulations and installed within user
transport operators.
Main features
40. ACIS is a generic name given to a 'tool box' of computer applications designed to produce
management information to address cargo and transport equipment issues on all modes and at
                                                     
5 For more information, see the recent UNCTAD studies on transit transport issues in Africa: “Review of
progress in the development of transit transport sy stems in West and Central Africa” (UNCTAD/LDC/102) of
15 June 1999 and “Review of progress in the development of transit transport systems in Eastern Africa”(UNCTAD/LDC/103) of 15 June 1999.G/C/W/297
Page 54
interfaces. Each application is independent of the other but is designed with a modular approach to
enable all to 'co-habit' and freely exchange data in an industry accepted standard form.
41. ACIS comprises compartments corresponding to the different modes and interfaces, each
having standard computer applications, called modules; their aim is to track transport equipment andcargo in and out of ports (PortTracker), within railways (RailTracker), on lakes (Lake/RiverTracker)
and possibly on roads (RoadTracker).  The port and rail tracking modules are developed and already
installed in several Asian and African countries. The modes are customized to a country's needs and
can be connected together through the so-called Backbone Information System (ACIS-BIS).
42. ACIS is designed to provide an information network linking the physical points along various
surface transport routes at which decisions are taken. It uses practical and proven implementationmethodologies and down-sized field-tested solutions and employs solutions applicable in difficult
environments, e.g. readily available micro-co mputer technology and such telecommunications
facilities as are available.
43. ACIS is a real time proactive system providing transport operators and ancillaries with
reliable, useful and immediate data on transport operations giving the whereabouts of goods and
transport equipment; this enables transport operators to improve day to day management and decision
making.  As a result, ACIS contributes to increasing the actual capacity of a transport corridor. ACIS
also produces regular statistics and performance indicators which, at the operator level, enable
management to remedy deficiencies and, at the national and sub-regional levels, provide data formacro-economic planning.
44. ACIS can play an important role in the development of trade relations and above all in
reinforcing sub-regional integration because it enables all operators who belong to the system to
communicate, through modes and interfaces and over borders, the vital information which is requiredby them to improve transport efficiency; thus the costs of the carriage of goods is reduced because
ACIS, as a management tool, provides the required data to operators, enabling them to make full use
of existing infrastructure and equipment capacity. Such accumulated data, on a sub-regional scale,
enables macro-economic transport planning to foster the optimal modal distribution patterns and
foresees infrastructure investment.
Status of implementation of ACIS projects
45. ACIS PortTracker and RailTracker modules have been installed 20 countries and the system
is currently being implemented in 5 more countries. Project documents are presently under
negotiation with a number of other countries (Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan,
Nigeria, Brazil, and Central America).  Installation in the Port of Bandar-Abbas in the IslamicRepublic of Iran, after an international meeting in Tehran, could constitute the first step to an
extension to ECO countries.
46. In 1999, there were 7 on-going projects with expenditures amounting to around USD 800.000
(plus HGM/Nepal for USD 1 million, covering ACIS, ASYCUDA and Trade Facilitation).
Benefits from the implementation of ACIS projects
47. The benefits reported in this Brief are based upon several independent assessments made by
consultants designated by the funding agencies and by the user railways themselves.
48. The ACIS Appraisal Report undertaken by  TRANSMARK in November 1993, at the behest
of the European Union, concluded, inter alia :G/C/W/297
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“ACIS provides appropriate technology and is technically sound… ACIS will also serve as a
foundation for many other added value systems…. ACIS is designed to change transportation culture
by promoting ‘business partnerships’ between thos e involved with cargo transits, whether these be
operators or clients both on a national and international level. As such private and public sectors will
be brought together with transportation clients to all be aware of the reasons for delay and lack ofquality in the transportation of consignments. ACIS is a necessary ‘enabler’ to provide information on
the progress of the consignments so that market pressures can be applied to identify and cure the
causes for delay and other problems. Currently, without ACIS, too many operators hide behind a
‘wall of silence’ caused by lack of information to shield inefficiency and bureaucracy.”
49. The Final Report of the “Needs Assessment, Feasibility Study and Conceptual Design for a
Rolling Stock Information System for SADC Railways” submitted by Morrison Knudsen Corporationin February 1996, at the request of USAID, stated that:
“ACIS is a relational database.  Data can be designated on keys and utilised to process records in
various ways.  A substantial benefit of this architecture is that it permits data types to be linked across
file structures without requiring the user of the architecture to do the linking.  Consequently, simple tocomplex relationships can be established within the data itself from very simple inputs. The inclusion
of a “plain language” query permits the user to create new relationships in order to answer questions
phrased in such easy-to-understand English sentences as “Tell me the number of wagons on my
railway now moving containers holding chemicals.”
50. An independent Assessor, commissioned by the European Union to evaluate the System’s
results in the Eastern African countries where it has been implemented, had general and specific
comments on RailTracker installations in Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya (May 1997).
51. The overall assessment was as follows (quotes):a) The RailTracker system is a perfect tool to  improve railway performance in a competitive
environment.
b) The ACIS system… provides advance, real-time operational and statistical data on the
movement of cargo from the point of loading to its final destination.
c) RailTracker software is extremely well developed and has proven its success and stability in
the field. Some developments are still ongoing: the new version of RailTraffic is under development;
the completion of this version will considerably enhance the RailTracker system and provide many of
the functions offered by systems in place in Europe.
d) RailTracker is very advanced in terms of ease of use, reports generation and allows easy
external access.
e) The Statistical module is nearly completed and the results produced are very satisfactory. The
Statistics module offers the possibility to link RailTracker with the OSCAR costing programme thus
f) enabling the railways to feed OSCAR with reliable data.g) The adequacy of the technology selected for ACIS in African countries – the use of PCs, LANs
using proven software and a simple data transmission architecture – is unquestionable and thestability of the computer system an d network installed is impressive.
h) The Consultation module enables a railway customer to directly access the RailTracker
system by modem.G/C/W/297
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52. Quantitative results: RailTracker brought numerous advantages to the railways that can be
directly quantified – an overview:
Comprehensive data is now on-line available for traffic and other managers.  This includes such
information as the position of wagons on the ne twork, number of sick wagons, wagons loaded for
more than 3 days (stranded), wagons in workshops, foreign wagons on network, etc … and daily
reports.
Weekly/monthly reports for various managerial levels within the railways can be generated easily…
they include such information as weekly loading data, customer/commodity performance, commodity
supply/demand performance, average wagon loadi ng, average locomotive km, fuel issued, train
transit time, transit/domestic loading, etc.
Customer information has also dras tically improved. In the past it to ok about 4-5 days to inform a
customer about the whereabouts of his wagon, now th is information can be provided instantaneously.
Large customers have a direct access to RailTracker via a dial-up facility. Information is restricted totheir cargo only.  Customers are extremely satisfied with RailTracker. Rail transport again became
an alternative to road transport.
The internal railway reports (daily, weekly and monthly) provide information that is necessary for any
railway to operate efficiently in a competitive environment.
53. With regard to detailed comments, a comprehensive evaluation was undertaken in 1999 by
Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) to measure the usefulness of RailTracker between the day it
was installed in 1994 and 1999, i.e. over 5 years.  The results are reported below.  They are valid for
all the railways which use ACIS RailTracker today:
54. REDUCTION OF: (in days)
a. Average wagon turnaround time  18  to   13
b. Average consignment transit time  15  to     3
c. Average wagon detention time in terminals    8  to     4
d. Average dwell time of foreign wagons  28  to   12
e. Average daily interchange balance (wagons) 203 to 108f. Average dwell time of wagons in repair shops 150 to   80
55. INCREASE OF:
a. Average locomotive utilization (kms/day) 280 to  380
b. Average wagon utilization (kms/day)   73 to  120c. Average wagon productivity (loadings/year)   20 to    28
56. As a result, improvements in Service and benefits to customers were:a. Wagon movements closely monitored so that cargo is delivered on schedule (agreements with
customers – or targets),
b. Ability to inform customers on status and whereabouts of their cargo ‘live’,
c. Ability to trace/control wagons means that the supply of wagons to customers is more
reliable,
d. Possibility to detect wagons not paid for,e. Possibility to calculate daily revenue,
f. Availability of daily freight loading statistics.G/C/W/297
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Training
57. Human resource development is a major component of the ACIS Programme.
58. ACIS will only function reliably and efficiently if data is rigorously and accurately recorded
at major points in the transport chain.  Managers mu st be able to interpret and act on the information
and performance indicators generated by ACIS. To ensure that these tasks are properly performed
requires a competent and trained workforce. The installation of ACIS includes human resource
development at all levels of user operations.
59. A fundamental objective of the ACIS training st rategy is that any user who comes into contact
with the system is trained for those tasks which relate to ACIS as part of the overall package delivery.This comprehensive approach will ensure that managerial, supervisory, technical and clerical staff is
trained to use the system correctly and efficiently.
Sustainability
60. The sustainability of the project can be gauged at several levels. At the country level the
project’ s aim is to make the heavy infrastructure and rolling stock investments in the transport sector
profitable by providing operational data which improves management of the entire logistical chain per
principal itinerary.
61. At the global level project activities will be sustained by:
a) Promoting the use of standards at the information systems level by following a unified design
strategy and by use of standard operating systems, development languages, and off-the-shelf
packages, where appropriate. Human interaction with the system is via pre-defined, standardisedpresentation of data, messages, etc. across all modules of ACIS.
b) Promoting transport information standards by using XML or Electronic Data Interchange
(EDI) and the UN/EDIFACT message formats (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration,
Commerce and Transport) wherever possible. The UN/EDIFACT standard is achieving rapid world-
wide acceptance for electronic handling of transport and financial data.
c) Using system design features which are automated procedures to overcome limitations caused
by the environment, the initial lack of sufficiently trained human resources, and to permit remote
support.  The unified design methodology and automated procedures help to ensure that local
professionals will be able to operate and support the system, on a national and sub-regional basis,
following project completion.
d) Training of trainers from Railway/or Port staff to ensure continuous “after-project” training.62. With regard to local management, it is important that nationals of Member States can support
the ACIS system once it is implemented. The concep t of reinforcing local expertise introduced here
does not refer simply to a mechanical transfer of technology to local staff. Rather, the technical
capabilities of local professionals will be enhanced through various means, including on-the-job
training relevant to ACIS. The concept of reinforc ing local expertise is also meant to give concrete
meaning to the institutional arrangements outlined below.
63. Finally, sustainability is enhanced through maintenance contracts between the various
operators and UNCTAD.G/C/W/297
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Conclusions
64. ACIS is funded from multi- and bilateral sources (European Union, French and German
Cooperation, and the World Bank) and increasingly from national operators themselves. The system
can be installed in any country requesting it provided that the appropriate trust fund is set up withinUNCTAD. ACIS offers the opportunity to exchange information between the various parties involved
in the different transport modes and therefore should act as a catalyst to the introduction of both
logistical chains and multi-modal logistics. The current inability to ‘talk’ between the various
operators results in limitations in the responsibility extensions necessary to provide efficient logistics
chains and therefore results in market segmentation. ACIS through its system uniformity can provide
the necessary data so that parties can see the cargo as a through movement and therefore one where
they can offer extended responsibilities. This has significant cost advantages in that one operator isseeking to make a profit on the total movement, rather than a variety of parties all attempting to obtain
a return on their individual segments. ACIS is cap able of functioning within a developed transport
environment as well as within a developing market. It therefore meets today’s needs as well as those
of tomorrow.
THE AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR CUSTOMS DATA
65. An efficient customs administration is essential for a country's good governance policy.
Customs departments have a wide area of responsibil ity in the application of the government policies
regarding  international trade. The main aspects of this activity are customs clearance of the imported
or exported goods, revenue collection,  fraud struggling and the provision of  statistical trade data forgovernment analysis and planning. For a variety of reasons many administrations are unable to
comply with their responsibilities and many areas are often neglected or poorly handled.
66. The Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA)  programme is primarily involved
in the modernisation of customs, including the automation of the customs processes and procedures.It aims to achieve trade facilitation by accelerating  the clearance process through the use of
information technology. This implies simplification of the requested documentation and the reduction
of the necessary processing steps. Another essential aspect is the uniform application of the law
throughout the whole customs territory.  It aims to increase revenue through the automatic assessment
of duties and taxes including the computerization of customs tariff. As a complementary and
important by-product of processing customs data, the system provides the government with both
reliable and timely trade and fiscal statistics.
67. ASYCUDA technical assistance projects are designed to be implemented in the shortest
possible time and within the specific institutional and environmental circumstances of each
administration. Project implementation activities include a comprehensive training package that
allows for the transfer of ASYC UDA know-how and skills to  national staff, thus ensuring that the
programme can be sustained by the national administration.
Main features
68. ASYCUDA is a computerized customs management system covering all import and export
procedures, as well as other recognized customs regimes, including transit and warehousing. It takes
into account international codes and standards established by ISO, WCO and the United Nations.
69. It offers the core features, i.e system administration, national configuration, tariff and control
tables maintenance, cargo manifest handling, decl aration processing and accounting. In addition, it
now offers to users a number of important new features such as transit monitoring and a selectivity
module for the automated control of declarationsG/C/W/297
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70. The concept of direct trader input (DTI) offers important advantages to Customs brokers who
can directly lodge their declarations on the Customs server for processing. The concept of direct
shipper input (DSI) offers similar advantages to shippers who can enter the manifest information in
their offices and transmit it to the Customs server for processing.
71. ASYCUDA can exchange data with external sy stems such as banks or carriers,  through
standard  UN/EDIFACT or ad hoc developed messages.
72.  A modern and user friendly tariff language has been developed. It enables Customs to
maintain tariff rules and calculation algorithms without the need to perform any programming or to
recompile any parts of the system.  This language is very flexible as it can access all declaration data
elements and link them into formulas using standard logical and mathematical operators andfunctions.
73. A flexible selectivity module provides Customs with a powerful tool to significantly
accelerate the goods clearance process while improving its control capacity. The consignments can be
selected for inspection through selection criteria (including a random rate) which can be maintained atnational, regional and local levels.  Full audit ability of the transaction files provides an additional tool
to tighten the functional security of the system.
A module to handle transit procedures
74. In May 1997, UNCTAD called an expert meeting on the use of information technologies to
make transit arrangements more effective.  The meeting’s recommendations highlight that “UNCTAD
should work towards developing a transit module, in the context of ASYCUDA” .  Furthermore, “ the
transit module could cover all functions of Custom s control and transport monitoring of transit goods
from the beginning to the completion of the transit operation, including the release of guaranteeswhere appropriate... “ .
75. As a result of the expert meeting, ASYCUDA now includes a new module for the
management of transit procedures (the MODTRS module).  This module handles three transit
documents, namely the T1, the TIR carnet and the  First Identification Procedure (FIP). It is usable for
all the types of transit as defined in the Kyoto convention,  covering  movements from the:
-  border office of entry to an inland office (import transit);
-   border office of entry to a border office of exit  (through transit);
-   inland office to a border office of exit  (export transit);
-   inland office to another inland office (internal transit).
76. The three documents are different and present specific features but all apply the following
principle.  The system allows for data capture by the traders using the DTI module and/or by the
customs officers.  Upon validation of the document a message is automatically transmitted to the
office of destination using the appropriate ASYCUDA software,  A++ GATE, (ASYCUDA Global
Access to Trade Efficiency), through the national telecommunications network. This message informsthe office of destination that a cargo should arrive within a given time delay. When the cargo arrives
at the destination the transit message is retrieved, closed and a release message automatically
broadcast to the office of departure. This feature gives customs complete and timely information on
all operations.
77. The module works satisfactorily at a nationwide scale and it has been recently enhanced by
the development of new functions such as re-routing (changes of the office of destination). As
customs receive the complete and accurate information on all the operations prior to the arrival of theG/C/W/297
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goods, and there is no need for re keying at the office of destination the processing delays are
tremendously reduced at the border, thus facilitating trade.
78. The system is technically designed for future extensions to cover the international transit
operations (data exchange of messages between countries).
Implementation of ASYCUDA
79. The ASYCUDA Implementation Strategy has been developed and refined on the basis of 10
years' experience. It has been developed to respond to the customs automation programme and is
structured in three phases to ensure a low-risk, cost -effective approach that provides for national long-
term sustainability.
80. The first, pre installation phase, requires a complete assessment of the current state of
customs procedures, including their legal aspects, tariffs and infrastructure. In the second phase, the
system is configured in accordance with national regulations and installed at one or two selected pilot
sites, where national configurations and procedures ar e tested, together with the training of staff and
the trading community.  In the third phase the system is extended to other customs offices, in ports,
border stations and free zones.  The use of the system developed in the second phase at the remaining
sites ensures that data flowing from operational sites to headquarters, and from headquarters to
end-users, such as the Statistical Office and other government departments, is functioning correctly.
81. The first two phases take approximately 18 months and the final phase between 6 and
12 months, depending on resources and the number of sites to be installed.
ASYCUDA++ migration
82. As part of the programme to ensure existing ASYCUDA users upgrade to ASYCUDA++,
which offers enhanced functionality and modern architecture, a number of short-term ad hoc studies
were undertaken by programme staff.  These studies are in accordance with the Manila Declaration ,
para 18 concerning the requirements for an in-depth review of the entire customs business process and
the subsequent introduction of appropriate reform activities is a prerequisite for the implementation of
ASYCUDA. As a result of these studies a number of ASYCUDA++ migration projects commenced in
2000 and similar projects been designed to start in 2001/02.
83. In Bangladesh a migration study was undertaken in May 2000 and a project document was
signed to migrate to ASYCUDA++.  The system will be installed initially at five sites and the project
will also provide for training and technical support. It is expected that the implementation will be
concluded within 15 months.
Impact of ASYCUDA projects
84. The impact of ASYCUDA projects can be assessed by various institutional and trade
facilitation benchmarks, including increased revenue, improved trade facilitation and clearance times,and the availability of reliable trade data.  Some projects are more successful than others; an important
factor is the commitment to change and to obtain the full support of the Government.  Certain projects
do not realise the full benefits of automation mainly because of resistance to the institutional and
procedural reforms that the programme requires.
85. In 2000, there were 49 operational ASYCUDA projects with expenditures totalling US$
6,737,000.  The ASYCUDA programme remains the larges t technical cooperat ion programme within
UNCTAD with over 80 countries and 4 regional projects.  In 2000, 5 new projects were signed and
commenced in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Cape Verde and Venezuela. In addition, atG/C/W/297
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the request of countries and donors, a number of ad hoc pre-automation feasibility studies were
undertaken.
Project Evaluation
86. As part of normal ongoing project activities, ASYCUDA projects were evaluated in a number
of countries in 1999/2000, including Jordan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Romania. In these
countries ASYCUDA had been installed in the cust oms headquarters and in one or two pilot sites.
The purpose of the evaluations was to assess the achievements under the initial implementation phase
and to make recommendations for phase two, in which the system is rolled out to the other customs
offices.
87. In Jordan ,  Phase I of the project started September 1997 as a pilot project to computerize
three project sites, namely Customs Headquarters in Amman, Queen Alia International Airport and
Amman Customs House. The evaluation team found th e following success indicators, among others:
- Time of release:The green lane declaration takes on average two hours.
- Revenue collection: The revenue has stayed constant despite significant reductions in duty
rates.
- Trade statistics: Trade statistics are more complete, accurate and up-to-date.
- Procedures: Simplification and increased transparency through: integrated customs tariff;
single administrative document; risk management techniques; DTI, i.e. electronic lodgementof customs declarations.
88. The evaluation formed the basis for Phase II of the project including roll out of ASYCUDA to
eight major sites in Jordan.
89. In The Islamic Republic of Iran , the ASYCUDA project started in 1997 with the objective
of computerizing customs data processing at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs
Administration and at the Mehrebad International Airport in Tehran.  This was fully achieved in the
1999, and the main purpose of the evaluation was to identify and describe areas for further
modernization of customs procedures. The evaluation team made several strategic proposals
concerning the organizational structure, customs procedures and the IT systems. These proposals were
taken into account for the roll-out phase covering 12 Customs offices throughout the country.
90. In Romania,  the evaluation report indicated that the customs automation project, with
ASYCUDA++ as its core, had been very successful with the objectives of the project being fully met.
The system has been introduced in over 100 locations as part of a structured wide area network. The
Evaluation Team found there had been a significant improvement in the quality and timeliness ofstatistical data and an appreciable reduction in the clearance times for goods.
91. The Evaluation Team considered the project suitable as a model for replication elsewhere
assuming the necessary dedication of senior customs officials and government.  Based on the findings
and recommendations of the report, the Donor is prepared to support the project for a second phase tobuild upon and maximize the potential benefits of the system.
UNCTAD support to ASYCUDA
92. The technical and Customs support to ASYCUDA is provided by the Geneva-based
ASYCUDA teams and the regional support centres.
Support from UNCTAD GenevaG/C/W/297
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93. UNCTAD retains overall responsibility for all aspects of ASYCUDA development.  The
ASYCUDA programme comprises two units based in UN Headquarters in Geneva:
ATDI - Technological Develo pment and Implementation Unit:
Responsible for system design and development as well as technical implementation andtraining.
PISA - Project Implementation and  Support for ASYCUDA
Responsible for negotiation and formulation of project documents, Customs implementation
activities and follow up on progress and reporting.
Regional Support Centres
94. With the increasing number of user countries, regional support centres have been established
in Lomé, Togo, Lusaka, Zambia; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  A regional centre will soon be set up
in the Caribbean. These centres will assist in pre-project analysis, and drafting of preliminary project
documents . They also provide first-line technical support, and coordinate and deliver functional andtechnical training.  Regional centres are essential for the sustainability of projects as they are close to
the user countries and thus able to provide quick assistance.
95. Another major task of regional support centres is assistance towards the elaboration and
introduction of regional standards, such as a common Single Goods Declaration document or commonclearance procedures.
Programme information
96. In order to provide information relating to  e-commerce and customs a series of high level
regional meetings were held in 2000.  The first meeting was held in Abuja, Nigeria, for sub-Saharan
African countries, which was attended by over 25 c ountries and a second meeting was held in Kuala
Lumpur for countries from the Middle East and Asia and the Pacific. The meetings were well received
and provided an excellent opportunity to inform pa rticipants and exchange ideas and views regarding
the impact of e-commerce on customs and the trading community.
97. During 2000, discussions took place to ascertain the need and to determine the requirements
to enhance and strengthen the presence of UNCTAD technical support staff in the various regions.
With the increasing number of countries migrating to ASYCUDA++ and the demand for technical
support and training on a regional basis, consideration is being given to provide support in the regions
in a faster and more cost-effective way.  It is expected that new regional centres will be created in
2001 in Latin America, for the Caribbean as well as the Middle East. Existing regional centres inAfrica are planned to be strengthened in order to transfer the know-how and skills for ASYCUDA++
to local staff.
ASYCUDA Home Page
98. The programme has established its homepage: www.asycuda.org. It provides a
comprehensive overview of ASYCUDA++, the functiona lities and benefits to be achieved by the
governments concerned.  The web site offers the latest news in terms of customs computerization and
a status, editorial and pictorial, of the ASYCUDA projects world wide. It also has links to all related
organizations such as the WCO and WTO and provides for a secure page for ASYCUDA Usercountries to access the technical zone  which contains information relating to technical aspects of the
system.G/C/W/297
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UNCTAD’S  COOPERATION TOWARDS TRADE FACILITATION
99. UNCTAD is cooperating closely with a number of national and international institutions
towards the implementation of technical assistance projects in Trade Facilitation.
World Customs Organization
100. UNCTAD’s Trade Facilitation efforts, which date back to the early 1970s and the
ASYCUDA programme have a long-standing history of close cooperation first with the Customs
Coordination Council and now with the WCO.  AS YCUDA’s functional design is based on the Kyoto
Convention and ASYCUDA continues to be an effici ent tool supporting the use of the Harmonized
System which is being supplied to the user countries as first option for the base tariff.
World Bank and International Monetary Fund
101. Both the World Bank and the IMF are strongly supporting the implementation of Trade
Facilitation measures and the use of ASYCUDA to reform, and modernize Customs administrations
and automate the clearance procedures.  UNCTAD staff from the Trade Facilitation Section areparticipating in many World Bank loan appraisal missions to cover the field of Customs and Trade
Facilitation.  In a number of cases this has led to the establishment of common projects. Joint missions
are also organized with the Fiscal Affairs and Statistical departments of the IMF.  In many countries
the World Bank and the IMF can now use data available from ASYCUDA for their analytical work.
Regional development banks
102. Regional development banks are playing a major role as a source of funding for national
ASYCUDA projects. Most projects in Central Am erica have funding components from the Inter
American Development Bank.  The Caribbean Development Bank has contributed to  projects in thatregion, while the Asian Development Bank, jointly with the World Bank, is funding a national
Multimodal Trade Facilitation and ASYCUDA project together with an Advance Cargo Information
System (ACIS) project in Asia.  Furthermore, the Islamic Development Bank has shown interest in a
large joint ESCAP/UNCTAD trade and transport facilitation project.
European Commission
103. The European Commission (EC) has been an active supporter of many ASYCUDA projects
around the world. So far it has provided funding for regional activities in West Africa, Eastern and
Southern Africa and the Caribbean. In Hungary, Romania and Slovakia the EC finances the hardware,
the system software and related support services for the ASYCUDA projects and in the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia the entire project is funded by the EC.
104. There is also a close working relationship with the EC's DG TAX UD with a view to assuring
that ASYCUDA projects in countries likely to join the EU in the future work towards full EU
compatibility in all legal, procedural and documentary aspects.
Other regional intergovernmental organizations
105. UNCTAD is cooperating with a number of regional organizations such as the Andean
Community, the Latin American Association for Inte gration (ALADI), or the Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN). This cooperation focuses on trade facilitation issues (including thecreation of National Trade and Transport Facilitation Committees and the elaboration of Plans of
Action for trade and transport facilitation), on harmonization of laws and regulations on multimodal
transport, as well as on training in the field of trade and transport practices.G/C/W/297
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National Customs administrations
106. Close cooperation with a number of national Customs administrations exists through the
provision of experts who implement national and re gional projects and others who work with the
ASYCUDA Team in Geneva.  A large and continuously expanding training programme is an integral
part of the ASYCUDA projects which further expands UNCTAD’s cooper ation with national
Customs administrations.
PROJECT FUNDING
1. International donor agencies107. In the 1980s ,most UNCTAD technical assistance projects, including ASYCUDA projects,
benefited substantially from UNDP funding out of the national or regional IPFs.  As the availability of
UNDP funds decreased, UNCTAD looked increasingly for contributions from other international
donor agencies.  Thus there is now a growing number of projects which are either partially or totally
funded from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Regional Development Banks.UNDP still remains involved in many cost sharing arrangements.
2. Bilateral donors
108. From the beginning contributions from bilateral donors to ASYCUDA activities for national
and regional projects as well as for the central activities have played an important role. In most cases
such contributions were provided in kind , ie. a donor country would provide a Customs expert, a part
of the hardware or some of the training resources through their own national development agencies
directly to the projects. Such parallel funding has also been forthcoming from the EC in form of
PHARE and TACIS tenders for ASYCUDA hardware, commercial system software and relatedinstallation services.
3. Government contributions
109. To each national project the beneficiary country contributes, as a minimum, the required
office space, provides a full time National Project Team, as well as telecommunications and
maintenance charges.  The government may also contribute to or completely pay for other costs(international experts, training, travel, equipment, etc.).
110. Funding for national project implementations is provided by national resources and aid
programmes offered to the beneficiary country.  Such funding is generally available once the
Government has decided to implement a Trade Facilitation and Customs reform and modernizationprogramme, including automation, using ASYCUDA as the Customs management information
system.
111. Regional support centres are financed fr om extra-budgetary contributions to UNCTAD,
which may be supplemented by contributions from user-countries. When there is no or insufficientother funding available, regional support centres have also been funded from contributions from
user-countries in that region.
HOW TO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON UNCTAD TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
For more information on Multimodal Transport and Trade Facilitation , please contact:
Maxence Orthlieb
Trade Facilitation Section, Trade Logistics Branch, Division for SITE, UNCTADG/C/W/297
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Telephone: + 41 22 907 20 01
Fax: + 41 22 907 00 50
e-mail: maxence.orthlieb@unctad.org
For more information on Transit Transport Facilitation , please contact:
Ernest V. Mbuli , Deputy-Chief
Business Facilitation Branch, Division for SITE, UNCTAD
Telephone: + 41 22 917 59 05
Fax: + 41 22 907 00 46
e-mail: ernest.mbuli@unctad.org
For more information on ACIS , please contact:
Coll Hunter, ACIS co-ordinator Trade Logistics Branch, Division for SITE, UNCTAD
Telephone: +41 22 907 20 44
Fax: +41 22 907 00 49
e-mail: coll.hunter@unctad.org
For more information on ASYCUDA , please contact:
Fabrice Millet, ASYCUDA co-ordinator Division for SITE, UNCTAD
Telephone: +41 22 907 44 65
Fax: +41 22 917 04 32
e-mail: fabrice.millet@unctad.orgor
Robert Abrahams, ASYCUDA co-ordinator, PISA, UNCTAD
Telephone +41 22 907 55 15
Fax: +41 22 907 00 49
e-mail: robert.abrahams@unctad.orgG/C/W/297
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1.2 (continuation) Mr. Jean Gurunlian, Director,  Services Infrastructure for Development
and Trade Efficiency Division, UNCTAD
I will try to be brief, and I will just say a few words about the lessons we have learned. You
mentioned when you introduced me that I had the privilege to be head of the FALPRO programme
many years ago. This trade facilitation programme had an objective which was not modest. We were
trying to introduce international standards in the developing countries. To do this, we had very good
experts provided by some of the most developed countries, visiting developing countries, organizing
national and regional meetings and proposing to these countries to adopt these international standards.
I must say that the results were very poor. If we look at the number of missions, the number of
meetings and the actual results we had, very little was achieved. People were coming to the meetings,
listening, taking the documents and then when they were back in their countries, inertia prevailed.Change is a  difficult process, very often not accepted by a number of people and the simplest option
is to go on and continue operating as in the past.
Then we decided to take a different approach. We started to develop tools. This was at the
time when the PCs were emerging. We developed the system for customs which has been presentedby my colleague, ASYCUDA. The system worked on PCs and could be used in developing countries.
Then we saw a completely different attitude in the recipient countries. We were going to the countries
with the tools and saying "we are going to give you computers now, we are going to network your
operations". Immediately we saw there was a preparedness in these countries to introduce, if not all, at
least many of the changes we wanted to introduce. For example, in these past 20 years we managed tointroduce most of the international standards in developing countries. Because when you introduce
ASYCUDA you change everything, you change all the forms, the standards, you change everything.
The system itself, ASYCUDA, is obviously a success, I think it is not being immodest to say
so. It has been adopted by 90 countries. I would just quote some of the G8 countries that have saidthat ASYCUDA, in terms of functionality, is more advanced than their own systems. We therefore
have a good tool there but it has to be well implemented.
Did we actually reach all the objectives that we had? Certainly not. Of course, the objective
would be to achieve a very fast movement of goods, if we could eliminate corruption. We have
introduced the ASYCUDA system in a large number of countries. From the technical point of view
the system works in all of them, but it is not always producing the kind of results that we expected.Behind the system you have a business process that has not always been reformed. Mr. Lozbenko
mentioned the work that the WCO is doing, very often together with us, in trying to introduce
reforms. There is much to be done in this area. The business process in many countries has not been
completely changed and this means that in spite of computerization you still have delays, you still
have administrative corruption although a lot of it has been eliminated. We are giving tools to theGovernments so that they can identify the problems  but if these tools are not used then there is no
change.
Therefore, the first lesson that I would draw is that there is only one element that counts in the
recipient countries: the political will. The changes will only occur if you have the political will at thetop of the government. You must have the assistance of the heads of State. This was the case in the
countries where we have succeeded. The head of State was concerned about the reform, was
following the results and was making sure that the changes that we recommended took place. In other
countries that wanted the system but did not have th e political will, the system is running, but it has
not changed much. Therefore we still have an enormous task in front of us. A task that we would liketo do, that we have  to do, together. The WTO has to be involved, certainly the WCO, WB, IMF, all of
us have to work together to achieve this radical change. Changing the business process should be the
priority in customs in the years to come.G/C/W/297
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When I made the proposal to introduce such ad vanced technologies in developing countries
there was scepticism from many developed countries who said that we ere not going to have the right
people to maintain the system, that it would not work. Another interesting lesson we have learned is
that this has proven totally wrong: There are excell ent experts in all countries, including the least
developed countries. Therefore, it is not a question of expertise, it is simply a question of will.
Now, I would like to mention two elements that are related to the WTO. The first concerns
Article V of GATT, where it is said that transit facilities should be granted to your neighbours. This is
something that we would like to see happen. It is not fully the case today and the problem is that in
general there is no confidence that the goods that enter a country will actually leave that country.
There are all sorts of administrative hurdles that explain some of the long lines of trucks that you seeat the customs. They also explain why there is probably more smuggling, as people are just entering
through other routes. UNCTAD has therefore developed now a new transit system, which should be
as successful as ASYCUDA, and that we are introducing in some countries. Several central European
countries are starting to use it and we will introduce it in a number of African countries in the near
future. That may be an important step forward.
The other article that I would like to mention is Article VII, which basically says that customs
valuation should be based on the value of the tr ansaction. Although most developing countries,
members of WTO, have signed up to it, this agreement is not being implemented. Mr. Lozbenko
mentioned before one of the reasons why Article VII is so difficult to implement. In the developing
world you cannot ignore that more than 50 per cent of the government revenue comes from customs.
So there is a fear on the side of the Ministry of Finance to change the way customs work, because this
means taking the risk of reducing their income. We have been working on methods to use the import
files which are generated by ASYCUDA in order to have some national reference files on prices
which could help the developing countries to implement Article VII and hopefully not loose anyrevenue from it.
These are the two important points to be discusse d in this forum and I th ink that is something
that should be taken up as well by this meeting at a later stage.
Mr. Lozbenko mentioned that e-commerce is going to change everything. I agree with that,
but what is going to change everything is ICT, the new technologies, basically the Internet. When westarted the ASYCUDA system we had national systems; now we are in a world where with Internet
every administration and entity in the private sector is connected. Therefore that opens the way to new
ways of doing things. Obviously, we are going to re-think the way transactions are being monitored.
There is no question about this. This will happen, and it is already happening in the private sector
where you see that technologies are being applied in order to become more competitive.
The question is now how fast this will go and whether the developing countries will be able to
follow. Unfortunately, for the time being my answer is that they will not. I have always been
optimistic about what the developing countries could do, but the Internet is a network and that means
that you have usually data which is in one place and that is accessed by everybody. Today that is notthe way ASYCUDA works; it could not work, because telecommunications in developing countries
are still very weak and therefore it is difficult to have one central system.
We have seen some developing countries and not among the LDCs, I can say among fairly
advanced developing countries, that have developed a new Java-based customs. Talking to the privatesector we find that they say that when they were using an old version of ASYCUDA they could use it
to enter data and clear your goods in just a few minutes. Now they say they can hardly enter 5
declarations a day: the system goes down and y ou loose everything. The technology as it has been
designed requires that telecommunications work perfectly. Most of the data is not in your privateG/C/W/297
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system but it is somewhere else, centrally, and you get it when you log in. This means that access to
the system's central database must be available to all traders and to even the most remote customs
office in the country. That just cannot work today in most of the developing countries. We have to be
very cautious about this. We have to look into what will happen in infrastructure, that is
telecommunications networks, and how they will evolve.
What we see today is that where you have had a good competition policy in place, where you
have a certain amount of liberalization, you have  better telecommunications too. In a number of
countries telecommunications still remain a source of revenue for the State. It has been difficult to
open those markets so prices are very high and the quality usually rather low. It may seem that this
problem is not directly related to our topic, but it is. I think we should also have a word about this. If
we want developing countries not to be left aside of the future development of trade facilitation andtrade efficiency, they will have to have good national telecommunications networks.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.G/C/W/297
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1.4 Mr. Peter M. Kalil, Chief, Integration, Trade and Hemispheric Issues Division,
Integration Department, Inter-American Development Bank
My presentation this morning will be, as requested by the WTO, an overview of the IDB's
trade facilitation activities in three areas: customs, support for the implementation of international
agreements and infrastructure. I will also address the questions posed directly by the WTO as well.
By way of introduction, the IDB is a regional development bank, an international
organization, based in Washington, dedicated to promoting economic and social development in Latin
America and the Caribbean. We do this through granting loans and technical cooperation for
development projects in that region only: Latin America and Caribbean. Last year the IDB approved
5.3 billion $ in loans and 180 millions $ in grants.
One distinct feature about the IDB is that the IDB has an Integration Regional Programmes
Department, which is unusual. It is in charge in  providing support to the Latin America and the
Caribbean region in the trade and integration area including trade facilitation and customs. I wouldalso like to point out that the IDB according to it s recently approved institutional strategy has four
areas of priority for its future activities. One of these is trade and integration, the others are social
sector development, public sector modernization and competitiveness. So trade facilitation certainly
fits into both the public sector modernization and the trade and integration priorities and the IDB's
main focus has been through support to countries in their efforts to modernize and reform customs
administrations; also through support the FTAA as well as other support for the adoption of
international agreements.
First I will address customs. The IADB finances customs modernization and reform projects
both on a national basis and on a regional basis. As far as national projects are concerned, the IDBsupports projects with either loans or non-reimbursable technical cooperation currently in 11 countries
in Latin America and the Caribbean; this includes all 5 central American countries and Panama as
well as Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Each national project ranges from 200.000$
to 5 million $, each depending on the needs. These are all focused on facilitation and control through
institutional strengthening. Typically they all include components related to organizational structure,
procedures, customs infrastructure like management information systems, border facilities, etc. and
very importantly: human resources and training. That is our national programmes.
As for regional customs projects, the IDB is financing several but I will point out 3 of the
most notable ones. The IDB is financing a regional programme in the Caribbean through CCLEC, the
Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council, for customs valuation and business facilitation. This is
a project in which both the U.S. and Canadian customs services have provided technical expertise tothe beneficiary countries. The IDB is also financing a regional training programme for customs
officials financed together with the international cooperation agency of Spain. This is for workshops
and customs valuation and business facilitation. Finally I would like to point out a rather unique
programme we are financing, a Latin American and East Asia best practices programme funded by a
special Japan programme at the IDB. This is a programme that includes a competitive process forLatin America and Asian countries to present best  practice papers on customs modernization and a
selection panel which will include the WCO will choose the best of these best practice papers for
discussions at workshops in Japan and in Latin Am erican and subsequent dissemination. So that is
customs.
Now: implementation of international agreements . One of the distinguishing, and I would say
ground braking activities of the IDB as a whole, not only in the trade and integration area, has been
support for the FTAA process since 1997. As you know FTAA is an effort by 34 countries of theG/C/W/297
Page 70
western hemisphere to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement by 2005. You probably read about the heads
of state meeting in Quebec city where the FTAA was strongly endorsed. Countries have asked for
IDB support in this and the IDB has been providing support in conjunction with both the organization
of American States and the UN Commission for Economic and Social Development based in Chile.
The FTAA has 9 negotiating groups, for example for market access, agriculture, investment andservices; and market access includes a sub-group on customs procedures. It also includes tariff and
non-tariff measures, technical barriers to trade and rules of origin.
The IDB has approved 2 large regional technical cooperation grants for the Secretariat of the
FTAA, first based in Miami and now based in Panama City. This support has been for both logistical
support of the Secretariat as well as technical and analytical studies. One of the things that the FTAA
process has focused on specifically with IDB support is business facilitation. Trade ministers decidedas a strategy to agree on a set of business facilitation measures as a signal of an early success to
demonstrate to the business community half-way between the beginning of the negotiations and 2005
when they should conclude.  Hence they call it business facilitation rather than trade facilitation but it
is both.
It took a year to decide on this measure but they did it in a very pragmatic way. Trade vice-
ministers asked each of the negotiating groups to submit a list of business facilitation measures they
saw as the most important; then all groups indicated yes or no on the measures submitted by all of the
negotiating groups. So they eventually narrowed it  down to two key areas of business facilitation:
transparency and customs procedures. Then through negotiations, they arrived at 11 transparency
measures and 8 customs measures as the business facilitation measures they all agreed to implement.For the 8 customs measures, countries asked the IDB for support and in the middle of last year, the
IDB approved 3 millions $ non reimbursable technical cooperation grant from the multilateral
investment fund window at the IDB, whose intent  is to promote a sound business environment for
development in the region. This project is now on the way of being executed by the Interamerican
Center of Tax Administrations based in Panama city.
The FTAA as you can see was a kind of a top down process; the WTO seems to take a more
bottom up process focusing on principles first then measures. But the FTAA with only 34 countries
seems to manage to be able to go straight to the measures.
Aside from the FTAA, the IDB is also financing a regional training programme jointly with
the WTO for training of public officials in Latin America in WTO related matters. This is through theIDB's Institute for Integration in Buenos Aires called INTAL and one final initiative that I would  like
to mention is a special trade facility that the IDB has with up to 5 million $ pre-approved for countries
to strengthen the making and administration of trade policy, including the negotiation of trade
agreements  as well as for impact studies.
Now I go on to subject of infrastructure. Infrastructure is a very important topic for trade and
integration as a whole and it is a major area for IDB lending. The IDB is financing infrastructure
projects in every borrowing member country: roa d, bridges, electricity generation, transmission,
distribution and so forth. But 2 new initiativ es are worth pointing out, the South-American
Infrastructure Integration Initiative and the Plan Puebla Panama.
In the first, for South America, the IDB toge ther with the Andean Development Cooperation
and FONPLATA, the Financial Fund for the Developm ent of the River Plate Basin in South America,
is supporting a process launched by the presidents of the 12
th South American countries in their
summit in Brasilia in September to integrate the infrastructure of the continent in 3 sectors:transportation, energy and telecommunications. The go al is to promote not only economic and social
development but integration and regional competitiveness as well. Under this process, technical
working groups will be formed for each of the 18 corridors and integration processes which are cross-G/C/W/297
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cutting sectoral processes. All of these corridors and processes had been identified and agreed upon at
the ministerial level.
Each working group will identify and prepare projects in all 3 sectors: transport, energy and
telecommunications, and I would like to point out that one of the groups will dedicate its attentionexclusively to facilitating border crossings. One impotent role of the IDB is that together with CAF,
(the Andean Development Cooperation) and FONPLA TA, it will hire the co-ordinators of each of
these technical groups. The Plan Puebla Panama is very similar but for Mexico and Central America
rather than south America, and this process started a little later.
With respect to land-locked countries there is no  special attention in either these – well, there
are no land-locked countries for the Plan Puebla Panama – but for South America, both Bolivia andParaguay are included in several of these integration corridors to be studied.
One final point on infrastructure: In some highway projects which the IDB finances specially
for export corridors (they are many projects of this type) there is a component for customs related
infrastructure to facilitate border crossings. This was the case for the loan approved for Argentina last
year.
So now to the questions posed by the WTO:Lessons learned: The IDB has learned that technical cooperation plays a very important role
both in instructional strengthening and as an incentive for countries to adopt business facilitation
measures. But within technical cooperation projects for successful strengthening of customs
administrations probably the most important single factor for the success of the technical cooperation
is for the customs administration to set up a sound human resources management system, for the
director and the staff to be professional, de-politicised and well-paid. One option for this that somecountries have adopted is financial autonomy, operational autonomy from the rest of the public sector.
That is the case in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru. So everything else can flow from a good staff; a
good staff is the heart of any good organization.
 Two other key factors which I would like to  mention are: 1) the ownership factor; that
countries do have the political will to undertake the reforms and 2) the attention to the implementation
phase, not just the initial approval phase of reforms.
With respect to the principles on trade facilitation which were distributed and their feasibility
– one thing I noticed that they all have in common is transparency. The EC and Switzerland seem to
take a broader view on trade facilitation while Canada and Costa Rica seem to take the more narrow
view that trade facilitation is more confined to customs and border issues. Both approaches are good,the IDB's experience with FTAA is that countries have asked for the IDB's assistance within a
narrower view. With respect to the principles that Switzerland cites -  it is very true that international
standards and harmonization of technical regulations, recognition of conformity, assessment
procedures are all corner stones of trade facilitation but it may be difficult for all countries, developed
and developing, to agree first on a set of principles. This leads one to believe maybe there is room forregional agreements starting with the measures themselves.  At least that is the IDB's experience with
the FTAA.
At the same time, it is very true that modernizing customs procedures and technology
constitute an obligatory step to stimulating trade. Wi th respect to the subject of project monitoring it is
absolutely crucial to follow up during execution phase. That is why the IDB has a well staffed-office
country office in each of its 26 borrowing member countries and like the World Bank performs
portfolio reviews to determine the likelihood of the achievement of the objectives of the developmentG/C/W/297
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projects which the IDB finances. So if there are any problems adjustments can be made during the
execution phase.
Regarding challenges, perhaps the greatest is to help countries strengthen institutional
capabilities, customs administrations, trade ministries and also facilitating their working more closelytogether, that is to say customs administrations and trade officials. Certainly I would also like to echo
the challenge that countries have to undertake long-term institutional and policy reform beyond
political cycles.
One more challenge is the availability of resources to support reforms. Here the role of the
international organisations is very important, but some things cannot be financed or done by the
international organizations. Obviously some things would be budget support like salaries which iswhat I was referring to earlier as one of the key factors for success.
This brings me to my final point: coordination among donors. Coordination among donors is
very important to maximize impact; the IDB has umbrella agreements with both the WTO and the
WCO and works with some individual customs administrations to provide services to other customsadministrations. This is clearly important for international organizations to do in this and every other
area.
So in sum, to conclude: the IDB's main focus in trade facilitation is to help individual
countries to strengthen customs administrations, both on a national and regional basis throughregional programmes. The IDB actively supports the FTAA and through the FTAA the adoption of 8
business facilitation measures as well as helps countries to implement the WTO agreements, such as
the one on customs valuation. The IDB supports many infrastructure projects including new regional
initiatives. Key lessons relate to human resources, ownership and attention to implementation. The
main challenges are to help countries strengthen institutions to undertake long-term reforms beyondpolitical cycles and to have sufficient resources to do so.
Thank you very much.G/C/W/297
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1.5  Mr. John S. Wilson, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
TRADE FACILITATION LENDING BY THE WORLD BANK
RECENT EXPERIENCE, RESEARCH, AND
CAPACITY BUILDING INITIATIVES
Draft Paper prepared for:
The World Trade Organization
Workshop on Technical Assistance and Capacity Building in Trade Facilitation
Geneva
10-11 May 2001
John S. Wilson
The World Bank6
INTRODUCTION
The World Bank’s work on trade is an important part of its mission in support of development
and poverty alleviation. Trade has been an key engine for economic development over past several
decades.  Liberalization of international trade markets has had a strong positive effect on economic
growth, including in the developing countries.7 Efforts to integrate developing countries into the
trading system and multilateral framework established in the World Trade Organization, asliberalization continues, should include a renewed focus on trade facilitation.
As part of the work toward this goal, the World Bank supports trade policy reform and
implementation of Uruguay Round commitments by developing countries in several areas directly
related to (1) accelerating transparency and modernization of customs, (2) regulatory reform and
standards, and (3) expansion of transport access and infrastructure modernization among others. The
Bank's work programme on trade specifically focuses on these areas from a development context as aprimary objective. For example, the institution's project lending supports government institutional
reform and infrastructure and facility modernization related to health, safety, or environmental goals.
In addition, efforts are underway to more closely tie capacity building and development objectives
with advantages of deeper integration into the world trading system.
8  
                                                     
6 This paper is a draft to be revised.  The conclusions and opinions are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent views of the World Bank.  Questions may be addressed to John S. Wilson, LeadEconomist, Development Economics Research (DECRG), the World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington,
D.C. Phone: (202) 473-2065, Fax: (202) 522-1159, email jswilson@worldbank.org.  The assistance of Marc
Plotkin in preparation of this paper is gratefully acknowledged.
7 For a recent overview of trade and development, including work of the World Bank see; Leveraging
Trade for Development: World Bank Role, prepared for the Development Committee paper, April 3, 2001 andGlobal Economic Prospects and Developing Countries, 2001, The World Bank.
8 Source: Wilson, John S. The Development Challenge in Trade: S anitary and Phytosanitary Measures ,
submission by the World Bank to the WTO, Document No. G/SPS/GEN/195 (July 12, 2000).G/C/W/297
Page 74
This paper provides an overview of the World Bank’s lending programme related to trade
facilitation.  It is not a comprehensive review of all trade-related lending by the Bank in this area, but
rather provides examples of how the Bank s upports liberalization through projects which support
facilitation measures. Part I sets forth the basic principles of trade facilitation that have been
promulgated by the World Trade Organization.  Part II  provides an overview of the Bank’s lending in
trade facilitation over the past decade. Part III reviews lessons in trade facilitation that have been
highlighted from earlier lending projects. Part IV describes in detail seven trade facilitation projects
that the Bank has started since 1998, all of them currently active in 2001. Part V briefly summarizes
the challenges that the Bank and other organizations will have to address in the coming years.
BACKGROUND: BASIC PRINCIPLES AND BUILDING BLOCKS
There is no single definition of trade facilitation. The term generally refers to the
simplification of procedural and administrative impe diments to trade, such as customs administration,
licensing procedures, standards and technical regulations, and barriers to the mobility of
businesspeople. Several fundamental principles have emerged which serve as the basis for trade
facilitation:
- transparency,
- due process,
- non-discrimination,
- least-trade restrictiveness.
These principles are derived from the text of  the Uruguay Round Agreements, in particular:
Articles VIII and X of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Technical Barriers to Trade
(TBT) Agreement, and the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS).9 These
principles are fundamental building blocks for reform – and should form the basis of long-term
liberalization efforts. This will require sustained efforts involving work to implement current trade
obligations as a key priority.
Article VIII addresses fees and formalities connected with trade.  It sets out a WTO member’s
basic obligation to minimize the number and diversity of border measures that can have the effect of
restricting or distorting trade.  Such measures can include: fees (other than normal customs duties and
taxes), quantitative restrictions, licensing, documentation requirements, and quarantine measures.
Article X requires that members publish all of their laws and regulations that pertain to importationand exportation.
Two additional parts of the Uruguay Round Agreements are central to trade facilitation and
must be considered within the broader context of future liberalization measures. The Technical
Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement requires that member states not promulgate technical regulationsthat create unnecessary obstacles to trade. This means that any technical regulation adopted by a
member state shall not restrict trade any more than is necessary to fulfill a legitimate objective, such
as protecting national security or the public health. Article 4.1 of the TBT Agreement mandates that
member states work toward adopting internatio nally accepted standards. The Agreement on Sanitary
and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) requires that sanitary and phytosanitary measures promulgated bymember states be necessary to protect plant and animal life, based on scientific principles, justified by
sufficient scientific evidence, and not be applied in a manner which would constitute disguised trade
restrictions.
                                                     
9 The text of the WTO agreements are available at http://www.wto.org.G/C/W/297
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THE WORLD BANK’S TRADE FACILITATION WORK PROGRAMME: SELECTED
EXAMPLES
Overview
In the six years since the implementation of the WTO agreements, the World Bank has
continued to be active in trade-related lending.  Through the mid-1990s, trade-related lending focused
largely on border liberalization measures, such as quantitative restrictions, duties, subsidies, export
financing, and customs.  More recently, however, bank policy lending has been targeted at “second
generation” trade facilitation measures, such as privatization, public enterprise restructuring, and
regulatory reform10  These issues are becoming more important as tariffs fall and supply chains
integrate production and trade around the world.
In fiscal year 1999, 64 out of the Bank’s 212 lending projects had trade-related components,
and twelve of those were entirely trade-related.  The projects centered on a wide range of specific
sectors, including public sector management, agricu lture, industry, finance, and urban development.11
In adjustment lending, trade facilitation lending primarily covers reforms in customs, regulatory
frameworks, and standards. During fiscal year 1999, the bank extended 15 adjustment loans with
components addressing customs reform, 17 with components covering standards, and 14 with
components dealing with lega l and regulatory reform.12 Project lending focused on export promotion,
legal reform, strengthening of trade-related public institutions, and support for new product
development and marketing.13
In Fiscal Year 2000, there were approximately  232 lending operations for a total of $15.3
billion dollars ($10.9b IBRD and $4.4b IDA).  Project  lending in IBRD loans amounted to 59 per cent
of the total and adjustment loans to 41 per cent. Estimates indicate that 13 projects totalling $650
million were focused on overall trade promotion and facilitation goals. In addition, the Bank
supported projects targeted at privatization and reform of public utilities, financial institutions andother public entities in which privatization creates conditions in which trade expands. During FY 2000
and as of March 2001 in FY 2001, there were 18 projects primarily concerned with trade facilitation,
and 16 other projects that had at least one trade-facilitation component.
14
Understanding the Dynamics of Trade Facilitation and Development in the Asia Pacific.
To further the development dimensions of trade facilitation and examine problems and
prospects of trade facilitation in Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Bank, together with
the Government of Canada and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, organized a workshop in
Singapore in September 2000, focusing on “new directions and the development challenge” for
APEC’s trade facilitation agenda.
Two of the four areas that the workshop focused on were customs procedures, and standards
and technical regulations.15 Themes that emerged from the workshop included: (1) the need to build
on complementarities and synergies in trade facilitation across different sectors, which argues for a
                                                     
10 World Bank Report, Trends in World Bank Trade-Related Lending – Part I , (May 4, 2000).
11 Ibid.
12 World Bank Report, Trends in World Bank Trade-Related Lending – Part II  (May 8, 2000).
13 Ibid.
14 World Bank Report, Trade in World Bank Project Lending FY 00 and FY 01  (March 26, 2001).
15 For additional background on the work, from a development context, see: “Facilitating Asia’s Trade:
A Role for Development Cooperation, Assanie, Nizar, Michel Hardy and Mariette Maillet, CanadianInternational Development Agency, discussion paper prepared for the APEC workshop on Trade Facilitation,
September 6, 2000, Singapore, September 2000.G/C/W/297
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horizontal approach to facilitation issues within APEC, (2) the importance of involving the private
sector in APEC’s trade facilitation efforts; and th e developmental impact of trade facilitation and, (3)
the fundamental role of technical assistance in helping less-developed economies implement
facilitation measures16 The Bank is currently considering projects to expand upon the work
undertaken in the APEC region.
Global Facilitation Partnership for Transportation and Trade.
In June 2001, the Bank will host a conference sponsored by the Global Facilitation
Partnership for Transportation and Trade (GFP). This initiative is a Bank-sponsored consortium of
public and private sector organizations whose collective mission is to reduce or eliminate
impediments to cross-border transportation, thereb y facilitating trade and alleviating poverty. The
principle objectives of the GFP include: the establishment of a comprehensive Facilitation AuditFramework, combining qualitative assessment with a simplified set of data on efficiency of trade and
transport transactions; the definition of systematic approaches to measurement, based on a set of
facilitation indicators on transportation and cross-border processes, to be systematically collected; the
monitoring and publishing on a regular basis of data on these facilitation indicators; and any
commonly agreed initiative aiming at promoting trade and transport facilitation programmes througheducation, training, and targeted technical assistance activities.
17
Among the projects initiated by the GFP is a trade and transport facilitation project that is being
implemented in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, and Romania simultaneously. This
project, if successful, will substantially integrate the transportation infrastructures of these sixSoutheast European nations.
TABLE 1: Selected Trade Facilitation Project Lending by the World Bank
18
Country – Project Name
Trade-Related ComponentsDates
Amount**
Transit
Poland – Port Modernization
Upgrading physical and managerial infrastructure of port facilities2001-
$38
Mozambique – Rail and port restructuringIncreasing port-rail system efficiency to accommodate freight2000-
$100
                                                     
16 For additional background see: "Cutting Through Red Tape: New Directions for APEC's Trade
Facilitation Agenda, Yuen Pau Woo and John S. Wilson, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.  See also theWorld Bank website at: www.worldbank.org/standards  for conference papers and background material.
17 Global Facilitation Partnership, Memorandum of Understanding , available at  www.worldbank.org.
18 Sources: World Bank Report, Trends in World Bank Trade-Related Lending – Part I , (May 4, 2000);
World Bank Report, Trends in World Bank Trade-Related Lending – Part II  (May 8, 2000); World Bank
Report, Trade in World Bank Project Lending FY 00 and FY 01  (March 26, 2001); Wilson, John S. “The
Development Challenge in Trade: Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards,”  Paper submitted to the Committee on
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards of the World Trade Organization , Geneva (June 21, 2000).G/C/W/297
Page 77
Honduras – Rural and main roads
Repair and improvement of trade corridors damaged by hurricane2001-
$66
Nicaragua – Road rehabilitationInfrastructure improvement along international trunk road corridors2001-
$75
Customs
Six Southeastern European countries – Transport facilitation
Strengthen and modernize customs administration1999-
$78.4
Tunisia – Export developmentStreamline and modernize customs procedures1998-
$35
Standards
Turkey – Agricultural researchLaboratories and residue control modernization1992-1999
Poland – Agro-industries exporting
Food processing facilities modernization1990-1995
Madagascar – Rural development
Livestock vaccination1980-1988
Guatemala – National competitiveness
Certification and product quality evaluation programmes2001-
$20***
Hungary – Municipal waterReduction of Danube River pollution to comply with EU standards2000-
$88.9
Regulatory Reform
Guatemala – National competitiveness
Regulatory reform in the area of competition policy2001-
$20***
Algeria – Privatization assistanceStrengthening regulatory capacity to facilitate trade2000-
$5G/C/W/297
Page 78
India – Telecommunications
Strengthening regulatory framework to enhance private investment2000-
Malawi – Utility privatization
Strengthening regulatory framework in telecommunications &  electricity sectors2000-
$28.9
* Not available ** In US$ millions ***Represents total project loan, not individual component.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM PAST BANK PROJECTS
Every lending project undertaken by the bank presents unique circumstances, and this is
certainly true in the area of trade facilitation.  While it is difficult to draw universal lessons from theseprojects, there are certain experiences that will  determine the success or failure of a loan in a
particular context.  Some of these lessons were learned in earlier trade facilitation projects undertaken
by the Bank.
Highly Successful Projects.
In one example, a loan to Sri Lanka from for telecommunications reform was rated as highly
satisfactory.  The loan was approved in 1991 and the project closed in 1998.  A key lesson learned in
this project was that labour unions should be involved at the early stages of reform, and their concerns
should be considered in order to reduce resistance to reform. Another lesson drawn from this project
was that the successful private operation of value-added and other marginal telecommunications
services creates new job opportunities. This may reduce staff fears of privatization as well as providecomfort to potential investors who observe a track record of commercial operations and the workings
of a sound legal and regulatory framework. Third, full corporatization with private management and
suitable regulation provides the autonomy needed to quickly expand service and to become more
consumer-oriented and competitive.
19  A transit facilitation project for Macedonia from 1995 to 1999
was likewise rated as highly satisfactory. The Customs Administration in Macedonia was recognizedthroughout the region for its customs reform process.
20
Satisfactory Projects.
A lending project in Morocco that took place between 1991 and 1998 for port revitalization
was rated as satisfactory. One of the lessons drawn from the implementation of this project was that
trade facilitation is too complex to be handled in a sub-sector project, unless a process is defined at
appraisal, responsibilities are clearly apportioned, the objective is actively endorsed by key players,
and private sector constituencies already favor the reforms.21 A similar port modernization loan to
Pakistan during that same time frame was also rated as satisfactory. The key lesson drawn from thisproject was that trade facilitation requires high-level support.
22
                                                     
19 World Bank, Sri Lanka – Second Telecommunications Project , Implementation Completion Report
No. 18746 (December 23, 1998).
20 World Bank, Macedonia – Transit Facilitation Project , Implementation Completion Report No.
19408 (June 24, 1999).
21 World Bank, Morocco – Ports Sector Project , Implementation Completion Report No. 18764
(December 28, 1998).
22 World Bank, Pakistan – Karachi Port Modernization Project , Implementation Completion Report
No. 18766 (December 30, 1998).G/C/W/297
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Partially Successful Projects.
A loan to Bolivia from 1990 to 1998 for private enterprise development was rated as partially
satisfactory with specific components rated as follows. Among the relevant project components, the
regulation component was rated as partially satisfactory while the privatization component was ratedas highly satisfactory. Institution building is a long and complex process. Delays should not be viewed
as conclusive evidence of implementation failure per se where a project is achieving substantive
institutional change. Limited interventions in institution-building projects are acceptable only if they
form one part of a larger programme.
23
Lessons Drawn from These Projects.
While neither comprehensive nor conclusive, the foregoing examples do suggest some of the
factors that contribute to a successful trade facilitation-lending project. Among those critical lessons
are:
- involve the stakeholders at early stages,
- establish independent regulatory institutions, and
- privatize industrial sectors in order to allow competitive enterprises to develop.
With these factors in consideration, the next section examines several of the Bank’s active
lending projects in the area of trade facilitation.
ACTIVE LENDING PROJECTS IN TRADE FACILITATION
PROJECT 1: EXPORT DEVELOPMENT IN TUNISIA24
Objective.
The lending project was designed to address, in part, Tunisia’ s inadequate trade facilitation
mechanisms. At the time this project was devised, Tunisia was facing significant competitive
challenges as a result of accession to the World Trade Organization and the Free Trade Association
with the European Union.  Although its offshore sector had been doing well, traditional exports had
been facing severe competition.  This was due, in large measure, to significant weaknesses throughoutTunisia’s export infrastructure.  Foremost among these problems was the clearance of goods from the
docks. The average time taken to clear goods after they have been unloaded from the vessel was 8
days, and in some cases, 18 days.  Not only were these delays costly in financial terms, but they made
it impossible for exporters to quickly respond to sudden orders.
Responsiveness was also impaired by high order execution cycle times, inefficient supply
chains, cumbersome procedures, limited domestic infrastructure, and lack of stocks on hand in
importing countries. Even in long-term buyer-seller relationships, Tunisian exporters were
disadvantaged because they could not meet the short delivery times specified by buyers for each
order.  An enterprise that imported raw materials and processed them into finished export productshad to go through 34 trade-related steps.
Relevant Components.
                                                     
23 World Bank, Bolivia – Private Enterprise Development Project , Implementation Completion Report
No. 19075 (May 20, 1999).
24 World Bank, Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Loan to the Republic of Tunisia for an
Export Development Project , Report No. 18778-TUN (April  30, 1999).G/C/W/297
Page 80
The trade facilitation component of the project provided support for investments and technical
assistance to reduce transaction costs involved in trading activity, with special emphasis on customs
procedures and electronic exchange of trade-related documents.  For this purpose, a coordinating body
(Technical Committee for Trade Facilitation), consisting of representatives of key agencies involved
in trade facilitation, was established to implement the component.
The procedures for external trade in Tunisia required the processing of documents by the
Ministry of Commerce, various banks, the port authority, and customs, as well as the usual
professional organizations such as customs brokers, shipping agents, and freight forwarders. Delays in
clearance of goods were significant for imports.  The key factors that slowed the process include time
taken to submit and correct shipping manifests, manual processing of customs declarations, lack of
training of customs staff, lack of proper equipment and facilities within customs for goods verificationand analysis.
Trade document processing in Tunisia prior to the implementation of the project was
essentially a manual operation.  Document exchanges had to be carried out via paper copies of
customs documents.  Those documents had to be delivered and in some cases, picked up again afterseveral days for further processing.  Internationa l experience has shown that information technology
can significantly assist in reducing both costs and time delays for trade document processing. The
lessons and experience gained from implementation of such technologies are reflected in the project
design. The implementation of the action plan for this component would lead to simplified trade
documentation processing.
One single connection to a central server after implementation of the project will enable each
participant to exchange forms and messages with other participants. Shipping manifests and customs
declarations will be sent over the network, reducing processing agents’ time. Enhancements to the
customs computer system will support international message/document standards for automation ofmanifest acquittal and processing of customs decl arations. Training is a fundamental part of the
reform process, and the customs training center would deliver courses to Customs agents and
professionals within the trade community, on modem trade facilitation techniques supported under the
project.
Trade simplification mechanisms proposed under the project would make trade-related
transactions more efficient and reliable than they are now. Improving the information exchangebetween cargo handling and clearance activities (for example, electronic pre-clearance of imports and
exports; pre-scheduling of transport, containers, ports, and shipping facilities) would help to simplify
and streamline cargo clearance process, and reduce the time needed to move goods through ports and
handling facilities. In addition, by simplifying and streamlining customs and inspection procedures,
the project would substantially reduce total cycle time for container movement.
Lessons
Among the lessons learned from previous projects and incorporated into the current project’s
design, the most important is that regulatory and structural issues curtail private sector participationand competition in many segments of urban transport, thereby stifling entrepreneurship and private
investment in cargo handling facilities. Related problems include the prevalence of inefficient
transport sector monopolies, restrictive labour practices in ports, inefficient sector management, and
inadequate financial sector development.  The project's basic rationale is derived from cross-country
experience showing that simultaneous actions that facilitate market access to small and mid-sized
exporters and simplify the procedures involved in trade transactions are among the keys to success in
export development.G/C/W/297
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PROJECT 2: ROAD IMPROVEMENTS IN ESTONIA25
Objective
The primary objective of this project is to improve the competitiveness of Estonia's trade
supporting infrastructure and services.  Foreign trade represents a major part of Estonia's gross
domestic product.  Exports of goods and services  reached 83 per cent of GDP in 1997, while imports
were 97 per cent. Transport, transit, and trade play a significant role in the Estonian economy,
accounting for 29 per cent of GDP in 1997, compared to 19 per cent for manufacturing. In 1998,
transit traffic represented 70 per cent of port and rail throughput and about 50 per cent of turnover of
logistic and transport companies. Estonian trade has been characterized since 1990 by increased trade
with the European Union (EU).
Estonia has progressed in privatization of transport services. The port of Tallinn is a landlord
port, with leasing agreements for the private operators. The concessioning of a new container terminal
is under evaluation. The railway operators are in the process of being privatized and the trucking
industry is already private.  The recent reorientati on of trade towards processing of EU inputs for re-
export enables Estonia to reach a new category of clients, more demanding quality-wise but also more
rewarding in terms of value added. The quality and reliability of the logistic services supporting trade
have become parameters by which Estonian companies will be increasingly evaluated.
Administrative barriers arising from customs or standards requirements remain substantial.
These barriers penalize Estonian companies in their effort to compete effectively and reduce the
ability of Estonia to attract increased foreign direct investment. Despite improvements in customs
administration, companies report that undue delays occur and that the non-acceptance of
electronically transmitted documents as official documents generate a significant excess costs to trade.
The understaffing of customs facilities, insufficient quality of communications systems with banks,and continuation of paper-based documentation remain important problems. The customs
administration is proceeding with its plan to introduce ASYCUDA (a computerized customs
information system introduced by UNCTAD and installed in about 70 countries).
Relevant Components
The components of this project include trade facilitation measures to increase Estonia’s transit
traffic and transportation to expand the level of value-added import-re-export activities by
improvements in laws and regulations, public-private cooperation, access to capital, education and
research on trade supporting activities, and easy access to global markets, including an Internet web
site. The Bank-financed part of this component will include the hardware and software required to
implement a pilot electronic data system for providing one-stop border clearances in Estonia.Achievements will be measured by the increase in transit traffic and the implementation of specific
administrative actions related to trade facilitation.  Performance indicators that the bank will focus on
include whether Estonia's non-bulk transit traffic increases by 10 per cent per year from 2000 to 2005,
and the installation of a pilot electronic data interchange system by 2003.
Lessons
The Bank has broad experience in transport projects around the world.  From this experience
it is important to ensure that existing systems ar e well maintained before investing in expanded
systems, a factor incorporated into the work in Estonia in road operations. The experience with the
Highway Maintenance Project indicates that Estonia is capable of implementing these projects and
                                                     
25 World Bank, Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Loan to the Republic of Estonia for a
Transport Project , Report No. 19672-EE (February 23, 2000).G/C/W/297
Page 82
can manage the procurement and other requirements without major difficulty. The Estonian National
Road Administration has become familiar with, and accepts, the use of economic analysis for making
investment decisions for the road network, and the use of contracting for both maintenance and  new
construction.
PROJECT 3: CUSTOMS IMPROVEMENT IN ALBANIA26
Objective
This project forms part of a regional programme for trade and transport facilitation in
Southeast Europe that aims to strengthen and modernize the customs administrations and other border
control agencies in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, and Romania.The project’s objectives are to reduce regulatory barriers and reduce smuggling and corruption at
border crossings.  The project is targeted at customs reform, strengthening interaction and cooperation
between private and public parties at regional, national and local levels, disseminating information,
and providing training to the private sector.  It also includes financing of infrastructure and equipment
at selected border crossings, and implementing, at pilot sites, an integrated set of new customsprocedures, information technology, human resource management techniques, supporting
infrastructure, and cooperation mechanisms for agencies at border crossings. The reduction in duty
evasion and corruption would allow for an increase of government revenues and enable a moderate
reduction in effective tariff rates while not forfeiting revenues.
The Customs Directorate began to institute procedures to improve revenue collection and
modernize into a self-sustaining service. In 1997, the Directorate implemented a pre-arrival
intelligence system and a modernization and development programme that included a valuation and
reference file and the adoption of a new EU-compatible Customs Code in 1999. Despite this
modernization, the actual implementation of customs procedures needs further attention to facilitatetrade and transport activities.
Stakeholders have indicated they have concerns about several issues, including changes in the
legal system and regulations without advance notice, insufficient clarity and transparency of customs
regulations, application of legislation at border points, coordination among border agencies, and
interaction with the Government.  At the same time, the Customs Directorate expressed concern
regarding the need to revise the definition of re sponsibilities between Cust oms and Border Police and
the lack of sufficient training in legislation and procedures by both trade operators and customs
officers.  Other problems remain, including inadequate infrastructure and equipment at border
crossings, extremely deficient telecommunications  services, and the prevalence of installations
rendered unusable due to bombings in recent conflicts.
The project will address the dual problems of modernizing Albania’s customs law and
upgrading its customs infrastructure.  It builds on previous efforts and takes full account of ongoing
EU support to avoid duplication. The project will combine resources from the Albanian Government,
the Bank, and the United States.  The project will seek improvements in border agency procedures,
border infrastructure and equipment, and improvemen ts in the business environment for transport and
trade. In addition, the project will finance rehabilitation of critical roads sections on main corridors
leading to Albanian borders.
                                                     
26 World Bank, Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Credit to Albania for the Trade and
Transport Facilitation in Southeast Europe , Report No. 20828-ALB (October  5, 2000 ).G/C/W/297
Page 83
Relevant Components
The project consists of the following components: a customs services procedures reform
initiative that includes monitoring and review of customs procedures, and enhancing interagency
awareness and training; and a trade facilitation development initiative that includes provision oftechnical assistance and advisory services to trade and international transport participants through the
Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Trade,  improvement of communication between border
control agencies and the trading community by using a virtual forum, and provision of equipment
necessary to support information availability.
Implementation of the project continues to be satisfactory, particularly with respect to the
implementation of the financial sector reforms. Many of the lessons learned from an earlier projectwere incorporated into the current project and have been further strengthened in the proposed
operation. These lessons include the need for strong borrower commitment and good coordination.
Earlier projects also demonstrated the need for continuity of staff, from both the Government and the
Bank, which leads to closer cooperation.
PROJECT 4: RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS IN MONGOLIA
27
Objective
This is a multi-component infrastructure development project involving improvement of
roads and railways in the land-locked country of Mongolia.  The project was undertaken in order to
assist Mongolia in developing the infrastructure necessary to support private sector growth, create
markets, and create a climate conducive to foreign investment.
One objective of this project is to expand trade by developing and implementing a financial
accounting system for Mongolia’s railways.  The Mongolian Railway system has been in transition
from a production to a service oriented transport operator. Although physical infrastructure has been
upgraded and a management information system has been put into place, obstacles to full-scale
implementation remain because of the railway management’s inability to grasp the extent of the
structural changes required by these systems, and because there were no timely and reliable systems
in place to determine which services comprising the rail operation, if any, were profitable.
Relevant Components
To address these obstacles, the Bank will provide technical assistance to Mongolian Railways
for the development and implementation of an off-the-shelf, but comprehensive financial accounting
system which, when deployed with the management  information system components already in place,
will give the railway the ability to determine costs and revenues of individual services.  In turn, this
will enable the railway to design more efficient operating methods, make better use of its human and
financial resources, and better allocate its traction and rolling stock to services in a more efficient
manner than is now possible.  In particular, the new financial accounting system will allow Mongolian
Railways to transport more freight, particularly high revenue earning transit and export traffic, andthereby facilitate improved trade and economic growth. The design for the system should be
completed by April 2002, and will be tested and implemented by April 2004.
                                                     
27 Source: World Bank, Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Credit to Mongolia for a Transport
Development Project , Report No. 21739-MOG (February 28, 2001).G/C/W/297
Page 84
PROJECT 6: ACCOUNTING REFORM IN CHINA28
Objective
The overarching objective of the project is to assist the modernization of accounting in China.
Bank assistance to China's accounting modernization programme began with an earlier Bank project,
the Financial Sector Technical Assistance (FSTA) loan (August 1992), which had a component for
accounting reform. The present project builds upon and extends the work initiated in the FSTA
project, in terms of the development of new accounting standards.  It adds a major component that
focuses on the establishment of a training institute for China's Certified Public Accountants and other
financial professionals for continuing professional education.
Key performance indicators for the present pr oject for the Development and Dissemination of
Accounting Standards component include: the pr eparation, finalization and publication of new
accounting standards; the holding of dissemination seminars to foster the application of the new
standards; the creation of a web site to disseminate and publicize the standards and monitor their
application; and study tours and training of members of the new Accounting Standards Committee.
Performance indicators for the Strengthening of Certified Public Accountants and Other Finance
Professionals component include: the establishment of the proposed National Accounting Institute;
the development of training curricula for teaching courses at the Institute; the number of accounting
and finance professionals attending courses at the National Accounting Institute in the initial years of
its operation.
Accounting reform bridges a number of sectors, financial institutions, and enterprises in all
sectors of the economy. The lack of transparency in accounts, against an ill-defined accounting
framework, has been a pervasive problem in financial institutions.  Attention within the government
to financial sector reform has accelerated, as a result of the regional financial crisis and the fear ofcontagion. While restrictions on capital flows have insulated Chinese financial institutions from
external shocks, the crisis has served to alert author ities to the condition of these institutions, and the
need for their strengthening. It is estimated th at there is a high proportion of non-performing and
possibly non-recoverable loans.
Key to the improved performance of China's banks is the use of a more transparent system of
accounts in China's enterprise sector, which will permit financial institutions to be better aware of theborrower's debt servicing capacity. With the abolition of the credit plan, the banks will finally have to
assume the responsibility of making sound lending decisions. Accounting reforms are also vital for
improving the governance of China's enterprise sector.
Relevant Components
The project consists of two related components. The first component would support the
continuing professional education of China's Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), and other finance
managers and professionals, to familiarize them, on a large scale, with new accounting, auditing and
business administration principles and practices that are generally accepted in market economies. Theapproach to be adopted is to establish a large residential continuing education facility in Beijing, the
National Accounting Institute (NAI), which would offer a wide selection of short courses on specific
accounting and business topics and issues for continued professional education. Such courses would
include, for example, accounting practices, audi ting techniques, taxation, professional ethics,
computerized management systems, and various functional management topics. The facility
                                                     
28 Source: World Bank, Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Loan to the People’s Republic of
China for an  Accounting Reform and Development Project , Report No. 18312-CHA (February 1, 1999).G/C/W/297
Page 85
envisaged could accommodate 1,500 persons at a time. Based on courses of around a week on
average, the throughput of the institution would be around 350,000 student-days per year.
The second component would consist of continuing support of the government's ongoing
efforts to develop and promulgate accounting standards predicated upon internationally acceptedaccounting standards.  The principal vehicle through which this is to be effected is the China
Accounting Standards Committee (CASC). The establishment of this body was approved by the State
Council in February 1998, and it was formally set up in September 1998. On October 6, 1998, the
Ministry of Finance (MOF) issued a Notice of Establishment to all concerned institutions (No: MOF-
K-(1998)34). The Committee is a permanent body, charged with a series of tasks that will include the
researching, drafting review and evaluation of accounting standards; coordination of accounting
activities with international accounting bodies; and formal responsibility for the proposed World BankAccounting project component. By making accounts more transparent, reliable, consistent and
comparable, the accounting reform envisaged in the government's programme will benefit the
enterprises themselves, their bankers, the government and regulatory agencies, individual and
institutional investors; and prospective foreign investors.
Outcome indicators for the Development and Dissemination of Accounting Standards are:
• Strengthened accounting standards in line with international standards;
• Improved knowledge of new standards among finance professionals in China, and accelerated use
of new standards;
• More easily available information on accounting standards and their application;
• Greater capacity to prepare accounts in accordance with the new standards and in conformity with
international practice.
Impact indicators for the Development and Dissemination of Accounting Standards are:
Knowledge of new standards by senior professionals throughout the country; Modernized accountingstandards more closely aligned to international standards; Strengthened and more transparent financial
statements, in both financial institutions and enterprises; and Strengthened financial performance of
enterprises and banks and reduced risk.
Lessons.    There is only one relevant bank-financed project in the country, which took place six years
ago.  Two projects with similar components have been financed by the Bank in other countries, and
offer useful lessons.  In all three projects, the accounting components are small parts of larger projects
and as such the 1P/D0 ratings do not necessarily reflect the performance of the accounting
components.  From these projects, the key lesson that emerges is that the drafting of standards is not
enough; therefore, the project should include in its scope the finalization and dissemination of newstandards. Most of the 25 draft new accounting standards have yet to be officially issued. Widespread
general acceptance of the new standards also requires the provision of public information and
guidelines on application, as well as the appropriate follow-up training of practising accountants and
auditors.
The current project incorporates these lessons by giving a role to dissemination and rollout;
both through programmes of seminars and public knowledge in the first component, and through theCICPA/ NAI component.  A second key lesson is the value of practical international experience in the
development of accounting standards. The present project takes this into account by providing
overseas training for the China Accounting St andards Committee, upon its establishment, and
interchanges with associated international bodies, in addition to consultancy advice. The project teamG/C/W/297
Page 86
has also furnished the borrower with copies of the constitutions of Accounting Standards bodies in
other countries. For the CICPA component, the Bank has provided the benefits of international
consultation to the borrower, for the design of the training center and its curricula, and is also making
provisions for specialized international consultant inputs on classroom design.
PROJECT 7: STANDARDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, SUPPORTED  BY A TRUST
FUND OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT29
Background
This capacity building and research project represents a collaborative effort between the
Bank, the African Economic Research Consortium, a nd various private sector organizations in region
to address the impact of product and process standards and technical regulations on trade in Sub-
Saharan Africa.  It is being supported through a Trust Fund established by the United States
government and U.S. Agency for International Devel opment.  The Bank will work with five countries
in the region:  Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, and Mozambique .  The project grew out of a
recognition that, as tariff and quota barriers to trade in agricultural, food, and manufactured productscontinue to decline, standards and regulations will figure prominently in debates about trade
facilitation.   The work will be extended, subject to resources, to other countries in the Africa region
over the next several years.
Standards and technical regulations are applied to mitigate against health and environmental
risks, to prevent deceptive practices, and to reduce transaction costs in business by providing common
reference points for quality, safety, authenticity, best  practice, and sustainability. In practice, however,
standards and technical regulations may be used strategically to enhance the competitive position of
countries or individual firms. Depending upon the particular industry or market circumstances,
standards and technical regulations can either raise or lower economic efficiency; promote or blockcompetition; facilitate or constrain international tr ade; and enable or exclude the participation of the
poor in remunerative economic activities.  These issues are of particular importance to developing
countries as they seek to strengthen industrial performance, increase agricultural productivity and
competitiveness, and increase their net benefits from international trade.
Several trends can be discerned which have significant implications for developing countries.
First, there has been a proliferation of standards and technical regulations for agricultural and lightmanufactured products as awareness grows regarding food and environmental safety risks and as
international competition intensifies. Second, an increasing proportion of such standards are being
determined outside of the local economy, whether at the regional/trading bloc level or at the
international level. Third, there has been an accelerated development of private standards with supply
chain integrators, who set increasingly stringent prod uct or process standards in order to differentiate
their products and services and manage product liability risks.
Although not well understood, these developments will have a substantial impact on
developing countries, affecting their continued acces s to international markets, their challenges and
opportunities to diversify product lines and compete in new markets, and how their citizens areaffected—as consumers, wage employees, farmers, and business entrepreneurs. At the same time,
developing countries face serious challenges in complying with international (or external market
determined) standards and regulations. This involves not only their compliance with particular
obligations under World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements, but also the ability of local firms
and farmers to meet the product and process standards, which are set abroad by national and regional
                                                     
29 World Bank – Development Economics Research Group, Trade Facilitation and Standards –
Institution-Building in Sub-Saharan Africa , Statement of Project Overview and Goals (January 2001).G/C/W/297
Page 87
public agencies and/or private firms. These compliance challenges are especially serious when
confronted by small-scale enterprises and small farmers.
Objectives
This project was developed in order to help Sub-Saharan Africa meet these challenges. The
Bank and its partners will undertake extensive policy-oriented research on the implications of
standards and technical regulations on the trade prospects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The specific objectives of the work include: building awareness on the range, importance, and
impact of international standards and technical regulations on Sub-Saharan Africa’s trade in
agricultural and manufactured goods; analyzing African regulatory and certification systems in lightof the SPS, TBT and other relevant international agreements; highlighting good practice models for
implementing reforms and capacity-building; developing infrastructure upgrading plans for the five
countries involved in the study, in order to expand their access to and use of international standards;
and developing a database on standards and technical regulations that can be readily accessed. In
addition to country studies, multi-country industry case studies will be undertaken in industries withhigh export potential, such as textiles, leather, wood, meat and fish, horticulture, beverages, and
spices.  The project could serve as an informative model for future policy discussions on trade
facilitation. It will also include the design for a new “Standards Access Africa” network to deliver
information on standards and regulations relevant to African countries which leverages the Bank’s
Global Distance Learning Network.
LESSONS LEARNED
Trade facilitation is essential to further development and alleviate poverty. While there has
been significant progress in lowering trade barriers at the border, such as tariffs, quotas, and other
such measures, the implementation of the WTO accords has revealed problems in meeting basic
requirements. This is especially true in the case of the SPS and TBT agreements. However, theseproblems can be addressed by applying the lessons drawn from the Bank’s work in trade facilitation,
as demonstrated in the foregoing projects and in countless others.  Those lessons can be summarized
as follows:
• Excessive regulation curtails private sector participation and competition, thereby stifling
entrepreneurship and private investment.
• Wherever possible, countries should make use of information technology to streamline and
simplify customs and other regulatory procedures.
• Those responsible for implementing trade facilitation projects should be flexible and ready to
adjust activities in order to respond to changing priorities.
• Care should be taken to avoid overly optimistic goals and to develop realistic timetables for
implementing trade facilitation measures.
• Detailed indicators, such as increasing outputs, government revenues, cost savings, consumer
satisfaction, productivity gains, job creation, and more efficient public institutions, should beused to monitor performance.
• Improving the enabling environment through infrastructure modernization and regulatory
reform increases the ability of a country to improve efficiency, and to attract and retain
appropriate private investments.G/C/W/297
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• In the area of capacity building, emphasis on beneficiary's participation, intensive supervision,
organization and coordination in the field are critical for timely and effective implementation
of trade facilitation and reform measures.
• Ownership and political commitment are key to en suring strong local leadership, availability
of counterpart funds, and clear delineation of ministerial responsibilities.
• When developing new standards, training and other follow-up measures beyond the drafting
should be taken to ensure that those who must apply those standards comprehend and accept
them.
CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE: CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS
As can be seen from the foregoing discussion, the evolution of trade facilitation presents
significant challenges in the coming years.  As the above analyses of various lending projects suggest,
substantial obstacles remain with respect to the implementation of the commitments to trade reform
that have already been made in the WTO.
Funding to support modernization and reform
Foremost among these obstacles are the lack of modern facilities and training necessary to
support customs and other government functions which facilitate trade. Development funding to
address these needs is required. This does not only imply development lending or grants to the least
developed countries. There is also a role for private sector assistance in meeting public sectorfunctions.  Priorities given available resources are clearly needed.
Ensuring non-tariff barriers in technical regulations are addressed
Second, as the global economy integrates, and as more developing countries become part of
the global trading system, the potential for trade ba rriers to arise in such non-traditional areas as
regulations and standards governing products and processes becomes greater. Consequently, reform
measures in areas beyond the traditional definitions of trade facilitation, which tend to focus strictly
on border policies, must be undertaken. A coordinated approach across the WTO to next steps in
liberalization is critical.
In particular, standards and technical barriers to trade are increasingly important to
developing countries for several reasons. The production and export of manufactured goods by
developing countries had more than doubled in 25 years, reaching 73 per cent by 1995. Thus,
developing countries do not predominantly rely on agricultural products or primary commodities for
export any longer.  At the same time, tariff rates and other traditional trade barriers have fallen.
Third, as previously noted, global supply chains are integrating rapidly.  These trends and others serveto highlight the importance of identifying and modifying trade-restrictive standards and regulations,
and for ensuring that, in the future, standards and technical regulations promulgated for legitimate
purposes do not themselves become trade barriers.
30
The costs of modernization and infrastructure upgrading to meet WTO commitments,
including programmes to facilitate access to information on international standards, exceeds the total
                                                     
30 See generally  Brian Rankin Staples, Trade Facilitation , (October 19, 1998) (Draft paper prepared for
the WTO 2000 Conference, Geneva, available at www.worldbank.org/trade.G/C/W/297
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development budget in many less developed WTO member countries.31 As multilateral trade rules
have expanded from border measures into areas of domestic regulation, requirements on international
standards and how best to facilitate access to international standards are two questions that require
innovative responses.32
Estimating the Economic Benefit of Reform
Customs and related revenue from regulations imposed at the border through licensing and
other requirements continue to generate significant funds for developing country governments. In the
least developed countries, this may total 30 per cent of total government revenue.33  The average share
of import duties in the OECD countries is .5 per cent and in low income countries approximately 25.9
per cent.34 Outlining the economic benefits of trade facilitation reform to highlight the systemic
spillover impact of reform is critical to efforts to advance the liberalization agenda.  The synergies of
reform across these measures is a largely unexplored area in the economic literature based on
empirical data and analysis.35
Donor Coordination and Country Ownership of Reform
Donor coordination in this area of technical assistance is clearly as important as in any other
area of development and reform.  There must be on-going coordination between programmes such as
the Integrated Framework, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), and other initiatives of
multilateral agencies.  Mechanisms to ensure funding from bilateral donors is also clearly needed. Inaddition, national government ownership and commitm ent to reform, along with an institutional
framework to ensure long-term progress is needed.
                                                     
31 Finger, J. Michael; and P. Schuler (2000), Implementation of Uruguay Round Commitments: The
Development Challenge .  World Economy v23, n4: 511-25
32 Wilson, John S. “Technical Barriers to Trade and Standards: Challenges and Opportunities For
Developing Countries,”  Paper submitted to the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee of the World Trade
Organization , Geneva ( February 25, 2000).
33 Rege, Vinod, "Customs Valuation and Customs Reform," in The World Bank Trade Handbook,
forthcoming, The World Bank.
34 Kubota, Keiko, Fiscal Constraints, Collectio n Costs, and Trade Policies, World Bank Policy
Research Working Paper #2366, June 2000.
35 The World Bank is launching a survey of technical and regulatory barriers to trade in 19 countries in
2001.  This Global TBT Database will include data to be tter evaluate the trade impact of technical barriers
which relate to overall trade facilitation measures.G/C/W/297
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1. 6 Mr. James T. Walsh, Senior Economist, Tax Coordination Division  International
Monetary Fund
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
Fiscal Affairs Department
CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION MODERNIZATION:
THE ROLE OF IMF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Presentation to the May 10–11, 2001 World Trade Organization
“Workshop on Technical Assistance and Capacity Building in Trade Facilitation”
by James T. Walsh, Tax Coordination Division
Following a brief background section that describes the role of the IMF, this paper outlines
the importance of technical assistance in IMF activities. It then focuses on customs administration
technical assistance, including an outline of the IMF’s advice that supports both more effectiverevenue collections and improved service to the trade community.
BACKGROUND
The IMF was created to: (1) promote international monetary cooperation; (2) facilitate the
expansion and balanced growth of international trade; (3) promote exchange rate stability; (4) assist in
the establishment of a multilateral system of payments; (5) make its resources temporarily available to
its members experiencing balance of payments difficulties; and (6) shorten the duration and lessen the
degree of disequilibrium in the international balance of payments of members.  In order  to carry out
its mandate, the IMF has three primary areas of activity:
Surveillance  is the process by which the IMF appraises its members’ exchange rate policies
within the framework of a comprehensive analysis  of the general economic situation and the policy
strategy of each member. Surveillance is carried out through annual bilateral consultations with
individual countries, multilateral consultations in the context of the preparation of the World
Economic Outlook, and enhanced surveillance for certain members.
Financial assistance  includes credits and loans extended by the IMF to member countries
with balance of payments problems to support policies of adjustment and reform. As of January 2001,
the IMF had financial arrangements with 57 countries for an approved amount of approximately
US$44 billion.
Technical assistance  consists of expertise and aid provided to member countries in several
broad areas: design and implementation of fiscal and monetary policy; institution building (such as
the development of central banks and treasuries); the handling and accounting of transactions with the
IMF; collection and refinement of statistical data; training of officials at the IMF Institute and,
together with other organizations, through the Joint Vienna Institute, IMF-Singapore Regional
Training Institute, and the Joint African Institute.G/C/W/297
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EVOLUTION OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES
The expansion of the IMF’s membership and the adoption of market-oriented reforms by a
large number of countries world-wide fuelled a rapid growth of IMF technical assistance activityduring 1990–94. Since then, the activity has levelled off to an annual expenditure of approximately
300 years of staff and expert time, plus some US$10 million for scholarships and training. Technical
assistance represents some 15 per cent of the IMF’s total administrative expenditures.
An emerging consensus on the elements required for sustainable growth—macroeconomic
stability, market reform, a liberalized exchange regime, and accountable government—has facilitated
the development of a more productive relationship between macroeconomic policy and technicalassistance objectives. Member countries and the IMF have become increasingly convinced that the
timely provision of technical assistance is a key ingredient in supporting a government’s efforts to
sustain policy and introduce institutional reforms.
Setting priorities
Demand for the IMF’s technical assistance exceeds its capacity. This requires prioritization
and allocation of technical assistance resources among member countries and regions. As part of this
process, the IMF’s area (regional) departments play an important role in helping to identify and
prioritize countries’ technical assistance needs, often in consultation with other donors. For example,one of the priorities is to provide technical assistance to countries eligible for the IMF and World
Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.
The IMF’s Executive Board has paid increasing attention to technical assistance matters in
recent years. In addition to commenting on the importance of technical assistance in individualcountry cases, the Board has provided guidance on evaluation of technical assistance, financing
arrangements, and areas of priority.
Types of technical assistance
Technical assistance is provided through a number of  IMF departments.
Monetary and Exchange Affairs Department  focuses its assistance on central banking and
exchange systems issues and on designing and improving monetary policy instruments.
Fiscal Affairs Department  is chiefly responsible for providing advice on tax and customs
administration, public expenditure management and budgeting, tax policy, pension reform and socialsafety net design, and public expenditure reviews.
Statistics Department  helps members comply with internationally accepted standards of
statistical reporting.
Legal Department  provides assistance to members in drafting legislation and educating senior
government lawyers, mainly in laws of central ba nking, commercial banking, foreign exchange, and
fiscal affairs.
Treasurer’s Department  provides technical assistance on the IMF’s financial organization
and operations, the establishment and maintenance of IMF accounts, and accounting for IMF
transactions and positions by members.G/C/W/297
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As mentioned previously, there is also a large training programme that addresses all areas of
interest to the IMF, that is provided in Washingt on, at regional institutes, and, from time to time, in
member countries by the IMF Institute.
Delivering technical assistance
Advisory missions provide an important component of the IMF’s technical assistance
activities. They offer advice on monetary, fiscal, and statistical problems that often lie at the heart of
the macroeconomic imbalances that countries wish to address. In addition, the IMF places experts in
the field for periods ranging from six months to two years to assist in the implementation of policy
reform recommendations.
Traditionally, IMF technical assistance has had a single, well-focused objective and a
relatively short time span. However, in recent years, technical assistance projects have grown both
larger and more complex. Time horizons have lengthened, and multiple sources of financing have
been needed to underwrite costs. Large projects now may involve more than one IMF department and
more than one donor.
External cooperation and coordination
Beginning in 1989, the IMF took formal steps to coordinate its technical assistance policies
and cooperate with other multilateral and bilateral agencies to minimize conflicting advice andredundant activities. It also began to explore wa ys of complementing its own resources through
various financing arrangements with other technical assistance providers. The cooperation has led to a
more integrated approach to the planning and implementation of technical assistance. There are now
comprehensive multiyear programmes of technical assistance that are being implemented with the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and the European Union. TheJapanese government has continued to make annual contributions to the IMF technical assistance and
scholarship programmes.
FISCAL AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
The Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) provides  policy and technical advice on public finance
issues to member countries both indirectly through contributions to the work of area departments anddirectly through technical assistance. FAD staff also review the fiscal content of IMF policy advice
and of adjustment programmes supported by IMF reso urces. FAD staff, consultants, and experts on
contract provide direct technical assistance to member countries on public finance.
Tax coordination and revenue administration divisions
The primary functions and responsibilities of the Tax Coordination and Revenue
Administration Divisions are to:
(1) support area departments in the design and implementation of the tax and customs
administration component of IMF programmes;
(2) provide technical assistance through staff missions and long- and short-term advisors, to
design and implement reform strategies aimed at improving the organization of tax and
customs administrations, modernizing procedures for assessment, collection of taxes andduties, and developing effective audit and enforcement programmes;
(3) conduct policy analyses to develop guidelines for improving tax and customs administration
based on experience gained in member countries;G/C/W/297
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(4) provide training to senior officials by orga nizing and conducting seminars and workshops and
by lecturing at courses organized by the IMF Institute and others.
Customs administration technical assistance
Most customs administrations are responsible for revenue collection, trade policy
administration, and protection of society from illegal imports.   The three objectives are all important,
however, in the majority of countries receiving technical assistance from FAD, revenue mobilization
is a critical task. Therefore, FAD’s advice related to customs administration reform focuses primarily
on the legislative and procedural changes required to secure revenue in the most effective and
efficient way possible.
While OECD countries rely less and less on revenue from import duties, for low and middle
income countries, customs duties continue to produce significant revenue both as a percentage of
GDP and of total tax revenue. This, combined with the significant amounts of revenue from other
taxes on imports, notably the value-added tax, makes it clear that the role of customs administrationsin collecting revenue has not diminished. It is our view that the changes recommended to support
more effective revenue collection, also support the other objectives of trade policy administration and
protection.
Table 1 sets out the IMF’s customs administration missions and expert assignment activities
by region for the years 1998 to 2000. For this period, the activities have totaled 73 missions and 218
months of expert assignments.
CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIES FOR REFORM
From FAD’s perspective, there are three major elements that must be included in a strategy
designed to develop a modern customs administration: (1) the existence of appropriate and transparent
legislation; (2) simple, up-to-date procedures; and (3) a revenue control strategy based on an
assessment of risk and selective controls targeted at high-risk goods and enterprises. The revenue
control strategy has, as its center piece, effective post-release control.
Table 1. International Monetary Fund
Fiscal Affairs Department: Customs Administration Technical Assistance
IMF Region  1998 1999 2000
 Missions 1/  Expert
Mths. 2/Missions 1/ Expert
Mths. 2/Missions 1/ Expert Mths. 2/
Africa 5 54 8 17 10 34
Asia Pacific 2 14 5 8 4 11
Eastern and Central
Europe42 7 3 - - 2 1
Baltics, Russia, and
other 3/1- - - - - - 5 6
Middle East 2 12  7 12 3 10
Western Hemisphere 2 -- 4 12 6 --
Total 16 107 27 49 30 62G/C/W/297
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1/ Missions have, on average three members and are typically two weeks in duration. In some
cases, joint customs and tax administration missions are undertaken.
2/ Expert assignments may be long-term (more than six months), short-term (less than six
months), or peripatetic (more than one short-term assignment).
3/ Commonwealth of Independent States, other than Russia.
At the outset and as the basic starting point for the reform of the customs administration, each
country should make a conscious decision to align its legislation and procedures with international
standards and practices. We encourage countries to follow the advice of both the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and the World Customs Organization (WCO). By using agreed upon
international standards, the customs system will be aligned to international practices and a country
will be more fully integrated into the world trading community.
Appropriate and transparent legislation
A country’s economic characteristics and international trade relations may make some degree
of complexity unavoidable. For example, preferential trade arrangements or implementation of acustoms union introduces a degree of complexity in customs administration through the need to apply
differential tariff rates and to validate the origin of imports. However, most complications for customs
administration result from restrictive and protective foreign trade policies, an irrational tariff structure,
and lack of coordination between domestic indirect taxes and the import tariff.
Many tariffs are characterized by complex rate structures and/or high tariff rates without
economic justification. High tariff rates increase the incentives to evasion (through undervaluation,
misclassification, and outright smuggling) and the pressure for exemptions. Multiplicity of rates
facilitates evasion through the incentives and opportunities for the importer to classify imports in the
lower rate categories, and requires extra vigilance and control by the customs administration.
As in the case of the tariff and trade laws, the customs code can contribute to the complexity
of administration. Experience shows that operational inefficiency in many customs administrations
results from the application of antiquated provisions in the customs code. While customs legislation is
among the oldest in the world, over the years, and especially the last few decades, it has had to adapt
to far-reaching developments in technology, inte rnational trade, and the economic environment in
general. The failure to update the customs code to allow for change impedes the reform of thecustoms administrative system. Problems frequently encountered in the legislation include: (1)
requirement that every single importation be physically checked; (2) requirement for paper
documentation and signatures; (3) inadequate provisions for the reporting of goods by transportation
companies; (4) lack of clear treatment of the various customs regimes (e.g., temporary importation);
(5) inadequate valuation provisions; (6) lack of authority for customs administrations to audit the
books and records of traders; and (7) out-of-date penalty provisions.
Simple, up-to-date procedures
Procedures related to the processing of goods should be simple, transparent, and easily
understood by the trade community. Customs administrations in most developed countries understand
that the costs imposed by inefficient procedures may be as costly as the trade taxes that they collect.
According to one study, prior to the elimination of  border controls among EU member countries, the
costs of these controls were between 3 and 4 per cent of total trade, at a time when no customs duties
were being collected on trade among member countries. However, there is less appreciation of thescope and significance of these costs in customs administrations in developing countries.
As mentioned previously, the design of the customs procedures should be based on an
assessment of risk and selective controls targeted at high-risk goods and enterprises. AdministrationsG/C/W/297
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that have not implemented this approach conti nue to impose high, unwarranted costs on their
importers and exporters, as the findings from two FAD technical assistance missions illustrates.
Black pepper requires four separate laboratory te sts by Customs, Ministry of Health, Ministry
of Agriculture, and the Atomic Energy Commission…Each one of these tests must be completed beforethe pepper can be released.
The control systems are the same for all importers regardless of their record with Customs. A
large multi-national pharmaceutical manufacturer, with approximately 2,500 declarations a year
must have samples taken for laboratory analysis from every shipment prior to release.
Physical inspection of exports by Customs caused so many delays and congestion that signs
were posted denying access to the port to newly arrived export shipments and the ships sailed empty.
The continued application of procedures, such as those described above, reduces the
competitiveness of the industries concerned, thereb y impeding the economic growth of the country.
At the same time, there is evidence to suggest that  these types of controls are much less effective than
the risk-based, selective controls that are in place in modern customs administrations.
One approach to introducing simplified procedures for imports is to target large importers
who have a good compliance record.
An analysis undertaken during one FAD mission demonstrated that 9 importers represented
21 per cent of import transactions. The impact of  developing new procedures for these importers,
based on reduced levels of physical inspections and post-release controls with audit, was self-
evident—the largest contributors to the economy would immediately benefit from reduced costs of
customs intervention; significantly fewer staff would be required for physical and documentarycontrol; and customs control resources could be redirected to high risk goods and traders.
Post-release controls
In modern customs administrations, the basic approach to control has changed from 100 per
cent pre-clearance control to a heavy reliance on post-release review. The change has been driven by
two factors: (1) the dramatic increase in trade (as shown in Table 2, the value of world trade was 50times higher in 1999 than it was in 1960); and (2) the increased complexity of world trade, both in
terms of the types of goods being traded and the terms and conditions related to import and export
transactions (e.g., related party transactions).G/C/W/297
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Table 2. Value of International Trade, 1960–99
In billions of U.S. Dollars
1960 1975 1985 1995 1999
Global 110 806  1,809 5,068 5,644
Industrial countries 77 543  1,263 3,302 3,836
 Developing countries 29 229 489 1,690 1,745
Source: IMF Direction of Trade Statistics
Many customs administrations have now designed systems and procedures that provide for
certain basic verifications to be completed when the goods are under customs control supplemented
by audit-based controls that are undertaken after the goods have been released.
One FAD mission found that, with  a staff of only 22, one division was responsible for
generating US$70 million in assessments from post-release activities over a five-year period. Over
the same period, hundreds of staff were involved in conducting physical inspections, prior to release,
at a cost of millions of dollars to the trade community with no significant violations detected.
Controls prior to the release of the goods, including physical inspections, do have a certain
deterrent effect. Also, they have a role to play related to verifying quantity, ensuring that thedescription of goods is sufficient for tariff classification purposes, detecting contraband, and enforcing
non-revenue related laws (e.g., phytosanitary, drugs, intellectual property rights, and control of
endangered species). However, such controls are less effective for verification of tariff classification,
origin, valuation, drawback, and exemptions.
Post-release reviews should be designed to identify and correct inconsistencies in the
application of the legislation and procedures at the time of release of goods. Typically, a selection of
declarations is made for in-depth review based on criteria designed to identify high-risk transactions.
For example, declarations that claim zero rate may be misclassified for tariff purposes, claims for duty
and tax exemptions require special attention, and drawback claims require verification.
IMPROVING COMPETITIVENESS OF THE TRADE COMMUNITY
Release times
One of the most important issues that we address when we undertake a diagnostic mission to
review a customs administration is the time taken to release goods from customs control.  There are, of
course, several issues to be addressed when reviewing release times and it is important to remember
that it is not only the customs administration that influences the time taken. For example, for goods
arriving by sea, the efficiency of the ports in unloading, handling, and storing goods is a veryimportant factor relating to how fast the goods can be released into the economy.
In addition, the customs administration is, more often than not, responsible for administering
the legislation of other government departments.   For example, the customs administration identifies
goods that require certificates for health or agricultural purposes. Often enforcement of the regulations
of other government departments is more important than the revenue that is collected from the goods.
For example, the introduction of diseased plants may do great harm to the domestic agricultureindustry, if the customs administration is not able to identify that the goods require inspection by the
appropriate department.G/C/W/297
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In one country that we have worked in recently, we found the following:
Customs declarations are now processed using computers and selectivity techniques have
been introduced to identify high-risk consignments for physical inspection. The averageprocessing time for customs declarations has been reduced from six days to less than one day.
More than 70 per cent of the shipments are released without physical inspection and the
objective is to reach 85 per cent. Nevertheless, the average time spent in the port is still 10
days, due not to delays in customs processing, but inefficient port procedures and the
difficulties importers had in arranging credit from local banks.
The importance of addressing the total picture when looking at release times is emphasized
again by the following situation.
Release times at both a seaport and an airport were reviewed.  At the airport, the average
release time was 10 days, including 1.5 days from the time of declaration processing to release (i.e., it
took 8.5 days from time of arrival of the aircraft  to presentation of the declaration). At the seaport,
the average release time was 16 days including 5 days from presentation of the declaration to release.
Most significantly, no shipment was released with the first five days of the arrival of the ship.
In this case, we were able to identify many  of the causes of the delays. For example, the
legislation required the keeper of the warehouse (a state-owned enterprise) to provide 13 days freestorage, thereby encouraging importers to leave goods at the airport or seaport (3 days is more
normal). There was also a requirement that the manifest be translated into the local language before
the declaration could be presented. Therefore, even if the importer was desperate to receive the goods,
the declaration could not be presented until the complete manifest had been translated, presented, and
accepted (this can take a considerable length of time for a ship with 1,000 to 1,500 bills of lading).
Other Observations
During the course of our technical assistance work, we often identify other activities or
conditions that reduce competitiveness, as the following examples illustrate.
The customs administration insisted that signatures and supporting documents were a legal
requirement related by the need for evidence, in those few instances when a case went to court.
However, at the same time, almost all payments of duties and taxes on imports take place through
electronic funds transfer (EFT) requiring neither paper nor a signature. Effectively, the most
important part of the customs transaction was paperl ess. We were somewhat baffled that the balance
of the transaction could not be handled in the same way.
When computerization of export transactions wa s implemented on a pilot basis, the change in
procedures brought to light a small fee that exporters had to pay to the exporters’ association before
a transaction could be processed by the custom s administration. In this case, under the new
procedures, the exporters would have had to print the declaration in the customs office, travel acrossthe city to pay the fee, and return to the customs office to process the declaration. This was not an
attractive proposition, given the huge size of the city with its terrible traffic jams. Instead of the
obvious answers of eliminating the fee or havi ng it collected by the customs administration, the
exporters’ association set up an office in the customs office to collect the fee. Hardly the solution that
should be used in the additional 53 offices that were to be automated.G/C/W/297
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Successful modernization
In 1998, FAD had the opportunity to review the changes that had been introduced in the
Philippine customs administration. FAD had a role in assisting the administration at the outset of the
reform process, in 1993, but had not been back to the Philippines for five years. From our point ofview, the changes that had been implemented in the Philippines were impressive and represented a
very good example of successful customs administration modernization.
The Philippine Customs Service invested heavily  in information technology as one means of
addressing significant problems in the administratio n. Every significant step in the import clearance
process was now automated and the benefits significant.
Diversion of duty and tax payments made through the banking system and customs cashiers
disappearing with the days receipts were two probl ems that were solved with the implementation of
an electronic “cashless” system that automatically links payments made through the banks to the
customs clearance documents. The same system also ensures that payments collected by the banks are
credited in a timely manner to the government account.
Paper-based systems involving over ninety steps and 40 signatures have been replaced with
the electronic filing of documents and the eliminat ion of the need for face-to-face contact between
importers agents and customs officers.
Physical inspections had been reduced from 100 per cent to approximately 15 per cent
through the implementation of a computer-based selectivity system. Goods not subject to inspection
were now released in hours rather than days as was the case previously.
Security of goods under customs control had been  improved as warehouse operators receive
electronic messages that the customs clearance process has been completed and the goods can be
released.
In the Philippines Customs service, there was now rigorous standardization and, if the
transactions did not meet the required standards, they were simply rejected by the automated system.
The ability of individual customs officers to e xercise discretion has been largely eliminated.
CONCLUSIONS
Even though FAD’s customs administration technical assistance concentrates primarily on
revenue enhancement, we treat the issue of competitiveness very seriously. Providing good service to
the trade community is important to the economic well-being of a country and the customsadministration has an important role to play, not only to improve service, but also to ensure that other
government departments address the costs imposed on trade through excessive regulation and
bureaucracy. In order to improve competitiveness, in our view, the modernization of customs
administration activities should be based on selectiv e, risk-based controls that allow the majority of
shipments to enter the economy with a minimum of delay. This should be supported by post-releasecontrols that rely on documentary checks and the audit of the books and records of traders. By using
this approach, the administrations will achieve the two objectives of improving revenue collections
and providing better service to the trade community.G/C/W/297
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General Discussion following Session 1
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
In the UN activities in Trade Facilitation UNCTAD and ITC are specialized in technical
assistance, while the UN Economic Commission for Europe focuses on standards. There are,
however, two important exceptions where the UNECE  acts as a provider of technical assistance.
Firstly, it gives support, in compliance with Recommendation 4 of the ECE, for the
establishment and activities of national trade facilitation bodies in transition, and developing countries
world-wide.  The national trade facilitation bod ies also known as PRO-Committees are often
conceived as independent entities consisting of members from business, NGOs and governmentagencies with vested interest in the facilitation of international trade. These organizations push for the
implementation of trade facilitation measures in their countries.  The UNECE has a long tradition in
providing assistance to such entities using the experience and  direct support of PRO Committees and
governments in developed countries. Currently, the UNECE and the Czech Republic carry out a joint
project in support of PRO-Committees in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania and other countries.
The second substantial component of ECE's technical assistance is the activity of the regional
adviser for trade facilitation who carries out field work in support of trade facilitation projects and
young PRO-Committees in transition economies in the ECE region. The regional adviser plays a key
role in some regional initiatives such as SECIPR O. As with any other public good, trade facilitation
poses the classical questions: who pays the cost: private entities, international organizations,
governments, which governments, and who owns the product? Another problem is the risk of
duplication in technical assistance for trade facilitation. The ECE, through its regional adviser, is
following closely on a day to day contact basis what other institutions, such as the European
Commission or the World Bank, are doing in the region in order to avoid duplication of activities andsituations when staff of various institutions meet in the field and try to do the same thing.
Finally, I want to draw your attention to the documents which I brought here. The first is a
more detailed version of this statement. The second is a Compendium of Trade Facilitation
recommendations. I saw at 10 o'clock this morning that the 100 copies that I brought at 9 o’clock
were already finished. I understand that, with the assistance of the WTO secretariat, we will have
more copies. This is a navigation document, a road map to see what recommendations in tradefacilitation, prepared by various organizations, exist. The third document is ECE Recommendation No
18.  This is again a new version which contains a brief list of trade facilitation measures which can be
adopted by governments.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Mexico
One thing that I have learned from what I have heard is that coherence is essential. This
coherence will not be found within the WTO unless there is a wide multilateral agreement on tradefacilitation.
Mr. Gurunlian mentioned two GATT Articles - Article V and Article VIII of GATT but I
think that Article VIII is a fundamental one. Article VIII is the basis for preparing a mu ltilateral
agreement on trade facilitation because it deals with everything relating to facilitation withinadministrative procedures and there are instruments which have to do with trade facilitation. I think
this is where WTO activities should focus in order to  come up with an agreement in that area.  I would
have two questions one for Mr. Gurunlian in relatio n to his excellent experience and another for Mr.G/C/W/297
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Wilson. The question to Mr. Gurunlian is related to everything that was seen in trade facilitation
within the framework of UNCTAD which enters into areas such as  transport, insurance and so on.
Unfortunately, when we speak about trade facilitation and the WTO there are no standards regulating
transport, relating to trade facilitation.  We see that in matters relating to port issues or multi model
transport for example. How do we simplify these issues? There should be coherence with what otherorganizations are doing. Based on the experience that  Mr. Gurunlian has had in relation to that, do
you think that it is possible to have a multilateral agreement on trade facilitation, bearing in mind the
obstacles that now exist, the political will and the lack of resources in developing countries and
LDCs?
The second subject relates to Mr. Wilson's presentation on trade facilitation. Recently a
manual on trade facilitation by the World Bank did not present or take into consideration all the issuesrelating to trade facilitation. The World Bank could prepare a specific document on trade facilitation
from the point of view of technical assistance wh ich would help all developing countries, especially
least-developed countries. Such a manual on trade facilitation would bring together all the elements
on the table and could be supported through suggestions on the part of the Bank. And of course it
would make its financial contribution, but also su ggest a better structuring within the countries
because many countries lack a vision of trade facilitation at governmental level. Perhaps this could
help.
Thank you.
Mr. Gurunlian, UNCTAD
The question is not a very easy one to answer. UNCTAD is not a standard-setting
organization as you know. We have been using standards that have been developed by other agents
here in the World Customs Organization. For example the Kyoto Convention is a very importantinstrument which has not been ratified by many countries yet and is still on the table with a very large
number of useful articles. The UNECE is a standa rd-setting organization and has been developing
quite a number of standards. We have, however, made an effort. I mentioned in the opening statement
that in 1994 we organized a Trade Efficiency Summit, and in preparation for this summit we had an
ad hoc group on trade efficiency in which we tried to combine the recommendations of all the various
bodies. In fact we did this in cooperation wi th the UNECE, the World Customs Organization and
others and we tried to end up with common coherent guidelines. Some of them were adopted by theministers, others were left as a general recommendation made by the UNCTAD Secretariat.
Now can we go further? The answer is probably "yes" but if it is a WTO agreement it would
need the cooperation and the input of these standard-setting organizations. This should be done
together with them. They should provide the basic input so that you do not create something here thatbecomes a duplication of what is already being done by another organization. Whether it would be
useful to look at it not only from the very narrow sense that is given to trade facilitation by some, that
is customs, but in a much wider perspective: you mentioned port issues and transportation. Certainly
the answer is "yes" and I would even go up to telecommunications and other things that are basic to
trade facilitation. So overall the answer is "yes" but I think we should be very cautious about whatalready exists and what has been done before any new process is started.
Thank you.
Mr. Wilson, World Bank
This is a relatively easy question to answer. As you know, the Bank has prepared a Handbook
for trade negotiators that we are starting to release in a number of cities, including Geneva, where we
released a very early draft of it just last week. In a conversation I had last night  with our divisionG/C/W/297
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chief  we talked about revisions to the Handbook as well as about the intention to see if we could
augment the material that is currently included in draft form. This topic is an important one and we
are considering expanding that work. There are a couple of chapters in there in draft form that were
not released in Geneva, including one on regulatory reform. The chapter on customs was not included
either, I believe, but these chapters are being revised. We intend to release the Handbook in severaldifferent stages and are preparing a series of events through the World Bank Institute in collaboration
with a couple of other organizations. So I think we will be prepared to augment the material on that
subject as we think it is an important one.G/C/W/297
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SESSION 2:  Overview of Techni cal Assistance Activities by Intergovernmental Organizations
2.1 Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, Director, International Affairs and Research Division, Customs
and Tariff Bureau, Japan
In the first part of my presentation I would like to give you an overview on the objectives of
our technical assistance activities.
Our objective is to give assistance in the modernization of customs administrations to fulfil
their 3 main missions at national borders, namely a) the collection of revenue, b) trade facilitation to
promote trade and investment, and thirdly c) the pr otection of a society from the inflow and outflow
of hazardous goods.
In terms of the collection of revenue, customs revenue is still an important source of national
revenue in many developing countries. If we take th e U.S. history as an example of a developed world
we find that prior to the introduction of the income tax in 1914, the Federal Government has beenfunded almost entirely by customs revenue. It is also increasingly an important tool for trade policy.
Secondly we noticed that the attention of the trade community has shifted to trade facilitation
along with the lowering of tariffs across the globe thanks to the series of WTO tariff negotiations.
Thirdly, border control is the most efficient tool to protect a society from the inflow and
outflow of hazardous goods including drug trafficking. As an example, at the national borders in
Japan more than 75 per cent of illicit drugs are seized.
Turning to technical assistance, our method is to share Japan's experience on modern customs
techniques. Risk management is important to strike a balance between the 3 requirements: facilitation,
border control and the collection of revenue.
Risk management allows customs administrations to facilitate legitimate trade while carrying
out appropriate border control. It means changing the customs control method from all documentary
and physical inspection to selected inspection based on risk management. For this purpose, the
intelligence is vital. Customs activities should be expanded to post-clearance stage as well to dealwith growing trade volumes. Post-clearance audit is a useful instrument for valuation while avoiding a
delay in customs clearance. We put emphasis on checking the correctness of the value of goods
declared by importers and we try to transfer our experience of on-the-spot control of contracts,
invoices, accounting books, etc. This is our achievement for the reference to developing countries.
In terms of automation we try to share our experience because late comers in this area are in a
advantageous position to use the experience of those developed countries which have already invested
heavily in this area. A computerized system can cover all the customs procedures from the arrival of
cargo to its release.  Applying information technology to assess the risk of each cargo is important.
When a cargo arrives, we use selectivity criteria to classify those cargos into 3 categories: physicalinspection, documentary examination or immediate release. A large part of the cargo is released
immediately using these selectivity criteria. The accuracy of these criteria is therefore vital. This is
why we need to build up a data base where we store information on importers and other relevant
information. This is the automated risk management cycle.G/C/W/297
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Customs activities should be also expanded to the pre-arrival stage. The advanced
examination based on pre-arrival declaration will enable customs to release cargo upon arrival with
the additional bonus of a further acceleration of trade flows.
Coordination with other government agencies is another key to facilitate trade. One example
for such coordination is the interface of computer systems with other agencies. I recall Japan's case as
an example. We carried out a periodical time survey  for the time needed from an import declaration to
a permit in Japan and discovered that there is drastic reduction of the time. The survey from 1991 –
1998 reveals that these efforts resulted in a more than 70 per cent reduction of clearance times at
customs. All of these techniques are used by Japan Customs and have proven to be very positive in
trade facilitation. When we look into the time needed from the arrival of a cargo to an import
declaration – we see that, as the IMF representative has rightly pointed out, customs alone can notdeal with this problem. We are advancing in this area: the figures show that we achieved a 40 per cent
reduction over the same period. However, we need more active involvement and cooperation from
other government agencies as well.
Turning to the information exchange between cust oms I would like to say that this is the key
to speed up customs control for revenue purposes and the protection of society as well. We can rely
on information exchange on a bilateral basis but we also value a framework on a regional basis and
for that purpose we have a Regional Intelligence Liaison Office set up at Tokyo customs which covers
Asia-Pacific Members. This office gathers seizure reports in commercial fraud cases from member
administrations in the Asia-Pacific and disseminates  the inter-agency report to all 24 members in that
region. This Intelligence Liaison Office is not just limited to the Asia-Pacific but there are 10 regional
Intelligence Liaison Offices in the world and there is a global network of information exchange.
In addition to the application of modern customs techniques it is necessary to integrate
customs procedures into international standards in cluding those laid down in the WTO Agreements on
Valuation, TRIPs, Rules of Origin, the WCO Harmonized System or the Kyoto Convention. We
receive a lot of requests from developing countries on valuation as well as on post-entry examination.
As the acceptance of the WTO Valuation Agreement is obligatory for WTO membership, many of the
developing countries are preparing for the implementation of the Valuation Agreement and for the
effective implementation of valuation we need the introduction of a post-entry examination as well.
Turning to the Kyoto Convention on the simplification and harmonization of customs
procedures, the techniques and the principles that I explained earlier are all included in the revised
Kyoto Convention such as automation and risk management. That is why Japan Customs advocates its
early implementation by ratification by the governments of existing Members to put this convention
in force.
Now I move on to our strategy on technical assistance. Our main focus are customs
administrations in the Asia Pacific region. However, we also give technical assistance to WCO
member countries based on a regional approach and our assistance is needs oriented or demand
driven. We organize training courses in Japan for 6 to 8 weeks and receive many customs officers
from different countries and this contributes to trainers strings. When I visit developing countries, Ialways visit customs institutes for the follow-up of the our technical assistance and there I encounter
many former trainees working as instructors in their home administrations. We also dispatch many
experts for technical assistance. There are resident experts specialized in training areas for Vietnam
for post-clearance audit for the ASEAN secretariat to assist ASEAN countries to develop their manual
for post-clearance audit, computerization for Indonesia and risk management for the Philippines. Wealso send short-term experts in many areas to conduct seminars in various regions of the world.
Turning to the cooperation with international organizations I believe that this cooperation is
indispensable. Japan makes a financial contribut ion to the WCO for the Customs Cooperation FundG/C/W/297
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that is aimed for the technical assistance activities and we also dispatch our experts for the human
contribution. We also make a financial contribution to APEC's technical assistance supported by
human contributions from other developed members.
The emphasis is now put on capacity building to implement WTO Agreements for the coming
5 years including the ones on Valuation, TRIPs and Rules of Origin. When you look at the chart on
the number of courses and participants, you see that last year we have received more than 200
customs officers from around the world. The number of expert missions has been increasing over the
last 3 years.
Every year we carry out needs inventories of recipient countries for the planing purpose. As
we are the regional training coordinator in the Asia-Pacific region, we send questionnaires to thesecountries. Then we evaluate the responses and consult with the WCO for the planning purpose of
WCO technical assistance. But our national technical assistance is also based on this inventory. We
are happy to learn that WCO also has adopted this approach based on Asia-Pacific experience.
When we see the training activities carried out last year and we compare the training needs
and the training activities, we can say that there is a fair balance between the needs and the
achievements.
Finally I come to success and failure. These are two sides of the same coin and when we
focus very much on the practical application of the WTO/WCO Agreements rather than theirtheoretical explanation, we see that it is a successful assistance. When we put more emphasis on just
the theoretical explanation of the agreement, we do not see it as success and for that reason the
selection of participants is very important. We need participants who could serve as trainers at their
home administrations. In order secure commitment at the top level of a recipient country, we
sometimes organize seminars for senior management as well.
The involvement of other governmental agencies and the private sector is also important. We
see that regional seminars are useful. For regional seminars, we invite several countries from the same
region. This provides them with a good opportunity to  exchange their experience and to find another
example or encouragement. After all, the modernizat ion of the customs depends of the self-help of the
recipients countries. If we can form a human network around the region that is a success because that
will enable us to take step-by-step approach as technical assistance is an on-going or continuousprocess.
What are the challenges in the coming years? We need more practical training instruments for
WTO/WCO, and as the representative of UNCTAD has pointed out, information technology,
computerization of the customs is a huge challenge for us.
Information exchange depends heavily on mutual trust among customs. We need to provide
for the opportunity to build trust among customs and the training or technical assistance on a regional
approach could be a good basis for that. After all, our aim is to build up human resources
development and in this area. Integrity or corruption is the challenge in the near future.
Maintenance and monitoring of projects. We carry out an evaluation after each training
course to improve our services and we send follow-up missions to 6 – 8 countries annually and we
make an interview with former participants and senior management to find their needs and to assist
them to prioritise their needs.
Finally, the coordination between bilateral donors and international organizations is vital to
avoid the duplication of work and provide for the efficient use of limited human resources. I believeG/C/W/297
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the coherence and synergy are desirable from the planning stage and that more information sharing on
technical assistance would be helpful.
Thank you very much.G/C/W/297
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2.2. Mr. John Clarke, Coordinator, WTO Affairs, WTO Division, DG Trade, European
Commission
Introduction
3 broad points:
1. Factual overview of European Commission technical assistance in trade facilitation.
2. Some observations about the lessons learned in carrying out these programmes.
3. Third, how technical assistance and capacity building relates to current WTO exercise based
on Singapore ministerial mandate.
Two general observations:
/g110 technical assistance and capacity building in the field of trade facilitation is one to which we
attach priority, one to which we have devoted considerable resources, and one which we think
is key in any development policy or strategy, because increasing trade is key.
/g110 We fully support the idea of this workshop which could constitute first step to more
transparency and coherence between agencies and WTO members on technical assistance in
this field.
1. Factual Overview
Some facts and figures on costs and types of programmes :
The Community’s total budget for aid of all sorts is currently Euro 7 billion a year. This is
about 8 per cent of total EU budget of 96 billion Eu ro, and compares with eg the Member States (total
23 bn per year), and U.S. and Japan (each about 9.5 bn per year). Of this, at least 700 million euro is
allocated to trade. Very conservative estimate as it does not include work relating to areas like port
and transport infrastructure, telecommunications and IT development, agricultural development,
mining and other industrial projects or other major policy areas which are closely related to trade or
which improve the trade infrastructure, and which w ould roughly triple the figure. Nor do our figures
include any private sector financing such as loans and investments by the European Investment Bank.Projects under PHARE for accession countries also do not easily indicate trade aspects. So the overall
figure is considerably bigger. Further details at:
http//www.europa.eu.int/comm/europaid/evaluation/odi.
Breakdown of trade related capacity building is broadly speaking as follows :
(a) about 80 different projects, half of them country specific, half of them regional
(b) 80 per cent of trade programmes part of wider development programmes – only 20 per cent
exclusively centred on trade.
(c) main components of programmes are: regional economic and trade integration about 34 per
cent ; customs issues about 13 per cent; and standards and regulatory issues about 17 per cent.
(d) 4 per cent only co-financed with other donors, and only 6 per cent carried out jointly with
other donors.
(see attached charts)
It is not possible to give exact figures for trade facilitation projects in the way it is understood
by WTO because programmes are conceived in an integrated way and cannot always be split up intoG/C/W/297
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eg programmes to simplify documentation procedures, or to automate border crossing procedures.
These individual issues usually sub-contracts of much wider programmes of trade enhancement or
regional trade integration. They in turn are part of even bigger programmes of economic reform,
infrastructure improvement and enhanced governance.
However, programmes with a customs component cover in particular modernisation of
customs administrations, training of officials in m odern customs techniques such as risk assessment,
audit procedures, introduction of programmes for customs integrity, setting up of facilitation links
with chambers of commerce, freight forwarders etc, simplification of customs and trade
documentation and introduction of common forms or electronic messages, and - especially in eastern
Europe and the CIS countries – efforts to improve border crossing infrastructure.
In geographical terms a large proportion (about a third of the value of all programmes) are
aimed at ACP countries, and are regional rather than national. Another large proportion of
programmes are designed to help candidate countries to the EU and other neighbours with whom
comprehensive cooperation agreements are in place. Overall, the proportion – although not the
amount in real terms - of trade related technical assistance to Asia has declined and the proportion tothe central and eastern European countries and the countries of the former Soviet Union increased,
reflecting of course political realities over the last ten years or so.
On management and organisation of programm es, new approach adopted under the present
Commission just been launched this year. Main elements are as follows :
A much higher proportion of our aid and assistance programmes will be managed directly,
rather than through funds being allocated to programmes delivered by other international agencies.
This is to enable better targeted programmes that are worked out directly between the Commission
and recipient countries, and in some cases to save administrative costs. The programming cycle justbegun envisages about 65 per cent of total programmes being managed directly. The programmes that
are not managed directly tend to be humanitarian relief and food aid programmes operated on our
behalf by NGOs or agencies in the field.
The Commission has completely reorganised its administration for technical assistance
purposes. First, the external relations group of directorates :namely  trade, external relations,
enlargement, development, and the EC humanitarian office set overall assistance policy andprogramming priorities in their areas of compet ence and according to their budgets. Second, the
newly established Office of Cooperation a nd Aid (EuropAid) has overall management of
programmes. Third, EC delegations in the field have been given much more responsibility for
implementation and day to day management i.e. a more decentralised approach.
One thing has not changed: programmes are demand driven i.e. decided on the request of
recipients and details negotiated and agreed with them. The key to ensuring that trade related capacity
building gets a fair share of the total pie –is to ensure that trade ministries, customs, finance etc in
recipient countries have a stronger priority in securing development projects.
Regarding trade related technical assistance DG Trade chairs a group of all relevant
Directorates to ensure that trade related capac ity building needs is inserted into the design of
individual programmes. WTO-related programmes  would include programmes aimed at helping
implementation of existing agreements, programmes to assist accession candidates, and programmes
aimed at building the means to participate better in future WTO negotiations – like trade facilitationfor example.G/C/W/297
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2. Lessons, Experience
Five main lessons from practical experience in programmes:
First,  scope for better coordination and coherence  of programmes with other donors. Still the
exception rather than the rule. If we can have at least basic transparency between different national
and multilateral donors and recipients this will reduce overlap, lead to better sequencing and
synchronisation of programmes, and better synergies overall.
Two, choice of  programme consultants. Private consultants are not, always, the best
deliverers of capacity building assistance to government in the area of trade facilitation. Expertise lies
often in government – customs people, trade people, finance ministry people, and so on – and shouldbe used more systematically in project delivery. Government experts not only have the right expertise,
they also provide continuity. One of the benefits for example of having customs officials train other
customs officials is that they build continuous links between individuals and administrations that is
needed for longer term maintenance of programmes  and the overall trade relationship between those
countries.
Three : programme scope. To what extent can you successfully implement limited or self-
standing programmes addressing specific issues, or to what extent can success only be where a more
integrated or comprehensive approach taken?  For example, what difference in success rate between a
programme to train customs officials in risk management techniques, as opposed to a programme ofgovernment reform that covers revenue and tax reform, improvement of customs officials’ salaries
and conditions, development of long term management and integrity plans for customs, reorganisation
of border controls and infrastructure involving customs, other agencies, brokers and
freightforwarders, training of customs in the wh ole range of modern techniques including risk
assessment and pre-arrival processing.
Broader programmes that tackle an ensemble of related reform issues are obviously to be
preferred. But costly, and does not mean that more specific areas are not useful or have no value. Not
at all. Often carefully targeted programmes can ad dress specific bottlenecks. Experts in the field of
customs valuation note that one does not have to embark on a whole programme of customs reform to
properly implement the Valuation Agreement. Implementation of basic GATT principles of
transparency and non-discrimination in the field of border administration can be carried out withoutrequiring across the board reform. But would be interesting to have comments on this and some study
done of which specific areas more easily addressed through stand-alone programmes and which
should be part of broader reform and modernisation package.
Four : absorption capacity. A major problem with programmes is that recipient countries –
especially LLDCs - lack the staff to be trained, lack some of the basic infrastructure to implement
programmes, staff once trained rapidly leave for the private sector, or no follow up of programmes to
ensure their continued maintenance. The problem, in other words, is not the unavailability of aid but
more a limitation in absorption capacity. Solutions exist but not always easy. Solutions include getting
the density, mix and timing of programmes right in relation to a country’s level of development andensuring the right sequencing of parts of programmes.
Five : ownership and commitment. Governments must be committed at a political level to
reform. If they are not then the programmes may be taken for granted and are not integrated into
reform plans, and so do not lead to long lasting improvements. Ownership best ensured where agovernment a) has a visible and high level commitment to reform and b) – where possible -
contributes to part of the cost of programmes in terms of infrastructure or human resources. Not
always possible but preferable. WTO commitments – that engage governments at a high level –
constitute a form of commitment to reform. Ownership  also means that a variety of players in theG/C/W/297
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recipient country need to be involved in the planning and implementation of programmes, such as
industry federations, consumer groups, NGOs, chambers of commerce, services sectors and so on :
this increases both the quality and the acceptability of programmes.
Six: the private sector. In trade facilitation there is a major opportunity for private sector
participation in developing infrastructure, training etc since the private sector is both a beneficiary of
measures and is directly at the interface with government. The potential scope of private sector
investment flows into areas like  port construction and cargo management, transport infrastructure,
freight etc completely dwarfs the amount of public aid available. This means that the private sector
should be encouraged to work directly with governments and donors to support capacity building
programmes, while at the broader economic level opening up to foreign investment in areas like
cargo, port handling, information technology services and so on will have a major and beneficialimpact on trade facilitation measures at the micro level.
3. Concluding Observations
How does all this relate to the WTO exercise we are doing pursuant to the Singapore
ministerial meeting? Discussion on technical assi stance should prompt  a number of conclusions:
• this is an area of trade where assistance to developing countries to build capacity is crucial.
• as trade expands it will become even more necessary for governments to modernise and
streamline their procedures if they want to operate in the global economy and not get sidelined by
it. So there will be a continued and growing need for support in developing world.
• there is scope for improvement in both the quantity and quality of assistance in this field and I
think this workshop helps give some indications as to how quality and coherence could be
improved, and who are the best people and organisations to use.
• if trade facilitation is to be taken up post-Doha then it should be matched in parallel with a very
substantial and well thought out action plan for assistance to build capacity. WTO can provide a
platform at least for transparency, but even for better coordination between the different interested
agencies, donors and recipients. We see this workshop as the beginning of this process.
• establishment of some basic TF provisions in WTO will create three major potential benefits in
terms of improving technical assistance. First, it demonstrates the political commitment of
governments to streamlining procedures – part of the issue of ownership. Second, it will set somecommon, globally agreed standards and targets to which assistance programmes can be aimed in a
coherent way. And third, it will give predictability to the private sector that the improvements put
in place are here to stay - this will create an important motivation for the private sector to invest in
capacity building as a partner to government.
Trade Related technical assistance – summary
This summarises the results of a stocktaking exercise on current trade related technical
assistance carried out by AIDCO/F/1 after consultations with DG trade on February 7th 2001. A total
of 79 complete fiches were received by February 27h.
The following analysis is based on the information received by AIDCO/F1G/C/W/297
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TRTA support
The total amount of the projects for trade development reported is € 709,530,421 for a total of
79 projects and programmes - an average amount per project of nearly € 9 Mio. There may be
additional programmes not reported. Figures were not received from directorates managing TRTAprogrammes in central and eastern Europe estimated at approximately a further 300 million.
The Commission’s aid geared towards trade related technical assistance was nearly always
part of a broader framework of co-operation, only 20 per cent of the projects reported (17 projects)
included exclusively TRTA and capacity building as their main objective.
In most projects TRTA came as a section of a broader support programme. It is therefore
difficult to determine the exact allocation of funds to TRTA activities.
Geographic concentration of TRTA projects
The division between country-specific projects and Regional initiatives was almost 50 per
cent slightly favorable for country specific projects. Most of the regional projects focused on the ACP
region.
Nature of the programmes
Three types of projects were identified:Project type
48%
52%Regional
country-specific
Regional TRTA-related  projects
02468101214
All ACP ANDEAN ASEAN ASIA CARIBBEAN INDIAN
OCEANMERCOSUR PACIFIC
REGIONPALOP SOUTHERN
AFRICAWEST AFRICA
regionnumber of projectsG/C/W/297
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1. Technical Assistance and Capacity Building in the areas of trade policy and trade-related
regulation.
2. Trade development and Economic Co-operation
3. Cooperation activities with trade development as one of the overall objectives of the project.
The distribution per type of project was the following
As mentioned above projects geared exclusively to TRTA in capacity building only
encompassed 20 per cent of the projects. The figure on the graphs for TRTA is higher because it
includes programmes that had an element of TRTA in capacity building but were not exclusively
focused on this area.
Clearly, a majority of the projects reported fell within the third category, with trade related
technical assistance as part of a larger objective. Programmes specifically supporting access of
countries to WTO include programmes for China, Yemen and Azerbaijan (these were the only ones
reported in the survey but other programmes contain elements to support adoption of particular WTO
agreements).
The nature of the programmes was varied ranging from sector and country-specific to more
broad  projects such as PROINVEST, encompassi ng the whole of the ACP region and the private
sector.
Specific areas of TRTA cooperation
Although not all the answers provided details on the specific areas of TRTA cooperation
(approximately 80 per cent of the fiches reported on this aspect) the majority of the programmes dealt
with issues of regional, economic and trade integration and standards, norms, testing and technical
regulations. Customs related issues also had an important part in the projects reported, with 13 per
cent of them falling under this category.Areas of cooperation
30%
32%38%TRTA in capacity building
Trade development
cooperation activitiesG/C/W/297
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List of Programmes Reported – April 2001
Country Region Project name
Azerbaijan WTO Accession support Azerbaijan
Bangladesh TRACE - Trade co-operation and Economic Policy Reform South
East Asia
Botswana Trade Development Programme
Buthan Buthan Trade Development
China Framework Programme for EU support to China's accession to the
WTO
China China Programme on Intellectual Property Rights
Dutch Antilles Dutch Caribbean Promotion in Europe
Dutch Antilles Business Development Scheme II
Egypt Trade enhancement project Egypt
Haiti Assistance Technique Négotiation Haiti CARICOM
India India Programme on Intellectual Property Rights
Jamaica Trade Development Project
Kenya Tourism Diversification and Sustainable Dev.
Macao Macao-Financial Services (Offshore Ser. Dev Progr.)
Madagascar Rehabilitation Système Douanier
Mauritius Renforces capacités de Mauritius Freeport
Mauritius Support to clothing technology center
Mauritius Appui aux PME
Mauritius Technology Development in private firms
Mozambique Private Sector Development Programme
Namibia Trade and Investment Dev. programme
Russian Federation EES5 WTA ACCESSION ASSISTANCE
Russian Federation IPR PROTECTION
Seychelles Tourism capacity building project
Seychelles Study Macroeconomic Strategy SeychellesSpecific A reas of TRTA c ooperation
6. Other W TO-related issues
10%7. Regional econom ic and trade 
integration
34%
5. Trade in Services
13%4. Custom s-related issues
13%3. Intellectual P roperty R ights
8%2. Sanitary and P hytosanitary 
measures 
5%**1. Standards, norm s, testing and 
technical regulations 
17%G/C/W/297
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Country Region Project name
South Africa Support for SADC Fi nance and Investment Protocol
South Africa Finance and Investment Sector research project
South Africa Support to dev. trade and industry policy
South Africa FISCU-SADC FINANCE INVEST RESEARCH PROGR.
South Africa Trade and Invest Dev. programme
South Africa Trade Investment SMME Dev programme
South Africa Technology Support for SME
Swaziland Private Sector Development Programme
Ukraine UEPLAC - Ukrainian European Policy Legal Advice Centre
Yemen WTO Accession study Yemen
Yemen WTO Accession support Yemen
Zimbabwe Export Development Programme
Zimbabwe Trade and Enterprise support Facility
Zimbabwe Export Development Programme
Zimbabwe Mining Sector Diversification Programme
Zimbabwe Private Sector Development Programme
ACP COLEACP
ACP Programme initiative pesticides
ACP Capacity Building in support and prep. of Economics Parnership
Agreements
ACP Support integration ACP into WTO
ACP TA Groupe ACP Negotiations  Coop Economique et Commerce
ACP Meeting Commerce Ministers ACP
ACP DIAGNOS +EBAS
ACP Renforcement capitaux a risques BEI
ACP PROINVEST
ACP Seminars ACP in WTO
ACP Modernisation Eurotrace
ACP Etude impact economique futur rel. commerce EU-ACP
ANDEAN Harmonisation of Competition Law within the Andean REgion
98/0099
ANDEAN GRANADUA 96/126
ANDEAN Programa de Cooperacion y Asistencia Tecnica
UE-Grupo Andino en Materia de  Calidad SAR/B7-311/96/188
ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Programme
ASIA Standards and Quality Programme
ASIA EBICs (European Business Information Centres in Malaysia, India
and Sri Lanka Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam
ASIA ASIA Invest
CARIBBEAN CARIFORUM Secretariat Programme Unit
CARIBBEAN Regional Tourism Development Programme
CARIBBEAN Trade Development
CARIBBEAN Caribbean Trade Sector Programme
INDIAN
OCEANPRIDE Intégration économique pays de COI
INDIAN
OCEANPRIDE Intégration économique pays de COI
INDIAN
OCEANTA Indian Ocean CommissionG/C/W/297
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Country Region Project name
MED Promotion of Euro-Med Market Insruments and Mechanism
MERCOSUR Estadisticas MERCOSUR and Chile 996/0465+99/0127
MERCOSUR Normas Tecnicas MERCOSUR 93/15
PACIFICREGIONT. to Pacific Forum Islands Secretariat (8 RPA 5=Economic
Partnership)
PACIFIC
REGIONASeychellesUDA
PALOP Trade and Investment  Promotion (RIP-PALOP I)
SOUTHERN
AFRICAEU_SADAC Investment Promotion ESIP Programme
SOUTHERN
AFRICASADC-EU Mining Forum
SOUTHERN
AFRICAAGRO-IND
WEST
AFRICAUEMOA Pari Sector Privé
WEST
AFRICAProgramme d'appui a la UEMOA
WEST
AFRICAProgramme d'appui a l'intégration UEMOA (PARI 2)G/C/W/297
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2.3 Mr. Johan Robert van Kuik, Tax and Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance,
Netherlands
Practical experiences of an EU member state' s customs administration in providing technical
assistance
It is a pleasure to follow up on John Clarke's speech; my presentation obviously fits into the
general framework of his speech. The European Union does not have one EU customs administration
(yet?) but still fifteen customs administrations that are increasingly co-operating to operate as if they
were one customs administration. Almost all of these administrations are involved in practical
technical assistance work. Therefore my speech will essentially deal with the practical experiences of
the Netherlands Customs administration with technical assistance programmes carried out and thelessons we have drawn from them. This will show you where part of the 23 billion Euro that the
Member States are spending on technical assistance, next to the 7 billion Euro spent by the European
Community, is going to.
Allow me a personal observation at the beginning from my involvement over the last five
years in the revision of the Kyoto Convention (simplification and harmonisation of customs
procedures), the work of UN/CEFACT (dealing with  trade facilitation and electronic business), the
informal meetings of the WTO held so far and - for the last couple of months - the preparation of the
Second Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity which will be held in the
Netherlands in three weeks time. I know from that involvement and some bilateral negotiations oncustoms mutual assistance agreements, how many initiatives and drastic changes are ongoing in (part
of) the world of customs.
I am very pleasantly surprised from that to be surrounded by so many colleagues and friends
from other customs administrations. But this is also a reason for concern because trade facilitationmay not be limited to customs alone. To focus fully on customs and to hear about splendid initiatives
in the WCO and individual administrations might create the false impression in WTO that trade
facilitation is about to happen any way, whether we decide to make rules or not. Even if customs use
risk analysis and target controls better, if customs solve integrity problems, if customs reform and
modernise their administrations and so on, another important part of the problem of official controls
will remain.
That is that behind or, even worse, next to customs rules and customs officers there is a wide
range of other official rules in respect of international trade and a number of other inspection agencies
that equally intervene in the logistical process at the borders. Recent sad examples in Europe show
how important veterinary inspections can be; cust oms, however, rarely carry out these inspections.
Similarly phytosanitary or sanitary controls are normally carried out by specialised services. Andthere is a wide range of other official measures to protect our citizens that cause delays in
international goods traffic because they require examinations at the point of entry or exit of the
customs territory. But the necessary physical inspections are often done by others.
So, my point is and I will come back to that later, that we can talk for two days about
everything happening in the world of customs but that  in doing that we are looking at only one part of
the problem and we should not forget the rest of the official controls. And then we are not talking
about the obstacles to international trade that still exist in areas other than official controls (such as
order and production practices, banking, insurance and transport).
After this personal note, let me very briefly introduce my administration and our working
methods. Customs in the Netherlands has existed for well over 400 years now. It is part of the Tax andG/C/W/297
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Customs Administration. Total number of employees of the whole administration is about 30.000; the
Customs administration has 5.600 officers with a slight tendency to grow.
The economy of the Netherlands is, for an important part, dependent upon international trade,
with enormous goods flow via main ports as Rotterdam and Amsterdam for maritime traffic andAmsterdam airport for air freight through the Netherlands to other destinations. Smooth logistical
processes based on risk analysis and targeted contro ls are absolutely essential to handle the volume of
goods.
I would like to remind you that the task of  customs consists of two main elements:
1. assessment and levying of customs duties and other duties and taxes on importation (fiscal task);
2. ensuring compliance with a wide range of prohibitions, restrictions and special measures of
control in respect of specific goods that are intended to be imported or exported (non-fiscal tasks).
Simplification of customs procedures (for instance by allowing goods to follow their
destination even if all formalities are not fully comple ted) is relatively simple in respect of the fiscal
tasks, because of post clearance audits and recovery possibilities afterwards. The lives of customs
officers have become much more complicated due to the non-fiscal part of their work. You cannot
apply post-entry audits to goods whose importation is prohibited because the damage has been done
already after their illegitimate entry on customs territory.
Therefore customs in the Netherlands is primarily a control and enforcement agency. In some
other countries these functions may even be separated between customs as a pure control agency and
another agency, falling under the political responsibility of a Minister other than the Minister of
Finance (under whose responsibility customs normally operate) which complicates life even further.
In the Netherlands we do not see trade facilitation as a third task for customs next to the fiscal
and non-fiscal task; it is not our core business to facilitate but to "collect and protect". What we have
done over the last four centuries in the Netherlands, and really want to continue to do in the future, is
to carry out our control and enforcement functions in  such a way that trade is least hindered by our
interventions. To that end we are in constant dialogue with our "clients" and collect as much
information as possible to know them and their g oods flows better (through "client co-ordinators").
This allows us to grant sometimes very simplified procedures for the most compliant/reliable clients.
These procedures in turn require less resources from us and that means that we can address the real
risks better with these resources. In other words: better enforcement allows for further facilitation.
Facilitation in the form of simple and transparent rules and procedures, by the way, also enables better
enforcement.
This approach strikes a balance between facilitation and enforcement that we believe in, and
that we want to share with other customs administrations. That is why we attach great importance to
giving technical assistance to other customs administrations.
From 1991 we have seen an enormous increase in technical assistance due to the fall of the
Berlin wall and the deliberate choice in the Europ ean Communities to assist countries in Central and
Eastern Europe in building up customs administrations that can deal with the conditions of a market
economy.
The fifteen EU customs administrations found it particularly important to build up direct
customs-to-customs relationships. Due to confidentiality issues relating to enforcement our customs
service prefer such direct links over the involvement of private consultancy firms in this particular
field. Apart from the confidentiality issue we also believe it to be best when active customs officers in
donor countries share their experience with customs officers in recipient countries. Moreover, someG/C/W/297
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EU customs administrations do not allow their employees to work for private firms, not even for
limited periods or specific tasks.
In order to be able to carry out technical assistance with that guiding philosophy, the EU
customs administrations created in the same year, 1991, Eurocustoms, a consortium of 15 EU customsadministrations, to plan, co-ordinate, evaluate and manage financially the assistance. Eurocustoms'
activities have concentrated on the so called Phare and Tacis programmes in Europe. Phare for the
CCEE’s; Tacis for Commonwealth of Independent St ates. Experiences of Member States and the
Commission have been very positive. The need for having such a central unit is also reflected at the
national level where we have a specialised division in the Tax and Customs Administration fully
dedicated to technical assistance.
Dutch Customs carry out much technical assistance in the framework of the EU (following up
on the topic of John Clarke's speech). Between 8 and 9 per cent of total assistance rendered so far in
this context has been carried out by the Netherlands; a relatively big slice of the cake compared to our
position as the biggest of the small countries in the EU.
We also assist sister customs administrations in frameworks other than the EU. We have a
number of bilateral programmes and also carry out missions with, or for, international organisations.
The most important bilateral programmes are on behalf of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, for
Surinam and China. The Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are independent countries in the Kingdom of
the Netherlands and therefore it is logical to assist them very intensively. Surinam used to be part ofthe Kingdom, and with the changed political climate in the country we are very happy to resume
giving technical assistance to that country. In principle these programmes can address any need
expressed by the other countries. They frequently result in long term detachments.
I would like to spend some more time on the relationship with China. We have just prolonged
a nine year relationship for another six years.
The co-operation between the Chinese Customs and the Customs of The Netherlands started
in the same year, 1991, as some training courses on the Harmonised system and Customs
Surveillance. These courses were so successful that both organisations decided to create a long-term
agreement. Main focus has been to assist Chinese Customs in their policy on organisation- and
personnel development and to facilitate the trade and economic activities between our countries (e.g.by simplification of procedures and modern enforcement tools).
Facts and figures (until November 2000)
Trainees to The Netherlands 294 (20 groups)
Attachment officials to The Netherlands  6 (3 attachment missions)
Experts to China 27  (9 missions)
Top-management delegations 7
The remarkable fact is that most of the 300 officials that have come over to the Netherlands
belong to middle management. This is a deliberate choice in order to bring about sustained change in
the organisation, which sometimes is not possible when all assistance is directed towards top
management. The co-operation between our two organisations is still felt to be very interesting for
both countries. This belief is also shared by the business community of the Netherlands which is
happy to sponsor parts of this project.
The recent new Agreement for 2001-2006 is intended to facilitate bilateral trade and
economic activities further through mutual understanding of Customs legislation and practices and
technical exchanges between the two parties. The programme will include expert missions to theG/C/W/297
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People's Republic of China to give lectures and provide consultancy attachment programmes, annual
seminars on strategic management development, or other key customs issues of common concern.
Assistance in co-operation with other international organisations has taken place with WCO,
UNDCP and a number of other organisations. We believe that for possible WTO activities in the fieldof capacity building there is a need for close co-ord ination with other organisations involved in trade
facilitation like World Bank/IMF,WCO, UNCTAD and UN/CEFACT. Some of these organisations
have extensive technical experience in this field and have "products" that can be delivered off the
shelf so that there is no need to reinvent wheels.
In the last ten years we have encountered a number of difficulties in providing technical
assistance; we have also found ways to address those difficulties. Based on those experiences thereare four main recommendations I would like to formulate in case the WTO engages in a programme
of capacity building in the field of trade facilitation.
1. We should have good organisation in place to plan, co-ordinate and evaluate technical
assistance and to monitor finance. It is important to have serving customs officers and not to benefitprivate companies. Eurocustoms could serve as an exam ple, as well as similar institutions at national
level.
2.  The absorption capacity, especially in smaller administrations, is limited. In order to avoid
overlapping missions or other activities, there is a need to prioritise assistance and not to run too manyactivities at the same time.
3.  Experience shows that middle management is normally more stable than top management.
Investing everything in top management only is not always productive in the long run.
4. If the WTO engages in capacity building in the field of trade facilitation, it is important to
liase closely with other organisations involved in aspects of trade facilitation like World
Bank/IMF,WCO, UNCTAD and UN/CEFACT.
I have started by saying that customs is just one of the parties causing problems to
international trade in the field of official rules and controls. Many prohibitions, restrictions and
measures of control come from ministries other than Finance (where customs frequently falls under)that complicate customs controls or, even worse, are controlled by other more specialised inspection
agencies (like the sanitary, phytosanitary or veterinary controls I have mentioned). Only when we
look at that whole range of controls will we be able to really achieve something in the field of trade
facilitation.
In that context I would, at the end of my presentation, like to touch very briefly upon the
concept of "single window" that we have had in operation at Amsterdam airport for some years now
and are trying to introduce across the board in the Netherlands (including in the biggest seaport in the
world, Rotterdam). This concept has been put forward in earlier contributions of the European
Commission and seems to us in the Netherlands to be an absolute must for future WTO involvement
in trade facilitation. The concept in essence means that  all data in respect of a consignment entering a
country should be lodged with one agency. Clearly,  when we are talking about goods, the only logical
agency is customs. Customs should also have the primary responsibility of checking the data and
performing the necessary controls, unless these require such specific skills that only a specialised
agency can carry them out properly. In those cases, customs will need to co-ordinate these controlswith their own controls and see to it that the controls are carried out as soon as possible in order to
allow rapid clearance of the goods.G/C/W/297
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This kind of single window concept requires top level political commitment. WTO could play
a very important part in promoting the concept and thus in building up the necessary pressure to come
to that political commitment.G/C/W/297
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2.4 Mr. Mark Linscott, Attaché, Office of the United States Trade Representative
Trade facilitation is basically a very simple concept as it has been noted throughout
discussion. Essentially it is the ease with which imports and exports can cross international borders.
The interface for this concept generally is customs administration and it has been noted in a number ofpresentations that customs administrations have a number of different functions: focussing on
enforcement on trade regulation, on revenue collection and on enforcement and this can get very
technical, it is rather complicated. Consequently technical assistance is essential in the area of
customs reform. Reforming a country's customs laws and procedures can facilitate the movement of
goods, increase economic returns from trade, improve transparency and reduce opportunities for
corruption.
The U.S. government has been assisting devel oping and transitional economies world-wide to
reform and modernize customs laws and operations for some time. The assistance has generally fallen
into two broad categories: the first being harmonization of tariff structures and customs practices to be
in compliance with WTO requirements, the second area involves measures to improve customs
administration in order to reduce processing times, facilitate border crossings and improve economicefficiency. In 1999, the U.S. Government provided approximately $10.9 million to customs
development activities, technical assistance activitie s in these areas, for the year 2000, approximately
18.9 US$ was budgeted for these activities.
The U.S. Customs Service (USCS) which is part  of the Department of the Treasury promotes
the sustainable development of foreign customs administrations in order to facilitate, improve and
standardize international trade and enforcement. In ternational cooperation is promoted by the USCS
through the negotiation of bilateral Customs Mutual Assistance Agreements with key trading partners
in an effort to expand law enforcement cooperat ion in the international arena. These agreements
establish a legal framework for sharing trade, regulation, and law enforcement information moreeffectively. Cooperation also involves the provision of technical assistance. The U.S. Customs
Service's technical assistance programmes involve all aspects of customs activities including customs
monitoring technology, general management improvement, automation and import/export procedures.
I would like to provide a very brief overview of  some of our projects in the area of trade
facilitation. It is not a catalogue of projects, it is not comprehensive, in fact, my colleague from the
Commerce Department over here fr om Washington has pointed out there are many gaps. But I think
this will give you very much a flavour particularly on a regional basis of some of the activities we
engage in. It is not particularly scintillating list but it certainly will have relevance for those countries
that I identify.
In support of the Asia Pacific Economic Coope ration Organization (APEC), the U.S. Customs
Service has provided technical assistance on customs issues such as temporary importation, risk
management, express consignments, and valuations in several APEC member economies, Brunei,
China, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam and so on. The U.S.
Customs Service has also provided technical assistance to implement border enforcement procedures
for protecting intellectual property rights and faci litating the administration of the WTO's Valuation
Agreement on standard procedures for valuing goods.
In the Philippines, the U.S. Agency for the International Development (USAID) is providing
assistance to the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Finance in drafting an amendment to a bill
designed to remove inconsistencies in the customs valuation agreement portion of the Philippines'WTO agreement. Assistance is also being provided to the Bureau of Customs to effectively
implement the proposed law and conduct a post-entry audit following its passage.G/C/W/297
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In Central America, the U.S. Government has provided significant technical assistance,
training, and research to support the regions' efforts to reform its regional trade regime. This
assistance has contributed to the adoption by Central American countries of a more outward-oriented
regional integration model characterized by lower external tariffs, accelerated implementation of
WTO commitments and reductions in non-tariff trade barriers. For example, in Guatemala a studywas recently completed on customs control and release systems. The study examined current systems
for the control and release of commercial cargo, current insurance practices, and specific, related local
issues of concern.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S. Customs Service has provided assistance to speed the
processing of legitimate cargo while reducing fraud and fighting drug trafficking. Specifically it
helped to construct two stations where ocean container cargo can be inspected and processed; trainedand manned marine patrol; and provided training on such tools as the use of drug detector dogs. In
China, the Customs Service is helping to make th e Port of Shanghai a model customs entry point by
November 2001, when Shanghai will host the APEC Leaders' meeting. USCS has completed an on-
site assessment of the current status of Customs processing in Shanghai and has developed a cutting-
edge training program for Shanghai Customs officers.
In Southeast Europe, the USCS is helping to improve border operations in Bulgaria, Croatia,
Macedonia, Moldova and Romania to increase economic stability and international trade and
investment. Technical assistance has included:
• Increasing the use of automation at Romania's international airport to streamline the import
process;
• Establishing a review team at Romania's major seaport to identify target shipments for customs
violations, set inspection priorities, and provide case leads for investigative services;
• Developing a viable intelligence unit within Romania's Customs Administration;
• Enhancing the capacity of the Macedonian Mobile Enforcement Unit;
• Implementing a communications system for the Macedonian Blace Border crossing into Kosovo;
• Assisting Moldovans in establishing joint border operations with the Ukraine;
• Developing a plan for Moldova to reduce the number of agencies represented at border crossing
to represented at border crossing to reduce processing times;
• Reengineering of entry procedures for diplomatic shipments to Moldova.
In the Middle East there has been a comprehensive technical assistance programme for
Jordanian Customs to bring the country's customs procedures and regulations into compliance with
WTO requirements; train Customs officials, brokers, and the private sector in the new procedures and
valuation methods; create the necessary customs institutional framework; and provide computerized
customs systems and install the necessary hardware and software. New customs procedures and laws
are also being developed to support the conversion of  port of Aqaba into a Freeport, and to establish
an independent customs unit for the Aqaba free zone. In the West Bank/Gaza, a state-of-the-art
customs duty suspension regime has been designed for the Gaza Industrial Estate. USAID technical
assistance included the development of a standard operating procedures manual and comprehensive
training for Customs officials.
In Africa, U.S. technical assistance, as an example, to Tanzania has identified problematic
customs procedures and various U.S. advisors have helped to develop simplified customs procedures
including the introduction of a single bill of entry, a reduction in the number of goods required to get
a pre-shipment inspection, the introduction of a random inspections system, the adoption of the
ASYCUDA system, and the computerization of some Customs operations. I should add that as notedby John  Wilson of the World Bank, there is much more money that has been allocated for sub-
Saharan Africa. He referred to the Trust Fund that is being pursued by the World Bank in the USA.G/C/W/297
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At this point, I would like to provide what I see as a trade policy perspective on critical
considerations for the provision of the technical assistance in the area of trade facilitation. I am not a
customs man so this is very much a trade policy perspective but I think it is one that we have heard
from the customs experts on this panel, these are themes that are not new.
The first relates to capacity building and the necessity of needs assessment to engage in
capacity building. This really is a joint responsibility. A responsibility of both donors and recipients.
Recipients need to be able to identify where they have particular problems, where they have
shortcomings. At the same time they often need assistance in knowing where they might have some
shortcomings. Basically technical assistance in this area is not a one size fits all equation. It is not a
situation where donors can simply come in and give one-off seminars on particular areas of reform.
A second very important point, technical assistance in a WTO context should not simply be
an afterthought. That has traditionally been the approach in some of the customs areas covered by the
WTO. It is somewhat unfortunate. Valuation has been  used as an example. In fact, I think we have
made a lot of progress in the last few years on im plementation of the Valuation Agreement. There is
an assertion by UNCTAD that it has been implemented in less than 50 per cent of WTO Members. It
think that has changed significantly in the recent years and part of  the reason for that is that there has
been more coordination of technical assistance activities particularly by donor countries. However, it
is not an approach that is ideal. What is importa nt is that any work on trade facilitation proceed hand
in hand with technical assistance. It should not be an afterthought, it should be part of any workprogramme that might be developed on trade facilitation.
Finally, this a theme that we have heard from everyone: coordination. In fact, it has been
highlighted as a question of coordination among donor s. Clearly there has not been enough of this.
There has been very little. It is almost non-existent. Perhaps with the exception (that I know of) ofwhat APEC has done on customs valuation in term s of developing training modules and dividing
responsibilities in the APEC region but again this  coordination has been extremely limited. I think a
central problem is an insufficient level of poli tical commitment to the need for coordination among
donors. This is not only a question of coordination among donors, it is also a question of coordination
among customs administrations and trade policy experts, trade ministries. That is critical in any kind
of coherent provision of technical assistance in this area.
Thank you.G/C/W/297
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2.5 Mr. William A. Claypole, Director, Strategic International and Domestic Partnerships
Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
I would first like to make a few introductory comments about the Canadian technical
assistance and trade facilitation agenda, then Mr. Trudel can take us through the details of the lessonsthat we have learnt from it, and perhaps I might circle back and try to reach some conclusions here.
You must not hold the Rules of Origin against me please – it has been an interesting development.
This morning I was particularly struck by the similarity of approaches and conclusions and
concerns that each of the speakers brought up and I think that the Canadian experience tends to
validate the points that were made and in this regard I might just open a parenthesis and say I do not
know how many people have looked at the Australian paper but have found it summarizes andexplores rather well a number of the topics that were put forward this morning.  So we do have a
number of themes which are beginning to develop a nd terminology which we are exploring here.  For
the sake of the Canadian discussion what I would like to do is simply open it with perhaps a
discussion on the approach that we have. We divided our approach to technical assistance into four
broad areas.
The first one  we have called "demand-driven practical assistance". What we mean by this is
that there has to be a buy-in by the recipient. There must be a demand for our services, and it can be a
recipient demand but there also has to be an international demand out there. What you do has to have
some sort of relevance, relevance for the person, the recipient, as well as relevance in the internationalcommunity. It has to be practical and this does not m ean that we put theory aside, because theory too
has to come into this. But we want to have objectives, something that can be quantified. We want to
have technical assistance that can be measured, that can be compared against international norms. In
other words, it does have to be practical. Capacity-building is another of the norms we use when
talking about our approach. It is not simply enough to do the one day. By the time you finish yourtechnical assistance, the capacity has to be there for the recipient to move on and do it himself. So it is
a very important concept for us.
The next one we talk about is "project based on plan". Again, very similar to what we talked
about in the practical, but it goes further. In our view both sides, the donor and the recipient have to
know what is going to be achieved, what are the objectives, what are the simple things like the time
lines.  How long is this going to take?  What are the funding strategies? They have to be worked out.What are the partnerships, not only the partnerships between the donor and the recipient but the
private sector partnerships or the partnerships  with the other government departments? The
measurements have to be set out. What are you going to measure your success against?  There has to
be some sort of evaluation process at the end. There have to be priorities. In other words you cannot
approach technical assistance any differently than you would approach any project you are developingwithin the confines of your own government admi nistration. Simply asking for technical assistance or
giving technical assistance because the funding is available, is not enough. I think in this regard, on
the question of the planning process, it is our view that we could all benefit if there was some sort of
coherence, some sort of international approach to wards what are a common set of rules, what are the
common standards, what are the benchmarks, what are common priorities, what agreements we areworking towards. I think if we approach this as an international group we can be much more efficient
than if we approach it as one-offs.
In terms of the partnership element of our approach, there has to be not only the partnership
as I explained, between the donor and the recipient, but also other partnerships to make technicalassistance truly work, and that is the partnerships with the other government departments, and we
heard this theme this morning. It is the partnershi ps with the funding agencies. It is the partnershipsG/C/W/297
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understanding what is in it for both people, understanding what the recipient country hopes to receive,
understanding what the donor country hopes to receive out of it.
Again I draw attention to the Australian paper on this because I think they have a very good
section on analysing the partnership objectives of donor and recipient countries. The overallobjectives of this: perhaps the capacity and ownership of technical assistance by the recipient, to
ensure that the benefits of technical assistance are sustained, that they are self-sustaining and, of
course, in most cases, in our case, to facilitate trade. So those are broadly the approaches we take if
we group it, when we look at a technical assistance initiative or a technical assistance push.
As for what we are involved in, we are preparing a detailed paper and the paper should be
ready for distribution by tomorrow outlining what the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency at least
has been involved in over the last couple of years.  Let me just say how we approach it.  We approach
it through any of the means that are necessary, whether they are international, regional or bilateral.
There are many instances where we want to work through the international organizations and we have
been particularly active working through the World Customs Organization but we have also had, we
believe, the greatest successes, and you have to be careful using superlatives like greatest, we havehad a considerable success working through regional groupings, such as APEC. We have found that
APEC has provided a form which helps us organize, focus, divide, build the partnerships and so forth.
We have been particularly active in the 13 initiative collective action plans on the customs side and
also APEC on a broader level is beginning to pull some of the facilitation initiatives together. We
have had some discussion this morning on the Caribbean customs law enforcement, again anorganization which has funnelled funding and coordinated technical assistance for a wide variety of
different countries at different levels. The FTAA – we had some discussion of that this morning – the
eight-point business facilitation measures that the customs have been particularly involved in and
which the Multilateral Investment Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank is working on.
And I got for our stakes a large focus – 34 countries focusing on the Americas so that allows us tofocus our attention. The Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA, has a number of
outreach programmes in place where, if necessary, we will work bilaterally and in some cases, by
necessity, we must work bilaterally.
There are a couple of new initiatives that we are trying and we simply put them in here for
interest's sake. One is the partnership with the university research group for a comprehensive
approach to capacity-building. We talked a lot a bout coherence. We have been working now with the
private sector group as well as with the government group to develop approaches to trade policy
development business and trade facilitation customs reform for four Central American countries so
that is an initiative we are trying in cooperation with the private sector.
Finally, the newest initiative that I think we have on our books is one in Africa with Benin,
looking for the development of capacity-development and tax policy, financial management,
independent audit mechanisms and customs reform. And, as you will see, our programme is beginning
to spread out a bit.  It is no longer simply focussed on the customs initiatives but we are beginning to
realize that often before you can move on the customs there has to be reforms that take place on the
taxation side, so there is a natural link developing in our technical assistance between tax policy andcustoms measures.  So that is a very quick overview of the initiatives that we are involved in. I could
perhaps ask Mr. Trudel now to look at the lessons learnt and give us some more detail on some of
those.G/C/W/297
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2.6 Mr. Pierre Trudel, Manager, Training and Technical Assistance, Origin and Valuation
Policy Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
So what have we learnt? Surely we have learnt something in all the missions that we have
conducted in many areas of the world, particularly dealing with the implementation of the Valuation
Agreement, particularly in the APEC context. One of the first things we have learnt is that there is a
clearcut need for a strategic framework with a clearcut objective. That is, we have noted that clearcut
objectives, goals or rules are required. In this regard I would note that trade facilitation in and of itself,
does not really exist without such goals, objectiv es or rules. A speaker this morning alluded to
successes under APEC, the APEC valuation initiative, and I believe that if there was such success
then it is due in great part to the fact that there are clear objectives, there are rules and there areattainable goals.  So certainly that is an important lesson that we have learnt.
Secondly we have learnt that as donors we need to identify the means by which we will
deliver our technical assistance and capacity-building, be they bilateral, regional or international.
From the experience of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, we have found it most useful to
have a strategic international framework that facilitates decision-making in terms of when technical
assistance should be provided, to whom it should be  delivered and how. So certainly this is the second
lesson we have learnt in terms of how, when and where to do it.
We have also learnt that we need to secure commitment and support. That is, secure
commitment and support at the political, governme ntal and senior government management level.
Without this commitment, the benefit and gains possible through technical assistance and capacity-
building are clearly at risk. One of the things we have undertaken to minimize this risk, is to sign
undertakings with the recipient economies, in order to have a clear understanding of what is expected
and what it is that we will deliver. Secondly we require the recipient economy to have a responsiblecore group that will deal with the implementation issue or the issue of change that is being addressed
through the technical assistance. They have to be responsible and accountable for the project, so that
when we are not there we know there is some sustainability for the initiative.
We have also learnt that we need to involve other government departments and the business
community.  It is necessary, as we have learnt, to bring together other government departments and
the business community in all technical assistance initiatives. In order to bring about the dialogue, thedirection, the priorities and consensus that brings buy-in and support for the changes that will result
from capacity building. As an aside,  in the APEC initiative on valuation, we made a point of spending
a day with the trade, and many of you members of the ICC and other organizations were kind enough
to come and spend a day with us, with the recipient economies, and gave presentations to the customs
officials, saying, this is what we need, this is what we want, this is what we are looking for, and inmany countries we began the process of communication, of dialogue and there has quickly come the
realization that, together, the goals of trade facilitation will be realized. So we have started the
bringing together of trade and government and that certainly has worked well in some cases, less so in
others, but I think, overall, quite good.
We also assist recipients to assess their needs,  priorities and targets. I think if there is one
thing we have learnt it is that we, as a donor country, do not have any answers. We certainly cannot
place ourselves in the shoes of the recipient economy and understand all the local and environmental
issues that they will factor into their decision-making process. So we have no solutions. But what we
can do is to assist recipients in assessing their needs,  in assessing their priorities and in assessing their
targets.  So that is certainly another lesson we have learnt.G/C/W/297
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We have also noted that whatever the technical assistance provided, we must be mindful of a
sustainable knowledge transfer.  By way of example, we do not propose to train all the staff, as some
recipient economies have asked us to do, but rather we train a core group with responsibility,
accountability to train others. That is to say, to train the trainer and as such develop the depth of
knowledge, the ability to transfer knowledge and skills to the recipient economy.
Some of the other lessons we have learnt as Mr. Claypole has noted earlier, includes having a
plan up front. We need to understand what is to be delivered. We need some targets, some goals so
that we know at the end of the project whether or not we have achieved these goals. We need to see
whether they have been realized in real terms, what has changed, what has happened, what has
improved. Secondly, we have learnt that one-day seminars are not the answer. Preferably, we like a
project approach, a step-by-step approach or a building block approach where a series of seminars, aseries of week-long sessions will build both the technical knowledge and the hands-on ability to
deliver on the goods. We have also learnt that while theory is quite important and must be understood,
that the hands-on approach using realistic case studies is an effective means of learning and promoting
sustainability.
Perhaps the last big issue that we have learnt through our technical assistance activities is that
of evaluation, follow-up and post-implementation. We must carry out evaluations. We have to do it.
As we and other speakers have pointed out previously, we need to confirm a number of things. We
need to confirm the viability of the needs anal ysis. We need to assess the effectiveness of the
technical assistance delivery, how well did we do, where did we falter, where do we need to change.We also need to identify and address the deficiencies and obstacles to the desired results. What were
they. Why did we not see them coming. All this in order to provide a better product and a better
understanding of our clients. And we also need to provide a fair result assessment. In this regard I
would suggest that a third-party assessment should be carried out. I am not so sure that I would be
likely to give myself a bad assessment were it left up to me so we would much rather see a third partyconduct these evaluations and tell us where we have excelled and where we have stumbled. It is only
through this sort of real analysis that we will be able to improve our product and meet the needs of our
clients.
Now how will we conduct these evaluations. We ll I think we would probably do them at two
levels.  Firstly, results against the objectives. That is to say have met the needs and realized the
objectives that the client was looking for, and secondly how was the process, how were the means bywhich we delivered the course, the material, the technical assistance, how did we deliver it and how
did we get to delivering it. Was the process effective, efficient and could it have been better, and did it
contribute to a success or a failure.
As Mr. Claypole noted earlier, there are multiple ways of delivering technical assistance,
international, regional and bilateral. It is Canada's experience that they are all worthy and are all
necessary.  A regional approach, however, holds much promise as evidenced in the APEC Customs
Valuation Agreement Technical Assistance Programme, which we led and were partnered by the
United States and assisted by Australia and New Zealand. In this regard a regional approach held
many benefits. There were some commonalities between recipient countries. We were able to identifyclear needs and the need for follow-up action. There is cost-effectiveness, economies of scale. There
is greater ownership and there is the ability for partnerships and we have partnerships here at many
levels.  We have partnerships between recipients. We have partnerships amongst donors. We have
partnerships between government agencies, partnerships between government and trade, and
partnerships between government, academics and the private sector. So for all of these reasons aregional approach to us holds some promise. It is not, however, without its challenges and certainly
issues of coordination are always difficult, and time-consuming.  It is never easy to get people in one
room. There are different levels of development. Our clients, the recipient economies, are not all
starting at the same level.G/C/W/297
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Therefore, whatever material, or whatever it is that we develop in terms of technical
assistance or a technical assistance programme, has to be flexible and has to be able to be tailored to
meet the needs of the recipient economy. Different languages. Language can be a huge barrier, and if
translation is not professional, or is not there, or is not funded, there is a lot of time wasted in trying tounderstand each other. So certainly language can be a barrier and has to be overcome. Different legal
systems. This presents unique situations for both the donors and the recipient economies in trying to
understand to what level changes have to occur. So, I think in a lot of ways those are the major
lessons that we have learnt. They are at a rather broad level I realize, but if you do want to talk in
terms of specifics I am sure that Mr. Claypole and I would be glad to answer your questions after the
presentation, or indeed in the hallways as you see fit. So I will just turn over to Mr. Claypole for some
closing remarks.G/C/W/297
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2.5 Mr. William A. Claypole, Director, Strategic International and Domestic Partnerships
Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (continuation)
In terms of the lessons learnt, or what we believe we would like to improve, I think the first
thing we think could be an improvement is an in ternational framework for technical assistance and
this is something that was mentioned this morning as well.  We believe having worked on a number of
regional projects, that if we could take trade facilitation-related technical assistance to a broader
international framework where we could establish priorities, where we could establish standards,
where we could work from established benchmarks , where we could know what the rules were what
the agreements are that we are concentrating on, then  I think that would help funnel the activities and
the energies of the donor countries.  Also as part of  that international framework, we would like to see
if there could not be some sort of fiscal coordinati on so that we are not doing the same things, that we
are not arriving at inappropriate time, so that the beneficiary is not receiving conflicting training from
different donor countries, which often happens.  So being as general as that, we do think there could
be some benefits for an international framework for technical assistance.
Focus on practical assistance and capacity-building, we go back and keep harping on that
point.  It has to be practical and it has to build capacity.  It has to be demand-driven. Only through that
do we believe that you could actually get the ownership that is necessary to take on the long-term
commitment that comes with developing a trade facilitation agenda. Projection and evaluation go
together. You have to plan for it. A one-day seminar, doing something because the money is
available, or doing something because it is cold in Canada and warm in Costa Rica, is not enough.You have to plan for that and that is where the projects and the evaluations and the follow-up come. If
you cannot measure that you have had any success, then it makes it a bit difficult to say that what you
have done is worthwhile and has actually made a difference to the world. Coherence. There has to be
a coming together, whether it is bilateral, regional, international, whether it is the OGDs, there has to
be a point where there is a convergence on the trade facilitation agenda.
The final point we have put in is "keep improving". Actually we should say that this takes
time, and that might have been a better point, and we must realize that change does not come
overnight.  Change does not come with one, two or three technical assistance missions. Change comes
over time and we have to recognize that when we are talking about technical assistance and trade
facilitation, we are into it for the long term and not the short term.
Thank you.G/C/W/297
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General Discussion following Session 2
Nepal
As you know, Nepal is a small, land-locked country. Due to difficult terrain and lack of
appropriate transport infrastructure, doing business in Nepal is quite expensive. So our commodities
are not going to be very competitive in the international market.
Taking consideration of this, the Government of Nepal has started to implement a transport
and trade facilitation project in Nepal, which has various components that have been discussed this
morning.
At the same time we are implementing transport and trade facilitation measures with technical
assistance from UNCTAD. The Government of Nepal has implemented this project since 1997. This
project includes, on the one hand, the development of physical facilities in the form of the
development of inland clearance depots, construction of railways, that is to link up with the railway
system in Ilam, and to link the main highway with the inland clearance depot. So these are thefacilities we have developed with loan assistance from the World Bank.
 In the meantime, we are implementing the transport and trade facilitation measures with
technical assistance from UNCTAD. In particular, we are going to release a volume of documents that
include a lot of material on transit, transport and trade issues. We are going to simplify, harmonizeand standardize trade and transport related documents. We are also creating the necessary legal
regimes for the introduction of a multi-model transport system and we are further involved in several
management activities for other projects we are doing in Nepal.
What is most important is that we have been able to create a partnership between public and
private institutions in the form of a national transport and trade facilitation committee which has
representation from the business community, the trading community as well as from the government
and the public sector. So those are the things we have carried out since 1997. And besides this, we
have initiated a customs reform and customs modernisation process. We have introduced an
automated system of customs data in our country and have also introduced a cargo-tracking system.
All of these things were carried out with very good support from UNCTAD. Our project is
going to be completed and the loan will be closed at the end of  December 2001. I am very impressed
with what has been said with respect to sustainabi lity and transparency of the reform process at this
workshop, which is a key issue in developing countries like ours. We introduce the system and later
on what happens is that we do not go further and sustain it, that is the basic crux of the thing. A
project has a certain time and it has to come to an end after a couple of years. The government has tosustain the reform process, it has to adopt it, it has to use it - that is a crucial thing that we have to
ensure. Our project, which initiated a very good process, is going to end at the end of December. It
needs to be sustained for a longer period in order to bring benefit to the transport and trade sector of
my country. As we have seen so many good friends of ours from our donor committees here, I would
like to take this opportunity to call upon them, call upon our donors, who have been supporting us inthe development of our country for a long time, not to let these reform processes fizzle out after a
certain period. For that purpose we need support from our donors, so I request them to come up
parallel with UNCTAD so that we can sustain it. We have these systems, all the reform processes in
the field of transport and trade facilitation. The Government wants the systems, it wants to sustain the
system, so I would like to request our good friends and donors to help us in this regard.
Thank you.G/C/W/297
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Mexico
Allow me to make an observation which might appear to be absurd, but at some point it
seemed, in hearing these speakers and their presentations, as if I were in the World Customs
Organization, because most of the technical assistance we have heard about up to now has beenfocused very much on customs administrations. So I wonder, is it just trade facilitation in customs?
What about technical assistance in telecommunications, transport, insurance, multi-model transport,
banking, means of payment, technology and, I would ev en say, what sort of guidance does this give us
in looking into technical assistance in a development dimension framework? If this is within some
type of trade facilitation agreement, but only focuses on customs and does not go much further than
that, then how would such an agreement, that has only been perceived through a customs point of
view, be compatible with WTO Agreements such as the ones on Customs Valuation, ImportLicensing, Preshipment Inspection and Rules of Origin? And how is this compatible even with the
Dispute Settlement mechanism? I bring this point in because if we are talking about customs matters
and, this is more in the framework of the Worl d Customs Organization, then two questions come to
my mind:
First, I think that technical assistance is esse ntial for capacity building in trade facilitation
within the framework of the WTO. That is essential. In view of the need for an international
framework not just for technical assistance, but for trade facilitation as a whole, the question that
comes then to my mind is: Do we need a trade facilitation agreement within the WTO which is tied up
with the dispute settlement mechanism and which would then include technical assistance? Or do wesimply need a parallel agreement, an administrative type of agreement that coordinates, that ensures
consistency in all this provision of technical assistance and all these activities, regionally or bilaterally
or multilaterally? From my own point of view we  have two facets here, one is to streamline goods
reaching the sales points and then their distribution for sale. The other facet is how to ensure this
streamlining for countries who do not have this capacity, how could this help them within anagreement and not alongside or outside an agreement.
Because if we are looking at technical assist ance through a programme of action outside of
the scope of a trade facilitation agreement, then things do not just fall into place. I do not see
coherence in this. I would like to ask Mr. Clarke about the experience within APEC in this respect.
Did APEC only look at this in customs terms? What about insurance, banking, telecommunications,
or transport? This is my other question.
Mr. Claypole, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
I can speak a little from the APEC experience and in the APEC experience we started off with
trade facilitation, as you rightfully said, focusing on customs. But we realized that you had to gobeyond that and we now have groups looking, for instance, at electronic commerce and what that
means, not simply from a trade facilitation perspective, but from a broader perspective. We have a
group looking at standards, and what that means not only regarding what customs has to administer
but what other departments also have to administer. So I think the notion is there at least that trade
facilitation is something that has to go beyond simply the customs aspect. I think the customs aspect isa strong aspect in it, but we do recognize, certainly in some of the fora that I am working in, that it is
not the only aspect.
Mr. Linscott, Office of the United States Trade Representative
Actually in these two days I am  wearing two hats. In fact John Clarke is wearing two hats.
Today it says Members of this Panel in the context of a Trade Facilitation Symposium in exploring
what kind of mechanisms exist for technical assistance in the area of trade facilitation and how might
these mechanisms be improved. We have had a consistent theme of coherence and coordinationG/C/W/297
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amongst donor institutions.  The second hat which John and I will be wearing tomorrow afternoon,
and you will be as well, will be in the informal CTG process, and I think those are the kinds of
questions we have been addressing in that forum. My delegation has a particular point of view which I
will not pedal at this point in time, but may be discussed at a later point.
On the broader issue, as to what is trade facilitation, in a sense, every agreement in the WTO
is a trade facilitating agreement. You raised some areas, like services for example, and we do have an
agreement on GATS which addresses many of those sectors, many of which are infrastructure type
sectors. Negotiations on market access and national treatment and the GATS addresses those. I think
we have been focusing in this informal CTG process, more on customs-related trade facilitation
issues, and there are already customs-related trade facilitation agreements in the WTO. The Customs
Valuation Agreement is, I think, perhaps the best exampl e. That is not to say that this trade facilitation
agenda cannot be broader and that it does not, at least indirectly, relate to issues that go beyond simple
customs administration but, again, I think the proper context for this is perhaps the informal CTG.
Philippines
I cannot help but raise my flag because since this morning I have liked what I have been
hearing.  At least those speakers this morning, and even the donors, are telling us what we who are
negotiating or discussing this trade facilitation agenda, have been talking about. And there is one thing
that has struck me. That is, a good number of the speakers have admitted that trade facilitation is not
just customs reform. I think this is where we have difficulty when we start to discuss this wholenotion of trade facilitation: we felt we were just focusing on customs, and I am glad that there is an
acknowledgement that trade facilitation is not just customs reform, and that all the things they are
doing in this house are, in fact, trade facilitating.
As a second thing I have a question directed to John Clarke: In the overall discussion that we
have been having about coherence and coordination I would just like to know a bit about the
European Community experience, because in his paper he mentioned a change in the way in which
they are managing and organizing the programme now in the European Community. If I may read his
paper, he says: "They are now managing directly the programme rather than through funds being
allocated to programmes delivered by other internat ional agencies". And I think in this whole topic we
are discussing we are saying there should be more coordination, more coherence, more linking up
with the various providers of technical assi stance, and I can understand why the Community is
moving in that direction.  But I think we are being sort of taken back for what we have been trying to
say here, that there should be more coordination.
Thank you.
Mr. Clarke, European Commission
Perhaps there is an apparent contradiction but there is not one in fact. What I have tried to
explain in the paper, perhaps it was not very well expressed, is that in the past quite a high proportion
of programmes, or rather funds were simply allocate d en block to an international agency with a fairly
broad mandate to say "go and spend the money in this broad area and report back to us at some point."
So we handed over a large block of fund s to particular agencies and programmes.
What has changed now, under our current approach, is that we will decide more on a
programme by progamme, or country by country, basis, with the region concerned, what kind ofprogrammes we want to implement. In many cases still the actual physical delivery of the
programmes may be done by an international agency. It depends where there is the expertise, but it is
not simply a question of passing over a whole block of funding to a particular agency and saying "goG/C/W/297
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out and spend it." It is saying "we would like you to manage for us this programme on this subject
with this country and this is the funding for it", so this is the difference in approach.
India
I was wondering as the Philippines and Mexico have already taken the floor, whether there is
need for me to do so. Needless to say I share most of the comments that have been made by them.
Still I would encourage the question my distinguished colleague from Mexico asked, but was
somehow deflected from by the Chairman who said this kind of question should be asked to the
Members and that perhaps the panellists on the table would not be able to answer it. But if I could put
things together from the morning session and this session, it was said that the capacity of countries to
absorb technical assistance and to move forward in trade facilitation varies from country to country.
There are many softer elements like political culture and administrative culture etc. that vary and we
have just heard that even from the Canadian experience, they are still working on flexibility. We are
hoping that an international framew ork for technical assistance will be developed taking into account
the divergent conditions which are there. I am just wondering whether, with their experience of giving
technical assistance to so many countries, they still feel that the development of an internationalconformity agreement is far away and whether they think that this kind of thing can help develop
more technical assistance and help countries to address trade facilitation issues, or whether they
believe that the time is still not right for that. I would like to hear their own reactions without
prejudice to any Member's position on this.
Thank you.
Senegal
There is no doubt that this workshop has enabled us to have a better grasp, and a good
overview, of this important question which is trade facilitation. We have been listening very carefully
to everything that has been said up to now, particul arly the points raised by the delegation of Mexico
regarding the scope of work on trade facilitation. We do agree that we need to have a more overall
comprehensive approach and not restrict this to purely customs matters in line with the mandate given
to the Council for Trade in Goods.
In looking at it one might tend to restrict one's consideration to what we call "import and
export formalities" because it is very clearly stated that the Council for Trade in Goods has as a
mandate to do exploratory and analytical work, drawing on the work of other relevant organizations,
on the simplification of trade procedures, and I stress this, trade procedures, in order to assess the
scope for WTO rules in this area, quoting from the mandate. And I think we are talking here very
specifically of trade procedures and I think we need to clarify this and reach an understanding of thedefinition or scope of this mandate and then move ahead. For us developing countries, we cannot see
trade facilitation as only covering a streamlining of import or customs formalities. This is indeed very
important, but there are many other constraints in our countries, otherwise this would just be a
facilitation of imports in our countries. Sometimes we do have real problems of access to
infrastructure and so on, and these are all so many constraints in terms of supply and in facilitating ourexports, so I think this overall global perspective needs to be taken into account, particularly by
funding countries and agencies who are assisting us in our development efforts.
If I may I would like to turn to a second point which will concern the IMF above all. In the
talk given this morning there was reference made to the Fund's priorities in the area of trade
facilitation and we were told this was focused on development of revenues for these countries. Now
we know that in the adjustment programmes that we have with the Bretton Woods institutions there is
one aspect which for many developing countries always comes back on the table, that is to secure
revenues. Very often in our countries we have had to set up these surveillance companies,G/C/W/297
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preshipment inspection, which is perhaps less costly than other efforts in ensuring financial stability.
The customs administration, its fiscal mission, becomes ever more important with this overriding
objective in view. But in the long run we see that vis-à-vis trade facilitation it might seem somehow
paradoxical, if not contradictory. Trade facilitation is not a hindrance to customs performance in terms
of revenue, but it is true that the efforts to adapt and adjust that are required can only bear fruitoverall, economically speaking, in the long run, and for some of these countries they say that in the
course of reforms they encounter fiscal difficulties because the customs are not bringing in enough
funds. What is required is an approach that will reconcile customs reform with domestic revenue
performance. The customs administrations must be freed from their fiscal mission in order to have an
objective which is more economic globally speaking. An overall economic goal which will facilitate
trade and no longer have as an overarching concern this pressure to bring in fees. But as long as these
international institutions have not put this focus at the centre of their concern then the assistance thatneeds to be given in trade facilitation will not be truly effective for us. We need to give further
thought to this so that in these strategies they integrate this dimension as well. Of course we need to
facilitate trade. Of course we need to streamline procedures, particularly customs procedures, but the
control methods used in customs nowadays which ensure the revenues they are expected to collect, in
the light of this we will have to see how we can work with these countries so that the customsprocedures  can be streamlined and also be relieved of a certain fiscal objective. This burden on the
administration should be transferred to the domestic fiscal services.
Thank you.
Mr. Walsh, IMF
I think much of the work that we do in the IMF and the World Bank is directed towards
reducing the rates of customs duties that are collected. Nevertheless it is still a fact that in most
developing countries revenue collected by the Customs administration in terms of customs duties,value-added tax on imports, excise duties on imports, amounts to 60 per cent of total tax revenue in
many developing countries and I do not think that in the short to medium term that is going to change.
So I think the fiscal role of the customs administrations for developing countries is going to continue
to be very very important and that is why we emphasize the necessity to put in place the mechanisms
to be able to collect the appropriate amounts of revenue.
The second thing I would say and to clarify, perhaps, what was not clear from my
presentation this morning: We do not see the efforts to facilitate trade through customs as being
mutually exclusive in the revenue collection role.  In fact we see them being complementary and by
that I mean, as I said this morning, the approach of customs should be selective, it should be based on
risk assessment, and it should be supported by post-release reviews and audits. If you implement those
kinds of procedures you do two things. You speed the majority of the goods through the customsadministration without the requirement to inspect them all and at the same time you improve your
revenue collection capacity by being able to audit the books and records of the importers. So we see
the implementation of computerisation, the use of  selectivity and the use of post-release controls as
supporting both faster movement of goods through the customs system, and the revenue objective,
and we think that they are complementary.
Thank you.G/C/W/297
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SESSION 3:  Overview of Experiences by Recipient Members
3.1 Mr. H. Cahit Soysal, Director General of Turkish Customs
My name is H. Cahit SOYSAL and I am the General Director of Turkish Customs. Today, I
will inform you about the “Modernisation  Project of Turkish Customs”.
As we all know, factors such as growth in tr ade volume, trade liberalisation, falling transport
and communications costs and increasing international competition drive customs administrations
world-wide to change their traditional procedures. What is expected from customs is to speed up the
release of goods, to rationalise the clearance process and to simplify the procedures while enhancingcustoms control and creating and transferring statistical data in a timely and reliable manner.
Basic methods that are applied to achieve these goals are changing legislation, use of IT,
development of transportation and communication, simplification and harmonisation of procedures
and finally Human Resource Management and training. Although the solution seems to be clear thespeed of adjustment of customs administrations show variations depending on the political and
economic conditions of the each country.
Starting from 1980’s Turkey has steadily liberalised its external trade regime resulting in a
Customs Union with the EU from the first of January 1996. However, changes in customsadministration and procedures have lagged behind and there was a considerable need for
modernisation and change in the Turkish Customs.
In 1995, the Republic of Turkey signed a loan agreement with the World Bank in order to
carry out a variety of institutional reforms to strengthen public financial management within theGovernment. Modernisation of Turkish Customs is one of the three components Public Financial
Management Project (PFMP).
Besides, a technical assistance agreement was also agreed with IMF to provide international
advisors to work in Turkey on a long-term basis with Turkish Customs. During July 1996 and May
1999, 6 short-term advisors in addition to a two long-term Customs and IT advisors, from both IMF
and other institutions, worked for the project.
The focus of the Modernisation of Turkish Customs is on:
• Modification of customs legislation and procedures according to the international standards such
as the Kyoto Convention,
• Development and implementation of computer systems and,
• Reorganisation of Customs Administration.
Facilitation of trade requires fundamental changes in customs legislation. An old legislation
that does not meet recent requirements of the international trade causes loss of time for both traders
and customs organisations.
A contemporary legislation, on the other hand, must create a balance between customs control
and trade facilitation and must be in harmony with other agreements and conventions that a country istaking a part.G/C/W/297
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The new Turkish Customs Law, including 254 articles, passed from the Parliament in
November 1999.  With the new Customs Law, Turkish Customs Legislation has been adjusted both to
the international and the EU standards. In addition to this, a new Customs Regulation of 891 articles
and 81 appendices also came in to force in 5 th of February 2000.
The new Turkish customs legislation involves provisions about simplified procedures and
post release control. From the beginning of the project, post-release control has been considered as an
important component of the modernisation. Effective post release control has proven to be one of the
most significant changes implemented in customs administrations over the last decades and Turkish
Customs is seeking to take the full advantage from this application. Currently, 181 companies nation-
wide are granted with this special privilege.
The use of information technology is one of the most important revolutions that customs
administrations have witnessed ever. The devel opment of new technologies and telecommunications
infrastructures help customs administrations to lower the costs of receiving and disseminating
information. To perform procedures in an electronic environment also strengthens national and
international co-ordination. The use of automated procedures also provides more effective customscontrol and simplified procedures and resulting in trade facilitation.
In March 1997 Turkish Customs purchased a customs software named ‘SOFIX’ from the
French Government. As SOFIX has been developed and adapted to the needs of Turkish Customs
named as B*LGE (B*Lgisayarl*Gümrük Etkinlikle ri-Computerised Customs Activities). The project
involves the automation of 18 Customs Regional Dir ectorates and 47 customs directorates by October
2001.
The first phase of the automation project, the pilot implementation of B*LGE system, started
at Atatürk Airport, in August 1998. One year late r in August 1999, traders at Atatürk Airport began
using EDI software supporting B*LGE. And sin ce May 2000 we have entered into the deployment
phase of the project. By May 2001, 35 customs directorates, processing 92 per cent of international
trade in Turkey, have already been automated.
Clearly, the introduction of new technology changes the content of work in customs
administrations, and this has many crucial implications for the way it is supervised, controlled and the
way the management is organised. The use of new technology in Turkish Customs, first of all,reduced the need for the personal supervision of daily operations and resulted in a flatter organisation
structure, by merging Export and Import directorates into one customs directorate with fewer layers of
management.
Secondly the introduction of new computer system gave Turkish Customs the chance to prove
political authority that how it would be inefficient to invest huge amount money on small and
ineffective customs offices. As a result 120 customs offices were either merged or closed down. In
addition to this in the beginning of the project the total number of Regional Directorates in Turkish
Customs including both Customs and Enforcement were 36. With the re-organisation project these
directorates will be merged and decreased to 16. By the time I am speaking here the functions ofRegional Directorate of Customs and Directorate of Customs Enforcement have been merged to
increase service efficiency in 5 Regional Directorates.
The process of creating transition in a large and complex organisation like Turkish Customs
can be a difficult and often frustrating situation. The biggest mistake is to think of your organisationas a large machine with different mechanisms that can be taken apart and reassembled differently
whenever needed. Organisations can be changed but change must be approached carefully with
implications for both individuals and groups within the organisation.G/C/W/297
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In order to be successful, changes must be led by top management being involved in the
transition process, backing the changes and providing an example to the whole organisation. We
believe that it is very important to establish a committee as we called it a “Steering Committee” to
prove the support of top management to process of change in the organisation. Secondly a chiefexecutive should be assigned as the project manager of the organisation for the transition state. This
person must have the power and the authority needed to make the changes happen.
In our case, the steering committee that involved the Undersecretary, his three deputies and
four Director Generals became responsible to steer, control and monitor the implementation of the
modernisation project and created a strong image of top management’s commitment to change in
Turkish Customs. Assignment of a Deputy Director General as a Project Manager gave acceleration totransition studies and played a vital role in the success of the project.
In this slide you can also see news in a Turkish journal showing former State Minister,
responsible for Customs Undersecretariat, sitting in  front of a PC and entering data into the new
computer system during the opening ceremony of the pilot site. The use of media in such a wayproved to be a very good message that showed top management’s determinism about the change in
Turkish Customs.
So often the move from present position to the desired future state will not happen easily and
automatically but rather through carefully directed activities. The management of change must besufficiently resourced and must not be interrupted by daily operations of the organisation. It should be
never forgotten that managing the process of change is a totally different activity from the general
management. As a result, it may be necessary to develop a structure outside the regular organisational
structure during the change period.
On the other hand, the change process must be planned by developing an “action plan” that
identifies who is to do what, when, where and how. The plan needs to take into account as much
detail as possible; difficulties and uncertainties and ideally contingency plans. The project should also
have a defined start and finish time. Projects without an end date tend to run forever.
Before the establishment of the permanent project unit, our transition work was carried out
through a committee. However, it was not possible for the committee members to pay full attention tothe project, because of their daily duties and other responsibilities.
Along with the project unit, a project team was formed to work the project on a full time
basis. Just after that, it became possible for us to realize project stages according to the project time
plan.
Any individual or group faced with a change may be resistant for many different reasons.
People need for a certain degree of stability or security and change presents unknowns that cause
anxiety.
Uncertainty created by “change” creates ambiguity, which in turn tends to increase the
probability of resistance to change. Communication is a very crucial feature for explaining the nature
of, and the reasons for the change.  This should be done as early as possible in the change process in
order to minimise the opportunity for ambiguity, rumours and distortions to breed and as a result to
complicate the change process. The benefits of the change must be clearly communicated tostakeholders, those both internal and external to the project who have an interest in either the process
or the outcome.G/C/W/297
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In this regard, Turkish Customs prepared a “Strategic Statement” indicating the reasons and
objectives of modernisation of Turkish Customs and passed this information to our stakeholders
through a variety of ways ranging from written communications to small group meetings and large
briefing sessions.
Additionally establishing a permanent “Customs Consultative Committee” proved to be very
helpful in providing participation from trade bodi es to our modernisation studies.  This committee
involved different representatives from customs brokers, transport companies and etc.
Adapting new technology into an organisation also may mean changing policies and
procedures and motivating individuals and groups to carry out their job in a totally new way. The fear
of new technology can create big problems in many cases and therefore those affected by thetechnological change must be helped to accept and adjust to it through an intensive training
programme.
 In this slide you can see a scene from AHL Customs facilities where approximately 800
customs officers and 2000 importers and exporters joined an intensive training programme. Trainingfacilities similar to this one have been established in every Regional Directorate throughout the
country to teach customs personnel and traders how to use the new customs software.
A successful implementation of transition also requires to be confident about yourself and not
to step back in case of any threats.  Change means that individuals or groups will have to find newways of managing their own environments-ways that might not be as successful as those currently
used. In addition, those who have power in the curr ent situation may resist change because it threatens
that power.
This slide shows an article about the protest made by the customs brokers a week after the
start of the pilot project. Some of the customs brokers made a demonstration and boycotted data entry
when they lost their former work routine and face-to-face contact. No importation nor exportation
could be made at AHL for two days.  However the determined attitude of our project team and our
approach that did not give compromise from the new regulations broke this resistance. We held a
meeting with the demonstrators and explained them our objectives and informed them they can stay in
the system if they help us or they will lose their jobs. Upon this development the demonstrations
stopped and traders started to process their declarations in the computerised environment.
The final action step for managing transition in volves monitoring and reinforcement of the
change. When changes have been introduced through an organisation it is very important to check
after a suitable time to see if they are working well and giving benefits that are argued. If something is
going wrong modifications must be made immediately. On the other hand, if the changes are workingwell and the benefits can be demonstrated, this information must be used to tell everyone to reinforce
the transition in the organisation.
Development and expansion of e-commerce technologies are the most important events of
this century. Implementation of e-commerce technology requires the total re-organisation of Customsadministrations world-wide. Such a transition sometimes requires resources and expertise that
administrations sometimes may lack. As a result customs administrations may need to employ new
management techniques for coping with requirements.
Additionally, the of use e-commerce and the implementation of Just in Time (JIT) techniques
will increase the number of  transactions inevitably. While providing a seamless movement of
international trade we have to deal with increasing contraband problem.G/C/W/297
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And finally adopting e-commerce technology always holds the possibility of cyber crime,
sabotage or the loss of system accidentally. Therefore it is very vital to be aware and ready to manage
the risks of IT.
Thank you very much for your attention!G/C/W/297
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3.2.   Mr. Georges M. Jereos, Deputy Commissioner, Philippines Customs
Our Vision
A customs service more responsive to clients’ needs and supportive of government goals,
adhering to world’s best practices; one that every Filipino can be truly proud of.
Our Mission and Objectives
The Bureau of Customs, an office under the Department of Finance, is tasked primarily to
perform the following functions:
• Assess and collect lawful revenues from imported articles and all other dues, fees, charges,
fines and penalties accruing  under the Tariff and Customs Laws;
• Prevent and suppress smuggling and frauds upon the Customs;
• Supervise and control the entrance and clearance of vessels and aircraft engaged in foreign
trade;
• Enforcement of Tariff and Customs Laws and all other laws, rules and regulations relating to
tariff and customs administration;
• Supervision and control over the handling of foreign mail arriving in the Philippines, for the
purpose of collecting lawful duty on the dutiable articles thus imported and prevent smugglingthrough the medium of such mails;
• Supervise and control all import and  export cargoes landed or stored in piers, terminal
facilities, including  container yards and freight stations; and
• Exercise exclusive jurisdiction over seizure and forfeiture cases under the Tariff and Customs
laws.
With your kind permission may I be allowed to briefly describe the working environment at
the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
The Philippine Customs is the largest collector of revenue after the Bureau of Internal
Revenue.  It is expected that some PhP 105 Billion will be collected in the current financial year.  This
collection equals to close to 19 per cent of the national government’s revenue of 568 Billion.
We employ 5,258 officers and employees at the Central Office and 14 District Offices. Our
workload statistics indicated that during the year 2000, Philippine Customs dealt with over 566,212
thousand entries and facilitated more than six million arriving and departing travellers. Despite the
economic slowdown, we managed to meet the collection target of PhP 93.742 Billion for the year2000, surpassing the target by 1,863 million or 2.0 per cent.
There can be no doubt that Philippine Customs occupies a central position in our country in
so far as the international trade process is concerned and is, therefore, an important consideration in
the management of our national economy. Therefore, we have made deliberate efforts to remainrelevant in the shifting sands of the new millennium. One of the most important priorities is how to
face and prepare ourselves in handling both our traditional functions as well as the newG/C/W/297
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responsibilities in the rapidly changing circumstances, to execute these functions without hindering
the process of international trade.
In the early 90’s we were grappling with the problem of how to improve the delivery of our
services to our clients and stockholders.  Automating customs processes was (and still is) the answer.But which system to adopt?  Our Commissioner then  opted to go ASYCUDA++  a system developed
and administered by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
The establishment of an integrated computerized tax system and providing the hardware and
system software therefor was manifested in a contract signed between BOC and UNCTAD on April
08, 1994 for the supply, enhancement and implementation of application software package
(ASYCUDA++) and with the cont ract signed with UNISYS (bid winner) on June 29, 1994 for the
provision of hardware and system software and services (systems integration, project management,
training, facilities management, technical support, maintenance).
We had our modest share of successes with ASYCUDA++ .
The project satisfactorily achieved its objectives. The original no. of target implementation
sites which was 8 is now spread out to 21 sites.  The Automated C
ustoms O perating S ystem (ACOS),
the core of which is ASYCUDA++, is operational in 19 sites including the central office, while officeautomation is running in 2 other sites pendin g the completion of the ACOS module(s) for
implementation.  All sites are interconnected via a wide area network that virtually spans the entirecountry.
           When it was introduced in the Bureau of Customs, Bureau personnel, importers and brokers
having been used to the manual method of procession raised varying degrees of resistance to the
introduction of computerization into the Customs processes. Hindsight revealed to us that the majorityof those resisting  were suffering  from insecurity due to the perception of job loss/loss of
security/replacement via automation and in sum, a fear of the unknown. Thus we had to launch an
aggressive change Management Program to allay these fears.
We credit these gain to:
• The commitment and political will of the President of the Republic to the Commissioner of
Customs in pursuing the project.
• A congenial working relationship between the World Bank and BOC and contractors (UNCTAD
and UNISYS).
• The commitment and seriousness with which the project was pursued by BOC personnel in the
struggle to elevate the Customs service to world class level.
• The ideal partnership and close working relationship among Customs, its clients and stockholder
and Customs allies and supporters.
Some Strategies
           In order to maximize the funds available, sourced from the World Bank, BOC and the
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) entered into a Memorandum of Agreementwhereby PCCI put up the Entry Encoding Center (E CC) buildings and computers.  ECC is a facility
through  which small and medium enterprises, even large ones too, which find investing in some PCs
to be on-line with Customs, burdensome (or perhaps wary of whether the programme will succeed or
not) can lodge their entries in which are then encoded and accepted by ASYCUDA for automatedG/C/W/297
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processing.    In the short term, this arrangement appears to be suitable to the needs of Customs
however for the long term we already identified that such facility would no longer be
effective/efficient for majority of our clients and therefore will have to be replaced by remote
lodgement facility (e.g. via Internet, EDI).
There being no risk management group identified in the national budget, we created an ad hoc
RMG composed of selected members from the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS)
and the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) the product of whom are then reviewed by the
Directors of both Services. The process is unwieldy and decisions are not made as fast as needed.
This arrangement was later changed to an RMG directly under the Deputy Commissioner for
Intelligence and Enforcement Group (IEG). The condition has improved but has not reached the
optimum level of being current and of high reliability. Even as of now, we are moving towards aNational RMG to be supported by local RMG’s in order to come up with national selectivity criteria
which will be the basic criteria for selectivity throughout the country without prejudice to local
RMG’s inputting local criteria peculiar to the port for the purpose of the application of selectivity in
the local level.
In the matter of implementation, we opted to apply ACOS on a pilot project implementation
basis that allows us to check and countercheck the system before this is rolled out to other ports. In
this fashion, any error or problem can be checked early and remedies applied. So much so that after
the 3rd roll out we were pretty confident of success.
To further enhance facilitation, we embarked on a Super Green Lane facility which allows
pre-qualified accredited importers to bring in their imports without delay in the sense that the
accredited importers having established their impeccable bona fides may release their imports
immediately since shipments of SGL users are no longer subject to being selected. Effectively they
are exempted from the application of the selectivity system although random inspections at importer’spremises is an option left open for customs to avail of as necessary.
The most significant positive lessons learned was the recognition of the following factors that helped
in the modest success achieved:
/g110 concrete, visible, unwavering top management support
/g110 flexible and ingenious strategies
/g110 involvement of users/stakeholders in all phases of the project
/g110 hard work, dedication and skills of the major players
/g110 the change management programme
The most significant negative lessons learned:
/g110 if anything can go wrong – it will
/g110 never be optimistic when it comes to money (spec. fund releases)
/g110 never be optimistic when it comes to deadlines (spec. on site preparation)
/g110 inflexible work plans
Given our  limited resources, certain priorities were observed and time frames established.Overall Application Systems Groupings
Priority Development
Import Entry Processing
Export Entry Processing
Risk ManagementG/C/W/297
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Trade Compliance
Customs Valuation
Intelligence Information
On-going Development
Suspense Regimes Monitoring
Statistical Analysis & Reporting
General Purpose & Ad-hoc Querying
Office Automation
Tariff Information
Revenue Accounting
Human Resources ManagementRecords Management
Pending Development
Passenger Entry Processing
Performance Indicators MonitoringProjects Monitoring
Issues Monitoring
Legal Information
Financial Management
General Services Management
The technical assistance extended by the World Bank was “highly satisfactory”  based on the
following considerations:
• project progress implementation was adequately reported
• implementation problems were immediately identified, assessed and addressed for resolution
• sufficient attention was paid to likely development impact, as in the case of document
processing and cargo release time
• advise given to the Bureau were well thought out, while follow-ups on required
actions/decisions were consistent
• loan covenants were enforced and remedies were exercised.  An example of this remedy was
the creation of working group (e.g. Site Preparations Committee) to assume some of the
functions of the undermanned Project Implementation Unit
• the Bank staff showed flexibility in suggesting or approving needed modifications, such as
those on the non-computer equipment and roll-out strategy
• the Bank and the Bureau had a congenial, working relationship
           This underscores the importance of the role of lending institutions in ensuring the success of a
project.
The Philippine Tax Computerization  Project concluded on December 31, 1999, and  with it,
the primary source of funding for said project – the World Bank loan.  From thereon, the project, andall other  computerization initiatives of the Bureau, which are  now woven into the mainstream of
Customs day-to-day operations, are expected to be  supported by the local budget.
Relative to the proposed budget appropriations, there were pronouncements and declaration
of support from both executive and legislative branches of the government.G/C/W/297
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  For   the   year   2000,   the   budget   requested  by  the Bureau for the maintenance and
enhancement/expansion of the programme was drastically cut. Without  any  alternative funding
source, we feared that  one  or  more  of  the  following consequences will  logically follow:
/g110 computer systems operation limited for up to six months only,
/g110 progressive shutdown of computerized sites and operations,
/g110 reversion to manual procedures, and
/g110 termination of system development efforts.
Thankfully this lack of resources is now augm ented with special funding from the President’s
Special Fund.  This is a special lesson we are learning from in terms of sustainability and which we
wish no repeat of.
Currently, all efforts are focussed towards sustainability.The monitoring of programmes and measures after implementation is a must to ensure that
indeed customs processes are abreast with the changes that inevitably must come with the changingtimes in order to ensure that it is effective and in fact facilitates the clearance of goods at the borders.
With an improved business environment and with the globalization of trade, the volume of business
transaction logically follows. An effective monitoring programme will thus sound the alarm bells that
the system obtaining is now incapable to handle the volume of trade passing through the process. It is
in fact such an event which could cause delay. Such close monitoring hopefully will make the good
system better and the better best.
For the Bureau of Customs, the biggest trade facilitation challenge in the coming years, in the
main, is how to effect customs clearance on legitimate imports and legitimate exports within the hour
from lodgement and possibly even before arrival of the importation. Two important considerationsmust be considered to attain these goals – Ri sk Assessment (Selectivity and Post Entry Audit).
While we have launched our risk assessment programme, SELECTIVITY which
operationalize   the   risk   assessment  of   the   shipment  and which determines  the  selection of
shipments for the red (physical and documents ex amination), yellow (documents examination only)
and green (no physical/documents examination) channels, we recognize that the system itself is
dynamic and needs constant change and expansion of criteria for refinement purposes.
Thus, better trade facilitation will depend heavily on whether or not the Post Entry Audit
process is firmly in place, reliable and effective.  The comfort such a system will give CUSTOMS as
a safety net to recover “lost” revenue at the borders will also act as a deterrent against technical
smuggling.
 The method of risk assessment must be complemented by a Post Entry Audit System which
means that checks on importations will have to be done post facto rather than upfront during entry.
Realistically no selectivity is fail proof and therefore aside from a sophisticated selectivity system,  a
very good and reliable post entry audit system must likewise be firmly in place to back up the“failures” of  selectivity.
As a developing country, imbued with the desire to keep pace with world developments such
as the use of Communication and Information Technology to improve our through put time in the
delivery of services, we have to outsource funds in order to augment our resources to pursue certainprojects from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and bilateral
partners like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA).G/C/W/297
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 Certainly, greater coordination among bilateral, regional and multilateral donors can
contribute to more effective and cost efficient implementation of technical assistance projects.
Greater coordination can lead to avoidance of duplication of projects and instead spell more
complementarity among projects.  Hopefully, this will result in the maximization of benefits.
With coordination, there would be more transparency among donors.G/C/W/297
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3.3. Mr. José E. Gutiérrez Ossio, Director, Reform and Modernization Programme, Bolivia
Customs
My presentation is related to the Customs Reform and Modernization Programme of the
Bolivian customs. At the beginning, I will try to give you a short background on the institution andthen speak about customs reform, technical cooperation, capacity building related to trade facilitation,
its main results and finally turn to the main conc lusions we drew with regard to the modernization
process.
In the last ten years Bolivian customs have received 5.6 million dollars to support five
programmes for the modernization of its customs administration. However, progress was scant and
customs was regarded as corrupt, politicised and inefficient. In 1997, the Bolivian Governmentrequired assistance from the IMF to elaborate a reform programme. An IMF mission concluded that
the Bolivian customs administration was not able:
- to improve its services to facilitate trade,
- to establish adequate control over the private sector involved in customs procedures,- to reduce the physical inspection of goods which was mainly based on discretionary criteria
of the customs officials,
- to eliminate ad honorem personnel – personnel who do not receive official payment – who are
not in the official list,
- to improve general equipment,- to improve the legal and normative structure (the customs law dated from 1929), and
- to have an integrated customs information system.
The IMF recommended a strategy to improve customs administration based on modern
legislation and simple procedures. In this context, a programme led by international customs expertshired by the IMF began its work at the beginning of 1999. Despite this new effort, customs
administrations did not change at all. Nobody was happy, neither the government nor the private
sector. The Bolivian Government decided to give additional and critical support to the reform process
by enacting the new General Customs Law in July 1999. This law is coherent with international
legislation related to trade facilitation. It gives financial autonomy to the Bolivian customs from the
Ministry of Finance. I think that true autonomy is a financial one.
In this context and based on IMF recommendations, the PROMA programme was elaborated,
whose objectives are to facilitate trade, to improve collection of trade taxes and to reduce corruption.
Also following the IMF recommendation, PROMA ex ecuted a Contingency Plan, financed by the UN
with a cost of $2.4 million to implement a custom s police force to combat smuggling which cost $ 1.8
million, to implement a special inspection unit costing 0.4 million dollars, and to improve customsadministration equipment ($ 0.2 million). We elaborated a general five-year plan.
These tables show us the components of the PROMA programme and its importance. As you
see, institutional management is an important component. It includes the civil service programme that
implies salary support for customs officials during five years and is mainly financed by the WorldBank. Another important component is computer ized systems to implement the ASYCUDA system.
Technical cooperation by the IMF, World Bank, IADB, NDF, Japanese Cooperation and
Andean Cooperation is mainly dedicated to the implementation of the Civil Service Programme in the
customs administration, for institutional strengthening, automation of customs procedures(ASYCUDA), and implementation of ex-post controls and of the WTO Customs Valuation
Agreement.  This morning we heard about the advantages of ASYCUDA. The Bolivian customs
administration decided to implement ASYCUDA becau se after having visited four countries withG/C/W/297
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different customs implementation systems and after an evaluation, we felt that ASYCUDA was the
best system for the Bolivian customs administration. Once the personnel selection process is
concluded, the Bolivian customs administration is going to need assistance to establish a permanent
customs training programme to ensure the sustainability of the reform process.
As for capacity building related to trade facilitation I would note that prerequisites have been
developed with international cooperation. We think that we need simple, transparent customs
procedures, computerized transactions on-line, simple ex-post controls, highly qualified personnel and
appropriate equipment and infrastructure.
With regard to the facilitation of procedures:  the objectives are to reduce the time it takes for
goods to be released, to have these procedures be applicable consistently to all customs operations,and to give a useful tool to customs personnel and traders. Our main results are the new import
procedure, establishing that at most 20 per cent of all goods can be physically inspected. This
inspection is now based on random selection. In future with ASYCUDA it is going to be based on risk
assessment. We have 38 new customs procedures for ASYCUDA implementation – this is really
historic for the Bolivian customs administration – on imports, exports, transit, deposits andwarehouses, and free zones.
Concerning ex-post controls our objectives ar e: to determine non-compliance with customs
procedures, including tariffs, origin and customs valuation, to recommend sanctions against evaders in
order to deter non-compliance, and to introduce risk. Our main result has been to have ex-post controlprocedures with the cooperation of Spain's cust oms administration and financed by the IADB.
With regard to personnel, the objectives are: civil service and training, and improved human
resources management. Our main result has been: getting rid of all ad honorem personnel - there are
no more ad honorem personnel in the Bolivian customs administration. All positions in the customsadministration are open to public competition. We hired 270 people out of 10,000 candidates. All
personnel will be hired until mid-2001. Maybe this first number, 10,000, means nothing to you, but
behind it are private decisions – why is this amount of people interested in working in the Bolivian
customs administration? Because we implement a transparent process. We think that the Bolivian
Customs Reform Programme has high credibility. We further improved the housing conditions at
borders. As you can imagine, Bolivia is a poor country and housing conditions at the borders were
disastrous. Finally we drafted a version of an Ethi cs Code, and with the cooperation of the IADB we
are now implementing office ethics.
As for appropriate infrastructure and equipment: the objectives are to facilitate trade
operations; to improve trade controls; and to help traders. Our main results will be the new
privatization of customs warehouse deposits, based on the improvement of the infrastructure by theend of 2001, and the hiring of an inve stment bank for new privatization.
The main results related to the modernization programme are:
• Customs collections went up by 11 per cent in nominal terms and 25 per cent in efficiency
terms, taking into account the decreasing tariff rates in the year 2000. At this point we believe
that there is no trade-off between facilitation and increased tax collection. We think it all
depends on the quality of controls.
• Implementation of the ASYCUDA export module until the end of May 2001 – we think that
100 per cent of all trade operations will be registered by ASYCUDA at the end of 2002. Thetransit and import modules are going to be ready to be implemented by the middle of this
year.G/C/W/297
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• New shorter judicial procedures which have resulted in 70 jail sentences (but no-one is
currently  spending time in jail, due to the judicial system, but 20 people are in preventivedetention.)
• The new customs police are highly credible, with 1,710 operations since October 1999. A
special unit, UTISA, has made 18 inspections since August 1999 which allowed therecuperation of approximately 12 million US dollars.
• Training in customs administration for judges, prosecutors and lawyers.
As one last point, I would like to say a few words about lessons that we have learnt:
• Institutional reforms need time to produce results.
• During that time these types of reforms need constant support from several public and private
institutions, since institutional reforms touch many vested interests.
• The success of one institutional reform depends on the success of other institutional reforms:
there is positive reinforcement.
• Apart from these difficulties, institutional reforms are possible.
• Without political consensus or will it is difficult to implement an institutional reform.
• Credibility is a necessary condition to ensure the success of a reform programme and
transparency is a key element.
• Economic agents adjust their behaviour to the new rules, taking into account the credibility of
the reform programme.
• It is necessary to analyse the consequences of penalising customs offences, especially when
the judicial power is weak.  This is the case with the Bolivian judicial system.
• Finally, it is dangerous to give a weak judicial system the last say in the grade of punishment
of tax evaders, because it goes against the credibility of the institution and the reformprogramme.
Thank you very much for your attention.G/C/W/297
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3.4. Mr. Mahmoud Wafa, National Projec t Director, ASYCUDA Project, Jordanian
Customs Department
Implementation of the ASYCUDA System in Jordan
as Means of Facilitating Trade
Background
ASYCUDA (Automated Sy stem for Cu stoms Da ta) was offered by UNCTAD to Jordanian
Customs Department for the first time in September 1987. Then, the system was mainly a statistical
one. The offers continued in 1988, when the system was marketed as a tool to minimize the
administrative costs as well as to facilitate customs procedures. Nevertheless, the department
preferred to postpone the decision to adopt the system for sometime. Back then, the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan was passing through an acute economic hardship which finally resulted in the
devaluation of the Jordanian Dinar against other cu rrencies. All plans that involved changes in the
way that customs work was conducted almost came to stall. At that time, customs collections
constituted more than half of the state’s revenue. Consequently, there were fears that such plans,
especially the use of the single administrative document instead of the several forms of declarations
used then, might affect the volume of such collections.
During the rounds of review and evaluation that were undertaken between 1992 and 1996 one
thing was absolutely clear: reform must precede computerization. The issues of funding and
Arabization of the ASYCUDA System were other concerns. In a comprehensive study conducted by
an UNCTAD Customs expert, the following reforms were identified:
Applying the Single Administrative Document
Providing legal coverage for EDI of declarations
Identifying the declarants and defining their responsibilities
Using a unique taxpayer identification number
Building integrated tariff tables
Employing risk management techniques
Utilising green-lane systemSeparating manifest procedures from registration of declarations
Re-organizing the infrastructure of customs offices
Using international codes
Establishing a post- clearance audit unit
Modernizing transit procedures
As the Customs Department realized that the legislative, technical, and administrative
requirements can be met, the ASYCUDA System was adopted in quest of improving the economy of
the country by strengthening the Government’s capacity to generate customs revenue through the
provision of an efficient service to the trading co mmunity. This will in turn reduce the Government’s
dependence on foreign assistance and borrowing as sources of public sector financing. Also, the
project will contribute to the simplification and modernization of international trade and customs
procedures, as well as improving the administrative and legal environment for investment promotion
in Jordan. At the same time, the Government of Jord an recognizes the need to balance this objective
with an effective service for the collection of revenue vis-à-vis significant improvements in theinstitutional capacity and operational efficiency  of the Jordanian Customs Department. In the
meantime, the system had proven its potential with  the widespread implementation at countries some
of which have conditions similar to Jordan’s.G/C/W/297
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Although the ten years that separate between th e time when the system was first offered, and
the time when the agreement was signed in 1997 seem too long, however to those who know about
the conditions of Jordan, in general, and of the Customs Department, in particular, would not find it
unusual. Modernization programmes had not ceased all along. The following were some of thereforms that Customs Department had undertaken in fulfilment of the demands by the private sector to
facilitate procedures and remove obstacles against the flow of goods from and to the Kingdom:
• Adoption of the Harmonized System  of goods classification in 1994.
• Participation in the bilateral and multilateral negotiations after Jordan had submitted the
application for accession to WTO in 1995. This had led to the introduction of major
legislative reforms.
• Issue of the Law for Consolidation of Cust oms Taxes and Fees in 1996 in which only one
unified rate replaced six different taxes and fees.
• Introduction of European SAD in 1998 at a number of customs offices, thus, replacing eight
outmoded declarations with only one.
• Issue of the new Customs Law in 1999. In this law, Customs Department made sure that all
legislative reforms were introduced, e.g. electronic interchange of declarations, selectivity,post-clearance auditing, and most importantly GATT Definition of Value.
What is ASYCUDA ++?
ASYCUDA is a programme for modernization of customs administrations and procedures. It
has been developed by UNCTAD in Geneva and is currently operating or is in the process of being
implemented in 80 countries world-wide. The programme aims to speed customs clearance through
the simplification and computerization of procedures, thus minimizing administrative costs to the
business community and countries’ economies. At the same time, it is designed to fight fraud throughthe application of risk management and targeting techniques. Furthermore, it aims to increase
revenue, which is the major contributor to national budgets in most countries, by ensuring that all
goods are declared, that duty/tax calculations are correct and that development exemptions are
properly managed. It aims to produce reliable and timely trade and fiscal statistics to aid the economic
planning process automatically, as a by-product of the customs system
1.
The ASYCUDA software operates on microcomputers in a client/ server environment under
UNIX and DOS operating systems and RDBMS software. It takes into account the international codes
and standards developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization), WCO (World
Customs Organization), and the United Nations. ASYCUDA provides for Electronic Data Interchange(EDI) between traders and Customs using EDIFACT rules
36.
The ASYCUDA ++ core modules cover system administration, national configuration, tariff
and master file maintenance, cargo manifest handling, declaration processing, risk assessment
(selectivity), accounting and direct trader input (broker module).
ASYCUDA ++ offers a number of important features, such as:
Full implementation of the European SAD.
The utilisation of the concept of Electronic Customs Clearance (ECC).
A modern and user friendly tariff language.
                                                     
1 ASYCUDA Newsletter No.9 (Trade Facilitation and Multimodal Transport) by the Division for
Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade Efficiency (UNCTAD)- March 1997 (page no.9)
36 About ASYCUDA- http:// www.asycuda .org/aboutas.htm-2/3/00G/C/W/297
Page 150
A modern selectivity module.
Full auditability of the transaction files.
The possibility to formulate ad-hoc SQL request s provides customs with efficient and virtually
limitless reporting capacities.
The technical design of ASYCUDA ++ incorporates the latest software and computer system
technologies, such as:
• The use of the client/server model ensures that the respective equipment is used for what it can do
best.
• The multi-layered design allows for flexibility to respond to future developments and country
specific preferences.
• The use of object-oriented tools is a powerful state of the art development method which
increases the quality and development speed of the system.
• The availability of optional printout filters offers to the user countries total control over the shape
or format of the various printouts produced by the system.
• The relational database management system as the main data storage provides guaranteed
database consistency through the integrated roll-back facility.
• Security and data integrity is guaranteed through a number of levels.
• The development platform consists of the sources of the development kernel permitting the user
country to write and implement modifications and extensions to the system to meet national
requirements as they arise.
• The choice of an architecture using a standard LAN  offers the possibility to use the same
physical network also for other applications such as office automation tools like e-mail, wordprocessing, etc…
• The communications concept of A ++ Gates offers complete flexibility for the exchange of any
computer managed objects such as data, files, and programmes.
• ASYCUDA ++ provides the possibility of maintaining multiple languages. Translation utilities are
supplied as part of the core system to assist with the translation into national languages as
required
37.
Phase I
Following signing of the agreement in June 1997, Phase I of the project that aimed to
implement the ASYCUDA system at two pilot sites had started in co-operation with UNDP and GTZ.The project was executed in accordance with UNDP administrative and financial rules and guidelines.
A 10-member national team was organized and assisted by UNCTAD advisers. The activities of the
project included the following:
Arabization: More than 4000 labels, 140 reports, and 260 forms were Arabized using the utility that
the system offers for that purpose.Training and Publicity Activities: In addition to the technical and functional training that the project
team had received, two study tours to the Philippines and Lebanon were conducted. In total, more
than 160 rounds of training were delivered by the project to more than (1300) participants.
Re-engineering of Processes: A modern path for processing of declarations (Attached) was designed
and implemented. Detailed analytical studies of all procedures were conducted to identify possible
procedural bottlenecks and take appropriate remedial measures.
                                                     
37 ASYCUDA++  General Overview/Lyon, November 1998 (page no.11)G/C/W/297
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Preparation of Control Files: There were two kinds of  control files to be loaded with codes. The first
uses international codes such as currency codes, modes of transport, package codes, and terms of
delivery. UN codes were adopted for that purpose. While the second type included local codes, such
as the companies file, declarants file, and customs offices codes.
Building Integrated Tariff Tables: Despite the complexities, Customs Department and the project
managed to build fully integrated tariff tables that not only included the Unified Customs Duties but
also the General Sales Tax rates and all preferential rates as stated in more than (17) bilateral and
multilateral trade agreements that Jordan is a contracting party to. In addition, a column was added to
include the documentary requirements, i.e. codes of the documents needed by more than (20) entities
for clearance when the related commodity codes are declared. Also, the descriptions of goods had tobe rewritten by combining, abbreviating, eliminating, and replacing some texts.
Re-organizing and Equipping the Offices: Few changes had to be introduced in the offices where the
system was piloted to conform to the new proces sing path. New electricit y and computer networks
were installed as well as equipment which were sized and specified in accordance with the practicalneed.
Configuration of the System: Over the two and a half years of the first phase of the project, four
releases of the system were dealt with. Each release had to be tested and technical problems had to be
fixed. UNCTAD approved a number of system changes that Jordan requested to meet fewimplementation requirements to the smallest detail.
Introduction of Risk Management Techniques: In October 1998, a Risk Management Unit was
established. A survey of possible risks was undertaken and the selectivity criteria were programmed.
Although the concept is a new one to the department , however it has proven effective in no time.
Defining Interfaces with Other Systems and Entities: The project managed to develop a programme to
transfer data from the ASYCUDA System to more than twenty other computerized applications that
had to be kept because they cover parts of the customs clearance process that the ASYCUDA System
does not. On the other hand, meetings were held with a number of Governmental departments to agree
on areas of common interest, such as the Departme nt of Statistics, Income Tax Department, and
Ministry of Agriculture.
Finally, the system was implemented at QAI A Customs Office in June 99 and at Amman
Customs House in October 99.
In parallel with the above activities, and in order to give the system a strong launch, a number
of decisions by Customs Department had to be taken in fields such as:
Granting pre-shipment exemptions
Providing pre-import classification opinions service.
Approval of past results of testing some commodities at the Customs Lab. with random sampling and
testing of new consignments of similar commodities.Delegating authorities from HQ to the customs offices
Cooperating with Income Tax Department in designating temporary taxpayers numbers to importers
and exporters who do not have permanent numbers.
Operating the servers for 24-hours daily to maximize the benefits of the system.
Simplifying forms and reducing the number of signatures.
What were the results?G/C/W/297
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A survey was conducted by the project through questionnaires distributed to customs staff and
to declarants three months after the implementation of the system at the first pilot site. The following
were some of the results:
Declarants:
(82 per cent) think that declarations are made faster and more accurately through the system.
(75 per cent) think that the procedures of release of goods are  easily completed.
(75 per cent) believe that the system contributed to improving the role of the brokers, and developed
the profession of clearance.
(85 per cent) believe that the adoption of the system by Customs Department as means of facilitating
trade was a positive step.(79 per cent) do not recommend reverting to the previous system.
Customs staff:
(73 per cent) think that the procedures of release of goods are easily completed.
(87 per cent) believe that brokers have shown considerable acceptance of the system, and that the
reactions of exporters and importers over the use of the system were positive.
(80 per cent) approve the continuous development of the system so that it includes more procedures.
(70 per cent) support rolling out of the system to other customs offices.
In general, the percentages of declarants and officers who were not content with the system
can be estimated at (5-10 per cent) and (10-15 per cent), respectively. And that is considered within
the normal range if the magnitude of changes is taken into consideration. Furthermore, if the survey is
to be carried out again nowadays, the results would have been much better.
On the other hand, an in-depth mandatory evaluation was conducted by three independent
evaluators representing UNCTAD, UNDP, and Customs Department in August 1999. In its final
report, the evaluation team indicated that the national execution of the project can be seen as a model
project for Jordan. The project, as reported by the evaluation team, achieved all its outputs, and the
objectives as set out in the project document have been partially achieved. They will be fully achieved
following the complete roll-out of the ASYCUDA System to the whole country under the planned
phase-II of the project.
The following were the success indicators that the expected impacts were attained, as listed
by the evaluation team:
Time of release: the green lane declaration takes on average 2 hours.
Revenue collection: the revenue has stayed constant despite significant reductions in
duty rates.
Trade statistics: trade statistics are more completely accurate, and up-to-date.
Simplification and increased transparency through:
Integrated tariff,SAD,
Risk management techniques, and
Direct Trader Input.
What lessons (both positive and negative) can be drawn from the experience of the project?
According to the experience of this project to date, the following lessons can be drawn:G/C/W/297
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• The strong political support and commitment by the Director General and the senior
management as well as the excellent backstopping by all stakeholders (UNCTAD, UNDP,Brokers Union …) are the most valuable elements in achieving the success.
• Selecting dedicated staff for the project team and maintaining them together within the same
team through all phases of the project are extremely important.
• Ownership of the project by the Government is best secured when it contributes largely in
financing the project.
• Having a strong start is a guaranteed bet to win the support and acceptance of the users.
• The ASYCUDA System can be as good as Customs Department wants it to be.
• The facilitation of procedures of the other trade- related Governmental departments should
have been undertaken as well to maximize the benefits of the ASYCUDA System.
• The technical assistance received was very appropriate as it touched on the main areas of
concern as far as trade facilitation was concerned, and it had complemented the other reformefforts within the Customs Department.
• Sustainability issues are the most critical in such projects. Sustainability can be best achieved
by institutionalising the project’s functions within Customs Departme nt. Also, to guarantee
continuous flow of funds, in order to modernize the equipment and provide technical support,
user fees must be collected.
• The issue of coordination between bilateral donors and international organizations can be very
tricky. It is, therefore, recommended that a single set of rules and guidelines, e.g. UNDP’s,have to be agreed on by all parties at an early stage and followed in detail later.
Phase II
Building on the successful implementation of the system in phase I, and in light of the
recommendation made in the Terminal Tripartite Meeting, which was held in Nov. 1999, Customs
Department cooperated with UNDP and UNCTAD in drafting a project document for the second
phase. An agreement was finally reached in April 2000 to start a 30-month second phase of the
project which aims to roll out the implementation of the system to all other customs clearance officesand to install the transit module. The objectives of the first phase were maintained and added to them
two more:
To strengthen sub-regional co-operation on customs modernization through training activities
related to computerization and discussions of other subjects of regional interest.
Ensure sustainability of the ASYCUDA project through institutionalising the system in day to
day procedures of Customs Department.
After the elapse of the first year of phase II, the project managed to install the system at two
other sites in the port of Aqaba and is in the process of implementing it at two sites in Zarka Free
Zone. To achieve that, the project carried out all of the tasks as in phase I including (79) rounds oftraining which were conducted to more than (600) participants from Customs, private, and public
sectors. Number of training hours have exceed (1000).
In addition, Customs Department looks forward to  contribute to the growth of the Jordanian
economy through the use of the ASYCUDA System as the vehicle to increase trade efficiency in thefollowing fields:
Cooperation with traders: If traders expect greater facilitation of import and export procedures by
customs, then they themselves must be willing to contribute to the building of an environment of trust
and cooperation which will enable that facilitation to become a reality.G/C/W/297
Page 154
Partnership with trade operators: While customs has an important role to play, it is by no means the
only participant which introduces delays into the process. Much of customs work in relation to the
clearance of goods involves the processing of in formation. Customs Department will make sure that
complete and high quality information is received by its partners, i.e. shipping agents, freight
forwarders, banks, and customs clearing agents/ brokers. Also, the ASYCUDA system must beaccessible to all of these operators.
Introduction of more reforms: As new challenges will be presented to customs with the expected
increase in the volume of goods to be traded, and the broadened scope of activities into areas as
diverse as intellectual property rights, toxic wast e and endangered species, Customs Department will
have to depend more on the ASYCUDA System in fulfilment of E-commerce requirements and to
introduce more reforms that have a substantial impact on the movement of goods across the borders.This task is not made easier by the fact that the administration has been impacted by the world-wide
trend for “smaller and more efficient government” which has limited the manpower resources
available to customs.
In reforming existing customs practices further, Customs Department should adopt modern
business process re-engineering techniques to identify inefficient and /or redundant activities for
streamlining or elimination
38.
Concluding Remarks
When Customs Department took the decision to adopt the ASYCUDA System, it had in mind
that the best way to meet the demands of international trade is by the use of an international system
that employs internationally accepted practices. Globalization and liberalization of trade have
increased the potential for interna tional trade to become an unprecedented engine of growth and an
important mechanism for integrating developing countries and economies in transition into the globaleconomy.
The lack of efficient and transparent trade-related services such as customs, transport,
banking and insurance, and telecommunications poses a formidable risk of exclusion of developing
countries from the emerging global economy
39. Calling for cooperation among countries,
organizations and the private sector in meeting the challenges, ASYCDUA offers an excellent
platform that would allow customs administrations world-wide to participate in the global electronicmarket
40.
                                                     
38 Recommendations and Guidelines for Trade Efficiency, United Nations International Symposium on
Trade Efficiency, New York and Geneva 1994.
39 Trade Facilitation- Customs Reform – ASYCUDA/Growth Package. UNCTAD- April 1997.
40 Lyon Summit – Getting from Here to There. ASYCUDA Newsletter no. 3/November 1998 (page
no.3)G/C/W/297
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3.5  Mr. Mobarak A. Molla, Customs Administration Modernisation Project, National
Board of Revenue, Bangladesh
THE EXPERIENCES OF BANGLADESH
Mobarak Ali Molla
Member, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh
and
Project Director, Customs Administration Modernisation Project
May 2001
Mr Chairman, Distinguished Delegates
Our theme  for this workshop is initiatives for trade facilitation, and I am delighted to have
this opportunity to share some of the very recent and current experiences of Bangladesh in this regard.
I will speak  in the context of Customs reforms, but I should emphasise that these are taking
place within the wider scope of export diversification and Government encouragement of the
commercial sector to expand, diversify, and improve economic performance.
Customs is at the very beginning  of the struggle to modernise and simplify its systems and
procedures. We came, perhaps rather slowly, to the realisation that drastic measures were needed, butwe have already taken some large steps and are actively working on more that will be implemented
over the next 12 to 15 months.
In Bangladesh  we have both sides of the same coi n. Many Customs procedures are out-dated
and cumbersome, but deeply entrenched. Changes are not easily made. Lack of transparency andover-complexity contribute to corruption and harassment of the importers. Information technology
support for basic Customs functions is limited. Linkages to other agencies (for example the
Chittagong Port Authority – Bangladesh’s major seaport) do not exist. Resources, both staff and
budgets, are severely constrained.
But of course  Bangladesh, as a developing country, places a very high priority on
maximising revenue collection. Customs duties are currently more than 25 per cent of the
Government’s total tax revenue, and all duties, taxes and other charges levied on imports total about
60 per cent. Whilst it is the Government’s policy to expand the income and value-added tax bases and
their nets – an important part of the over-arching revenue reform programme within which Customs
changes are being made - still there is an obvious importance to Customs’ collections from imported
goods.
The other side of the coin  is the private sector. Whilst there are many honourable and law-
abiding importers who voluntarily pay their dues, un fortunately there is also a high percentage of
evaders and avoiders. Customs procedures, which in the past have lacked sophistication and have
suffered from lack of IT support, must detect th ese wrong-doers – particularly where there is revenue
at stake. Regretfully, it is often the case that the law-abiding suffer as much as the evaders from the
delays and the costs of Customs procedures.G/C/W/297
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Against this background  I would like to mention the relatively modest successes
Bangladesh Customs has achieved to date in improving trade facilitation, and to outline the very much
more ambitious objectives we have set for the next 15 to 18 months and beyond.
I hope  that what I will outline today demonstrates the importance that both the National
Board of Revenue and our Commissioners of Cu stoms attach to simplifying and modernising
Customs procedures. We share equally with the private sector the concerns and the frustrations that
arise from how things are done today. We very much want to improve, so that Customs can make its
contribution to trade and economic growth, and we aspire to take the stakeholders with us in a
partnership for change.
Arguably our most important  – certainly the first -  initiative was the introduction of Pre-
Shipment Inspection or PSI, in February 2000. It was important because it set in motion the whole
process of change. Three  PSI companies are contracted by the Government to inspect the goods to be
imported and certify the accuracy of information related to them. A 4 th company is soon to be
contracted to audit the activities of the other three.
Accompanying PSI  is a rule that limits the selection of shipments for physical examination
by Customs to 5 per cent of the total of all shipments. The remaining 95 per cent are subject only to
documentation checks prior to Customs release, and unless there is sound reason to the contrary the
PSI company’s certification is taken to be the basis for assessment of duties and taxes.
These procedures  are a radical change from even recent days when Customs inspected  each
and every imported shipment. We have made a small start – which as I will explain shortly we are
going to take very much further with the help of our team of consultants – by closely targeting the 5
per cent of shipments to be examined and random ly selecting the officer who will appraise the
shipment.  Some, at least, of the harassment and delays of the old system have been removed.
Today  at our major shipping port, Chittagong, we  are clearing about 40 per cent of bills of
entry in 2 working days or less. This is not as good as we expect it to become, BUT  at the same time
the average number  of bills of entry cleared in 2 days or less has increased by very close to 25 per
cent per month.
We have also been able to reduce  from about 26 per cent to around 21 per cent, those bills
of entry taking 7 days or more for clearance, usually because follow-up Customs enquiries are
necessary.   As I said, these are modest steps along our way, but we see no reason why we should not
in the foreseeable future achieve targets of less than 2 working days for 100 per cent of bills of entry
except where the goods need to be fully inspected for Customs purposes.
Mention of our team of consultants  brings me to our next, and still on-going, major
initiative – the Customs Administration Modernisati on Project. I am the Project Director, and I have a
team of international consultants on both policy and technical subjects together with locally recruited
consultants, an implementation team of experienced Customs officers on secondment, and a large
team of IT analysts, programmers and computer operators.
Many , if not all, of the project’s objectives are related to trade facilitation. It is funded by a
World Bank IDA loan for the support of Export Diversification  – the complementary components of
which are Customs reforms, Trade and Tariff Policy reforms, and support to companies seeking to
develop export products and establish or expand their markets. But the project is also very muchrelated to the National Board of Revenue’s long-term plan to modernise the whole of the revenue
administration.G/C/W/297
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And now some specifics about the coming changes in Customs……
Over the next 15 months  a very large number of policy, procedural, system and
organisational improvements will come together. The facilitation of import and export trade will be
significantly enhanced. Customs procedures will be greatly simplified and more transparent; delaysand harassment of importers will be reduced; Customs interventions will be targeted towards the
highest risks of revenue evasion; and modern new systems supporting the clearance process will
provide both quicker service to  stakeholders and better quality management information to Customs.
As I am sure this audience will know very well , an important objective in Customs reform
is to encourage voluntary compliance with the law. Those who demonstrate that they represent the
least risk will reap the greatest benefits, whilst the opposite will also be true. This fundamental changein perspective will not occur easily for either stakeholders or for Customs, but we all agree that it is
essential if Bangladesh is to prosper as a small but growing trading economy.
Although  the project encompasses all import and export procedures, it also specifically
targets one major export industry – the ready-made garment sector. For them the Customs clearanceprocess will be made very much more efficient, both for imported materials and for their exported
products. Customs controls over their operations will be simplified and targeted towards those who
present the greatest risk. The success of these initiatives will enable our special bonded warehouse
scheme to be extended to other export-oriented industries. Already we have established a new
Commissionerate to manage and monitor such warehouse operations.
Perhaps  I should mention also some changes in the duty drawback scheme, which will refund
duties and taxes very much more quickly than is the case today. A small but important improvement
for a number of importers who also export or who supply to export industries.
I would like to give you a small glimpse of the means by which the objectives will be met,
and perhaps to emphasise the unprecedented scale of the reform programme. Very few stones will be
left unturned……
Before I conclude , Mr Chairman, I would like to give a little more detail about some of the
most important of the current initiatives, in the context of trade facilitation.
I mention these  in - as it were - “pre-Asycuda++” and “post-Asycuda++” format because
although our project with UNCTAD to upgrade Asycuda is only just about to get under way, we have
been making important changes based around the current system also. In fact, some of these have
been very helpful in giving us experience and confidence with new techniques – one might say the
modern–day “Customs philosophy” – of selectivity and risk management, before the advent of evenmore sophisticated technology and capacity.
Right now  we are implementing a selectivity system at our major seaport, Chittagong.
Shipments are screened against pre-determined risk criteria, and directed towards the appropriate
channel. Green channel  imports are released with minimal documentation checks and no physical
inspection of the goods. Yellow channel  imports – at present the majority – receive full
documentation check and if necessary may be upgraded to red channel. Red channel  imports – about
10 to 12 per cent of the total – receive full documentation check and physical inspection of the goods.
Simultaneously  we are developing a post audit capability to verify the accuracy of green
channel and a sampling of yellow (if necessary also red channel) channel clearances. In addition we
have developed a small but impressive sub-system that enables the importers’ declared values to be
checked against pre-set criteria (such as a range of values for particular goods from particular
countries) – both as part of the assessment process and as part of the post-clearance audit.G/C/W/297
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Our plan in the immediate future  is to extend the system to include exports at Chittagong
which presently is a manual process, and to implement the system fully at our second major Customs
House in Dhaka, and also at the Inland Container Clearance Depot in Dhaka. Our aim is to reduce
even further the reduced clearance times that we have already achieved.
Using a new SAD-based bill of entry  introduced very recently, which will give us a wider
and more accurate range of information about shipments and commodities, the system will be
introduced with off-line data collection at several other locations. Pending the advent of Asycuda++,
the better quality of information available – together with the  networked communications capacity
that will be established – will be the major benefits at these locations.
The introduction of Asycuda++  over the next 15 months will, of course, establish an
expanded and integrated database of imports and exports able to be accessed by all major Customs
ports and stations. Speed and accuracy of processing  will be further improved. And more importantly,
Asycuda++  will provide us with the future platform for the electronic era, enabling even more
ambitious trade facilitation benefits to be realised.
Electronic data interchange , stakeholder on-line direct access to essential information,
higher speed and accuracy of communications, a nd more sophisticated management tools all will
deliver benefits to Customs and to stakeholders alike.
Mr. Chairman , I conclude by emphasising a point that I made when I started. The key to
success, as we have learned from others who have been down this path of Customs reform, is
partnership with the private sector. Although the environment within which Bangladesh has started
this journey presents significant obstacles that we must overcome, it also presents many opportunities.
Opportunities  to demonstrate that the benefits of complying with the Customs laws are
financially more rewarding, by way of reduced costs, more sales, and increased profits, than the
benefits of evasion and avoidance.
Opportunities  for the private sector to demonstrate that it is the engine for Bangladesh’s
economic growth, aided by a discriminating Custom s regime applied with a “light hand” – except
when the heavy hand of the law is needed.
And opportunities  for the Customs to demonstrate that it knows when and to whom to apply
each kind of hand –  in this way making its small but important contribution to protecting the
Government’s need for revenue on the one hand and, on the other, its need for economic growth
which is enabled by trade facilitation.
I am pleased to say  that in my country we are very much engaged in this partnership.
Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates , thank you for this opportunity to speak to you
today.G/C/W/297
Page 159
3.6 Mr. Ibrahima Diagne, Director of Market ing and International Cooperation, Ministry
of Commerce, Senegal
PRESENTATION OF THE EXPERIENCE
OF SENEGAL
By
Ibrahima Nour Eddine DIAGNE
Director of Marketing and International Cooperation
ORBUS 2000 Project Manager
TRADE POINT SENEGAL
May 2001
BACKGROUND TO SENEGALESE FOREIGN TRADE
Senegal is a developing country in Western Africa. A former French colony which became
independent in 1960, it is a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU),
which is composed of eight West African states  (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire Guinea Bissau,
Mali, Niger, Senegal and  Togo).
In spite of drought-related constraints, the Senegalese economy is dominated by the primary
sector. The country’s main exports are low value-added products (phosphates, seafood products,
agricultural products and other raw materials).  Industrialization has yet to gain a secure foothold.
Rampant urbanization has contributed to the growth of a consumer society. The trade balance
shows a structural deficit which persists in spite of a number of export promotion policies and
instruments introduced by successive governments.
Economic agents fall into two main categories:
- The formal sector:  legally registered firms which keep regular accounts.- The informal sector:  economic operators with mainly untrained staff which do not
comply with regulations on company establishment and operations and systematically
attempt to circumvent all legal and administrative obstacles to their business
development.
Foreign trade procedures and formalities have long been established and developed solely
from the perspective of enforcement (fraud control) and achievement of budgetary targets.
THE PRINCIPLE OF TRADE FACILITATION
Ever since the late 1980s, and especially in the mid-1990s, trade facilitation has been a core
feature of all regulatory initiatives, in particular those relating to the business environment. The publicauthorities have realized that a stable, transparent and efficient business environment is a sine qua
non for private sector development and investment promotion.
Trade facilitation involves two main factors:G/C/W/297
Page 160
- Simplification of procedures;
- modernization of procedures.The Directorate-General of Customs (DGC) plays a preponderant role in trade facilitation as
it acts not only in the exercise of its own powers, but also on behalf of other public services involved
with import and export control mechanisms.
Mention should also be made of Trade Point Senegal (TPS) which has set itself the mission of
promoting the streamlining of formalities through the use of new information and communications
technologies (NICT). With an UNCTAD initiative as its starting point, Trade Point Senegal has
managed to adapt its mission to the specific needs of both economic operators and the SenegaleseGovernment.
Another important element when implementing facilitation measures is dialogue. It is crucial
for users to be involved in all su ch initiatives to ensure that the people to whom facilitation measures
are geared give them their full support. All initiatives, whether introduced by the government,Directorate-General of Customs or Trade Point, are therefore carried out in conjunction with users by
way of a series of ongoing or ad hoc meetings.
The top priority of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance as far as trade facilitation is
concerned is to modernize all government financial information systems using new information andcommunications technologies (NICT), a clear expression  of its desire for transparent operations and
data control.
EXISTING FACILITATION MECHANISMS
A. 
DIRECTORATE -GENERAL OF CUSTOMS :   GAINDE
The Directorate-General of Customs (DGC) has been working towards modernizing customs
operations since 1990 by way of the GAINDE (Aut omated Customs and Trade Management) system.
This system has the following uses:
- Recording customs manifest data;- detailed declaration data entry by registered customs brokers;- declaration processing by customs offices.
In addition to its main functionalities, the system has tables and management rules which
allow users to ensure that their customs declarations are in order and Customs authorities to work inline with the organization's rules.
The first version of GAINDE mainly served to make customs officers' work easier. It was
based on mainframe architecture, but suffered a myriad of weaknesses in terms of stability. The
version continued to evolve, but, even though its response times saw a considerable improvement, it
was still beset by the same shortcomings right up until the year 2000. The DGC subsequently launched
a modernisation project moving towards a client/server architecture with a view to making a wealth of
additional services and functionalities available to users.
A new adapter server was acquired in 2000 to guarantee the stability of the old system while a
project team was working on the new one. The latter should be fully operational by early 2002.G/C/W/297
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The new system is now in the pipeline and the various players are helping to define its
functionalities.  The DGC’s medium-term plans are to install this new data processing system in all of
Senegal's customs clearance offices and points. Only a few offices (port, airport and specialized
offices) have been connected to date.
As far as the simplification of customs pro cedures is concerned, in August 2000 the DGC
created a Facilitation and Customs Regimes Division as part of its Studies and Legislation
Directorate. This division encompasses a business advisory and facilitation service in charge of the
following:
- Furnishing all information on customs procedures;
- examining the ways and means of facilitating customs clearance procedures, in
particular by proposing reforms and ways to simplify current procedures;
- informing firms of the advantages of economic and special regimes and the customs
procedures and regimes which best suit their needs;
- keeping track of issues related to industrial free zones, free points and free zone
export enterprises;
- offering firms assistance and advice relating to customs matters with a view to
boosting their competitiveness;
- representing the Customs authorities at trade fairs, exhibitions and other events;- proposing measures to facilitate customs operations and procedures.This division is responsible for putting all of the DGC's trade facilitation goals into practice.Yet another key objective is dissemination.  This is the domain of the Public Relations and
Communications Office which is directly attached to the Director-General of Customs and
responsible for the following:
- Receiving users, providing them with information and directing them to the relevant
departments;
- taking charge of the production and publication of the Customs journal, as well as of
leaflets, written documents, audiovisual productions and other communication media
for the various departments;
- ensuring that the public is accurately and regularly informed of the work of the
Customs authorities;
- improving service-user relations and enhancing the image of the Customs mark;
- managing the DGC toll-free number;- taking note of user complaints.Communication is a particularly important facet of trade facilitation.G/C/W/297
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B. TRADE POINT SENEGAL :   ORBUS 2000
Trade Point Senegal, a public-utility foundation which brings together the public and private
sectors, has undertaken to simplify formalities prior and subsequent to customs clearance. Economic
operators come up against endless red tape from the moment they decide to embark upon a foreign
trade operation right up until customhouse entry.  Likewise, removing goods from the customs cordoninvolves its own share of difficulties related to the different entities from which a release order must
be obtained.
An awareness of all the inconveniences related to the sheer number and scattered whereabouts
of the entities involved and superfluity of data to be communicated to each organization led Trade
Point Senegal to set up the Orbus 2000 network.
Orbus 2000 is a data communications infrastructure which electronically links all foreign
trade entities involved in authorising and issuing visas for import and export operations. This network
has the following advantages for the user:
- Details of operations need only be provided once;- it eliminates the need to do the rounds of several services for a single operation;- application status and progress can be monitored;
- information is available on the compulsory formalities for each operation.
The Orbus 2000 network project got off the ground in 1995 and was completed in
November 1999. Applications have been developed and the network installed. However, the system is
still not operational as it has not yet been linked up to the Customs system. To render this possible inoptimum conditions, the GAINDE system had to convert to a client/server environment. The pilot
phase of the integration of the two systems is scheduled for June to December 2001.
The first version of ORBUS 2000 will link up several players, including the following:
-B a n k s ;
- insurance companies;
- the Treasury;- customs offices;- government monitoring agencies;- registered customs brokers.
C. 
THE SENEGALESE GOVERNMENT CASPA – FIAS
Several concertation mechanisms have been set up at Government level in an endeavour to
simplify procedures and thereby improve the business environment.
CASPA (Committee for the Streamlinin g of Administrative Procedures)G/C/W/297
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The mission of this committee, which brings together several government departments and
other public bodies, is to identify formalities which merely constitute a hindrance and propose
measures to simplify them to the government. Th is committee is co-ordinated by the Ministry of
Administrative Modernization, now know n as the Ministry of Civil Service.
FIAS Report
A 1999 study funded by USAID and conducted by the FIAS (Foreign Investment Advisory
Service) attempted to identify all administrative  barriers to investment and proposed concrete
measures for removing them to the Senegalese government. Several recommendations touched on
trade facilitation and, in this respect, the Trade Point and GAINDE were cited as initiatives to be
encouraged. The private staff of the Prime Minister of the former government were responsible forimplementing the FIAS recommendations.  At present,  it is the National Agency for the Promotion of
Investment and Large-Scale Works (APIX) which is dedicated to swiftly implementing the FIAS
recommendations, a task which enjoys full government backing.
Other less prominent, but equally efficient initiatives strive on a daily basis to create a
framework favourable to trade development.
TRACK RECORD
Senegal's various trade facilitation endeavours have met with mitigated results, largely owing
to the context in which they were implemented. The following four elements, which are well nighimpossible to achieve simultaneously, must all be present if a facilitation policy is to be successfully
implemented:
- Genuine, deep-rooted political will;
- the wholehearted support of all of the parties involved;
- a clear vision, good strategy and sound project management;- availability of all necessary resources.
D. 
SUCCESS STORIES
Directorate-General of Customs
Implementation of the GAINDE system has enab led the DGC to slash declaration-processing
times (nowadays a normal declaration can be processed in around two hours). It has also allowed
declarants to follow the progress of their files fr om a distance. The heads of Customs offices now have
the possibility of issuing authorizations and monito ring their status. To judge to what extent the
GAINDE system has revolutionized Customs, one need only observe what happens on a day when the
system is down - tariff revenues plummet. With the GAINDE system, Customs has managed to
introduce computerization not only within  the service, but also to its users.
Furthermore, GAINDE makes all of Senegal's trade balance statistics available to the authorities
within an acceptable time-frame. The DGC therefore has at its fingertips all the information it requires
to both anticipate operations and follow them up more efficiently.
Over and above its achievements with the GAINDE  system, Customs has managed to transform
its relations with users. The role of a repressive Customs is gradually giving way to that of a service
which works in conjunction with firms. Much remain s to be done in this respect, but it should beG/C/W/297
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acknowledged that Customs does involve its users in almost all the facilitation initiatives it
undertakes. Problems are brought to light, and solutions sought and found, by working together.  Such
ongoing dialogue means that localized solutions can be found to simplify certain customs operations,
which is proving a significant contribution to trade facilitation.
Trade Point Senegal
Trade Point Senegal has managed to organize the first positive instance of a multipolar
partnership between the various foreign trade operators and agents.  The ORBUS project was in fact
set up in partnership with all parties, regardless of the extent of their role. ORBUS 2000 has therefore
proved an opportunity for most public authorities (Plant Health Directorate, Directorate of Animal
Husbandry, Directorate of Oceanography and Sea Fisheries, Pharmacy Directorate, Currency andCredit Directorate) to make their computerization needs known and receive the corresponding
equipment. The Trade Point has included the equipping of all public authorities in its investment
programme to allow them to be part of the network.
The combined impact of all of these efforts will, however, only be apparent once the
ORBUS 2000 system becomes operational, i.e.  July to December 2001.
The Senegalese Government
The Government’s decision to make good governance its key concern represented a major
step forward.  Transparency requires the introduction of systems which reduce the human factor in
decision-making processes.  As far as political will is concerned, the Government approves and backs
all facilitation initiatives. Thus, 80 per cent of Trade Point Senegal’s set-up budget comes from public
sources, 10 per cent from the domestic private sector and 10 per cent from the country’s development
partners (the International Development Research Centre – IDRC, USAID and the Francophone Fundfor Information Highways).
E. 
SETBACKS
Directorate-General of Customs
Whereas it is clear that the GAINDE system has made a significant contribution to DGC
efficiency as far as declaration processing is concerned, it is also true that its instability often takes aheavy toll. When GAINDE is down, customs clearance operations are brought to a complete
standstill; staff are no longer proficient in manual procedures and these reveal many shortcomings
which leaves the door wide open to fraud. Wh enever the GAINDE system collapses, daily tariff
revenues nosedive between 60 to 90 per cent and the catch-up effect in no way compensates for the
tax revenue foregone.
GAINDE downtime can also have extremely detrimental economic repercussions for users, as
their goods remain much longer in the port area while charges escalate.
Dialogue between the DGC and users is at times hampered by a lack of mutual trust. Customs
remains vigilant and shies away from simplification measures which pave the way for a resurgence of
fraud.
DGC/user dialogue could therefore definitely be improved by establishing deterrents dissuading
economic operators from indulging in fraudulent practices.
Trade Point SenegalG/C/W/297
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The development of ORBUS 2000 has come up against two main constraints:
- The difficulty in mobilizing budget resources: the TPS budget for setting up the
network was mobilized gradually with a complete lack of foresight, which
contributed to the delay in setting up the project and pushed up implementation costs.
- Opposition from certain quarters:  alt hough ORBUS 2000 has received wholehearted
support "on the record", entities from both the public and private sectors have
vigorously resisted it behind the scenes. Such active hostility has frequently led
public authorities and some development partners to postpone or withdraw planned
support.
These constraints persist even though the project now enjoys the full support of the DGC.
The Senegalese Government
The shift of political power in Senegal in March 2000 and change of government structure
which ensued more or less resulted in a freeze in  trade facilitation processes. The new authorities
require an adjustment period before such initiatives can be revived.
SCOPE OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Technical assistance is, in principle, an essential requirement when a developing country such
as Senegal embarks upon reforms to improve its trade environment. Technical assistance paves the
way for experience sharing and capacity building, two factors which prove great time savers and
ensure that change is well managed.
Nowadays, a number of successful trade facilitation models exist world-wide and can be
tailored to fit other regions. In Senegal, the scope of technical assistance in the trade facilitation
initiatives which have been implemented is still limited.  The DGC has, to a large extent, drawn its
inspiration from World Customs Organization (WCO) recommendations in relation to the revised
Kyoto Convention, while the Trade Point has taken the initial UNCTAD definition of the role of
Trade Points as its starting point.
World Bank, UNIDO and other bilateral and multilateral donor programmes often incorporate
trade facilitation, but their approaches do not fully meet the specific expectations of both countries
and players at a number of levels:
F. PROGRAMME DEFINITION
Organization of programmes at donor level is frequently based on the conclusions of experts
who all too often overlook local dynamics.  Such experts commonly and as a matter of course restrict
their research to high government and private-sector authorities and professionals of the sector in
question.  The latter, who not infrequently have a sh ort-sighted view of the aims and constraints of the
programme to be implemented, fail to truly grasp the underlying concerns.  Moreover, the choice of
players targeted for consultation at times excludes key entities for subjective reasons.
Moreover, the experts in charge of the consultation process often lack the expertise to grasp the
real problems. Local specialists in the trade are generally much better able to define pertinent
facilitation programmes.G/C/W/297
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It is therefore crucial for programmes to be focussed on the problems highlighted by the players
and for the latter to play a major part in implementation. Players are frequently somewhat reticent
when they are under the impression that technical assistance programmes are drawn up by outsiders
without any local input and that they merely have to adapt to them. Each country runs into its own
problems, which it often knows how to solve. It  can therefore be frustrating when the imposed
solutions differ from those which it advocates.
The best way to go about implementing a domestic facilitation strategy is undeniably by way of
a first-hand study of experiences which have proved successful in similar circumstances. Now, almost
all donor programmes are extremely reluctant to adopt such an approach.  They prefer to send in their
own experts to do the exploratory work, rather than the people who actually face the problems in
question.
G. STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
The shortcomings which emerge during the definition of a programme persist when it is
implemented.  The recipient's frame of mind is often more conducive to an attitude of not wishing to
fail rather than of actively wanting to succeed. Such an attitude finds expression in minimalistbehaviour and the desire merely to achieve results in keeping with the objectives set by the donor.
This is particularly telling as far as training programmes are concerned, for which it seems far more
important to be able to state "x people have been trained" than "we have acquired these skills which
have enabled us to reach those objectives".  Both recipients and donors are equally predisposed to this
mentality.
Ownership is a core factor in the ultimate success of technical assistance programmes and only
determination and commitment on the part of the recipient will ensure that a programme is successful
and ongoing.
Another constraint when implementing programmes is the shortfall in resources and/or
difficulty in mobilizing them. A programme with no funding is doomed to remain wishful thinking.
When the fund-raising schedule is not respected, the risk of failure multiplies. Donors often require
counterpart resources from recipients of multilateral technical assistance programmes.  This is a sound
approach, but it often causes problems given that it is common knowledge that developing countries
have enormous difficulties in mobilizing resources under the national budget.
Donors are advised to get together to carry out integrated programmes for which full funding is
available and for which the recipients' only obligation is to achieve convincing and viable results.
This can be done if there is a high degree of ownership of programmes by the recipients.
Another condition for technical assistance programmes to be successful and ongoing is capacity
building for the players. Facilitation programmes imply a new type of conduct which must, of
necessity, be motivated. The people directly involved are the vehicles of all reform. They must
understand and subscribe to facilitation objectives and training is a crucial tool in this respect. The
best way of making participants understand what is at issue in a facilitation initiative, and to motivate
them to support it, is for them to take part in an  immersion course in an environment where a similar
project has been set up.
Donors should lay increasing emphasis on the imme rsion approach to training as it affords the
advantage of combining dissociation from the local environment, practical training and capitalisation
on the experience of others. The challenge for the recipients lies in making a judicious choice of thepeople to benefit from such training.G/C/W/297
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Other important but frequently overlooked aspects are communication and economic models.
For a facilitation initiative based on the use of electronic means to prove viable, it must generate
resources capable of guaranteeing system maintenance and development. Communication, both
internal and external, is crucial insofar as it reduces both the adjustment period and the risk of
rejection.  Technical assistance should be more active in relation to both these aspects, with qualifiedexperts being put at the disposal of the recipient countries and the transfer of successful experiences to
other countries encouraged.
H. 
STRATEGY ASSESSMENT
Programme assessment results often remain unused due to a lack of available resources for
implementing recommendations. Furthermore, when players are not involved in the assessment
process, they feel that the recommendations do not concern them and prefer to rely on their owncommon sense and pragmatism.
Assessment ought to be a participatory process and only precise and feasible recommendations
should be accepted.  The role of the donor's experts should be confined to helping to record the points
of view put forward and structure the recommendations in a coherent and realistic action plan.
The donor should undertake to support the post-assessment phase with the same degree of
commitment by mobilizing, insofar as is possib le, the necessary resources for implementing the
recommendations.
WHAT KIND OF FACILITATION IS BEING TARGETED?
I. 
FACILITATION ISSUES
Liberalization and deregulation will inevitably lead to a fully globalized economy. Countries
and economic regions which implement facilitation policies will be in a position to take advantage of
this situation whilst those which lag behind run the risk of being marginalized.
Trade facilitation should translate into simple, harmonized (world-wide) and computerized
formalities.
Organizations such as the WCO and WTO should implement a harmonized framework of
customs formalities, while donors such as the World Bank and European Union should mobilize
resources to implement assistance programmes geared towards setting up computerized formalityprocessing systems.
Simplification and automation of procedures appear  to be factors of competitiveness insofar as,
in addition to expediting operation processing, they ensure transparency and thus promote investment.
For a country like Senegal, facilitation is an essential requirement for positioning within the
WAEMU.  Bringing Dakar up to trade efficiency standards allows Senegal to lay claim to a larger
share of the foreign direct investment earmarked for the region.
J. 
EXPECTATIONS OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Developing countries such as Senegal require such assistance to be able to keep in step with the
forward march of globalization.
First, public decision-makers have to be primed so that they are capable of representing Senegal
properly at international meetings and are in a position to turn them to its advantage.  The same is alsoG/C/W/297
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true for the private sector. The Senegalese private sector is considered a fully-committed partner in all
reforms. The problem is that its representatives are not always equal to the situation as far as issues
related to the new economy and certain particularly specialized fields are concerned.
Foreign-trade operators require assistance in terms of training.  Training is a means of acquiring
both knowledge and expertise, but it is above all a psychological pretext for creating conditions
conducive to adherence to change.  An agent who rece ives practical training in an environment where
he or she comes face to face with the reality of facilitation is bound to be well-disposed (both
mentally and intellectually) to subscribe to change.  The approach of immersion training, i.e., within a
real context, should therefore be encouraged.
Last but not least, technical assistance should involve acquiring skills in defining economic
models. Setting up a facilitation system is a difficult task, but maintaining it requires financial
resources, in particular when information technology is brought into play. Designers of facilitation
measures should receive instruction in how to develop economic models conducive to generating
resources which ensure that the system endures.
COORDINATION OF DONORS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
K. AT REGIONAL LEVEL
Trade facilitation measures only really carry weight when several countries which, between
them, boast a substantial trade volume devote themselves with the same degree of resolution to
ensuring that such measures are implemented. Donors should therefore, insofar as is possible, adopt aregional approach.
Donors' sector priorities often vary from one country to the next.  Moreover, support is rarely
given to the specific needs evoked by the countries themselves since they do not correspond to
programme requisites. Donors often impose their ow n points of view, approaches and experts, a
situation which is becoming increasingly less tenable.
Sound coordination at regional level requires, on the one hand, donors to organize joint
programmes (several donors per programme) and, on the other, recipients to hold a series of
consultations so that they are in a position to state their exact requirements. If they possess the
necessary resources, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) could play the role of coordinator for the West Africaregion.
L. 
AT NATIONAL LEVEL
Information on donor programmes is often not widely disseminated and players do not fully
benefit from it. Donors should avoid making high-level private and public sector bodies the onlyconveyors of information on their programmes.  The creation of local NGOs with the sole mandate of
disseminating the contents of donor programmes on all fronts should be encouraged. Public
authorities and the private sector both at time s withhold information fo r private reasons. Donors
should therefore look beyond these areas to make sure that information really is conveyed wherever
necessary.
On another matter, donor programmes should be able to collaborate with existing initiatives.
Many interesting measures are initiated locally. Donors should be able to support these initiatives
even if they did not originally develop them. Programmes should therefore be flexible and adaptable.G/C/W/297
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Donors should always attempt to coordinate thei r efforts so as to arrange for support for the
post-assessment phase.  A donor can become involved in the post-assessment phase of an initiative of
which it was not the original backer.G/C/W/297
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General Discussion following Session 3
Canada
First I would like to thank the panel for th eir candour, for sharing not only the positive
experiences but also their negative experiences, because it is knowing both sides of the coin that is
important for us. I would like to thank them for showing us some of the obstacles we are going to
have to deal with if we are to move forward on trade facilitation. I found all the sessions very valuable
but this one particularly valuable because of the honesty. I have one of those awkward questions that
is probably impossible to answer but I would ask eac h of the panellists, based on their own experience
and what they have heard from others, what they would identify as the single biggest challenge they
have faced and what they would also see as the most important next step in terms of trying toaccomplish what they are trying to accomplish in trade facilitation in each one of their countries. I
admit this is one of those impossible questions but I would be interested in just a quick reaction by
each panellist.
Chile
In keeping with what the delegate of Canada has said, I would like to say that the papers we
have heard on the realities of each and every country that has been covered and the involvement of
different aspects of trade facilitation and economic aspects thereof, I would like to take up Sandy's
question and make it a little more difficult. How do the different speakers see the predictability andstability of the situation for the future? I think one of the speakers referred to a fear or an
apprehension about keeping trade facilitation measures afloat once they begin, and so I am asking
about the future – how do you see the future in terms of stability?
United States
I would like to echo the sentiments of Canada and Chile, appreciating the papers that were
presented yesterday and this morning. I might add one more question to those being considered
already, and that is I noticed that several of the participants' countries still use PSI regimes and I was
wondering what kind of nature this involvement has – are these arrangements temporary during this
transition period while pursuing reforms or have you had problems with PSI regimes impeding
progress as you go forward? Maybe you can also  incorporate this topic into your answers.
European Communities
Like others I would like to thank all of th e speakers for some extremely interesting and
thought-provoking presentations, both yesterday and this morning. We have certainly learnt a greatdeal from those presentations. I have two questi ons to which I would welcome answers from any or
all of the panellists. First of all, could the differen t panellists identify what they consider are going to
be their principal needs in the short to medium-term in terms of future technical assistance for their
national programmes? I ask that because at the EC level we are currently starting to engage in a large
number of new technical assistance programmes with a large number of developing countries,including most of those on the panel, and we would like to have an identification of the priorities of
these countries in terms of assistance in this area in the next 1-4 years.
Secondly, and this is a question perhaps for the speaker from Senegal, he made the extremely
interesting observation that often individual donors like to target particular areas or programmeswhich interest them particularly, but often that is not really compatible with the need to have a much
more integrated approach to technical assistance covering a large number of areas. I would ask the
Senegalese speaker which are the areas of technical assistance in trade facilitation where you areG/C/W/297
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finding it particularly difficult to attract donors and programme sponsors? I think that would be
interesting for all of us to know which are the areas where there is a need for assistance and where it is
less or rarely forthcoming.
Mr. Diagne, Ministry of Commerce, Senegal
On the specific question about the areas of assistance where we come up against problems,
this happens at two different levels. First, we have problems where we initiate solutions without the
involvement of the supplier of funds, because we have sufficient time to think about things and we
have got sufficient human resources for that purpose.  But with that we need to get the donor involved
for the implementation and this is where we have difficulties because most donors have very vertical
approaches; if they are not involved in the beginnin g, from the word go, it is not possible afterwards,
so that is one of the first problems we have.
Secondly, on facilitation, the internal need for an exchange of experience is a very real one.
We have received about 30 donor missions which have come in connection with specific problems,
various missions from the World Bank through de partments that do not even know missions are
coming from other organizations, and they come and raise problems they have to solve and we want
to put to them the problems we want to solve and this causes a major problem. Things do not work
out, because they have their programmes, they have their priorities, we have our needs and the two do
not correspond. Personally I emphasise a lot the exchange of experience. I think the best way of
learning to establish this kind of information system is to go to the Philippines, see what their expertsare doing, to see how they are approaching a particular problem, to go to Singapore, to go to all those
countries where there is practical experience of th ese things. And with this approach as well, the
donors often do not follow. Because sometimes they have the impression that they are financing a
series of trips by experts from one country to the next, without any real tangible result, and this is a
problem we have to face.  We would like our experts to go to countries where interesting experienceshave been conducted, rather than an expert who has been recruited by the donor country coming to
tell us what is happening elsewhere. Because th e impression of going somewhere ourselves is much
more intense compared with what we would learn from an expert coming to us. So this is the sort of
difficulty we are coming up against on this particular issue.
With regard to the question from the U.S. about preshipment inspection, in Senegal the
programme is suspended for the time being but this is to make a call for tenders to be able to re-implement this, so that while there is no preshipment inspection made at present, in principle, once we
have done what we are about to do, then a new system can be set up.
As concerns the question of what needs to be done to improve and maintain facilitation today,
I think there are two possible approaches with the globalization process with which we are familiar,especially for countries like ourselves at the bottom rung of the ladder. Either you accompany what is
going on with resolution or you run the risk of being marginalized for good. In Senegal we have
decided to go along with the process because everything I say here already started in 1995 and
Senegal has strongly embarked in that direction. We have to make facilitation possible and if we are
to do this we have to master the new information technologies.
As regards the international standards and this process, we think that with the WTO and the
WCO this thinking will be refined and gain speed because we have to have a harmonized framework,
especially for regional trading organizations, especially with Senegal's relationship with the West
African Economic and Monetary Union.  This is a process we have already begun – all countries inthe area will have the same customs duties, the same procedures, the same formalities, and this in a
general way will improve trade facilitation.
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I would like to start with Canada's comment.  In my opinion the biggest challenge that Jordan
may face is maintaining the level of confidence of  the trading community. This problem of trust has
always struck customs.  Then there is also the prob lem of integrity. We have to maintain a high level
of integrity. The next step in my opinion is to keep a balance between the facilitation of trade andcustoms control. We have to find that equilibrium and that can only be done by more cooperation with
the trading community and the private sector. I gue ss this also answers the question coming form the
representative of Chile. For stability to occur I think we have to strengthen cooperation with the
private sector, between customs and the private sector.
As for the U.S. question, Jordan does not apply PSI regimes; it had once thought of it but then
preferred to strengthen its structure so that it does not go to any PSI regime.
The principal needs for Jordan for the immedi ate and long-term future are, first, the
implementation of the WTO Valuation Agreement – we need more help and assistance with that.
Secondly, strengthening post-clearance methods and techniques.  Again, we are looking for a balance
between more trade facilitation and more control. Thirdly, enforcement of a few customs-relatedagreements such as the enforcement of the intellec tual property rights agreement, we need some help
in that.
Mr. Soysal, Turkish Customs
I just want to say something about technical assistance. I think that in our country customs
administrations know the approach to trade facilita tion in these international organizations. But I think
that also other entities such as the Ministry for Agriculture, Ministry for Health, Ministry for
Environment, or national standards institutes, which want import-export facilities need technical
assistance to understand the new approaches in these areas,  because it does not help if you releasegoods in a couple of hours but then have to wait for their laboratory analyses. So I think the important
thing is to invite them to these types of meetings and reflect on our approach.
Mr. Gutiérrez, Bolivian Customs
With respect to the question from Canada, our biggest challenge is to implement the
ASYCUDA system, because with this system we are going to harmonize all the customs proceduresand provide the user with facilitation means like on line translations. So our next step will be to
initiate the implementation of the system. We are going to begin with an export module and after that
transit and import modules.
With respect to the question from Chile, we believe that on the issue of stability and
predictability in connection with facilitation, a key component which must be taken into account in all
this is communication. We have to disseminate these procedures to users.
On the U.S. question – we are going to implement the WTO Valuation Agreement. In this
context preshipment inspection is permitted only in origin, so we are evaluating now if this measure isconvenient or not, taking into account the fiscal revenue loss.
Finally with respect to the EC question, training  is our main concern now because we need to
motivate personnel and it is necessary to give them all the knowledge related to the job.
Mr. Jereos, Philippines Customs
The answer to Canada's concern and Chile's as well – we believe in the Philippines that the
biggest challenge is to be able to computerise all our core processes, whether these are in imports or inG/C/W/297
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exports, the end result being that when you have computerization of your processes you limit the
opportunities for graft because there is no interfacing between customs and the stakeholders, the
importers and the exporters. In fact, the raising of the level of integrity of customs would result in the
acceptance by the trading community and by the stakeholders of what customs is doing and therefore
acceptance of any processes introduced by customs will be much easier for the stakeholders.
In the longer term,  it is often said that when there are delays in trade facilitation, customs
appears to be always the culprit, but the ladies and gentlemen of this workshop must consider the fact
that the release of cargo from point of entry until the time it leaves the customs zone is not only the
concern of customs. There are other players involved. We have shipping lines or airlines, we have the
port authorities, we have the importers or exporters themselves, we have the banks, we have the local
authorities, like, for example, in our country, at certain hours trucks can not go through the mainstreets because of the traffic situation. So an integrated approach in facilitation might be a challenge in
the long-term.
In answer to the concern the  European Union has with regard to the short, medium and long-
term possibilities, we feel that with customs best practices in mind, the review of the operatingsystems, or audit, of these systems independently might be able to bring the best out of what we
already have, whilst it would offer the opportunity fo r correction or improvement of the system in the
medium-term. In the long-term the improvements and updates with customs best practices in mind, in
terms of equipment  which is available on the market, might be a matter of consideration for the
donors. It is always with the fast change in technology now, what you had two years ago might
already become obsolete now, so if we have to impr ove or at least maintain the pace of facilitation,
the equipment must be at the cutting edge of technology.
On the concern of the United States on PSI, I am happy to report that the Philippines did away
with PSI as of March 2000, and we have no desire to go back to it. We were able to prove thatcustoms was able to deliver the collection of duties and taxes because when PSI got out of customs
we were able to meet out target consistently for the whole year of 2000.
         Thank you.G/C/W/297
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SESSION 4:  Roles for Private Sector Participation in Technical Assistance and Capacity
Building
4.1 Ambassador Ronald Saborío Soto, (Costa Rica)
Costa Rica's position on trade facilitation
Before sharing a few ideas with you on the role of the private sector in capacity building and
technical assistance on trade facilitation, I should like to refer to the Costa Rican Government's
position on the subject in recent years.
While there has been a gradual elimination of traditional barriers to trade, obstacles of a
different order remain. Some of these have become more daunting, as they continue to hamper trade
and make it more costly. New obstacles have emerged as well, plaguing exporters and importers in
the conduct of their day-to-day business. To quote only a few examples, excessive and unclear
requirements have been set for the submission of import and export documents, which vary from one
country to another;  there are also the obsolete, slow and inadequate procedures – tainted, at times, bycorruption – used by customs services and other trade-related bodies to handle matters relating to
transport, transit and insurance and financial requirements for the cross-border movement of goods.
There are so many obstacles to trade that it is easy to understand why so many private-sector
commercial operators have been actively supporting the WTO's trade facilitation efforts, in which theUnited Nations, the World Customs Organization, the International Chamber of Commerce and the
International Air Transport Association (IATA) have also taken part. Measures to simplify
international trade procedures and formalities have generally been perceived as beneficial to the trade
community as a whole.
Since the early 1990s, the Government of Costa Rica has recognized the benefits to both the
public and the private sector of implementing trade facilitation measures and the fact that this actively
contributes to general welfare, by increasing the volume of international trade. It is therefore intent on
continually improving its measures, laws, regulations, administrative provisions and procedures in
order to promote increasingly simple, free-flowing, transparent and predictable trade.
Costa Rica has identified trade facilitation as a key element of its development policy,
convinced as it is of the direct and indispensable correlation between open market economies and
national trade facilitation policies. The gradual facilitation of trade has undoubtedly proved a vital
factor in opening up markets.
To ensure that a market can function in a truly open and effective manner, however, it is
necessary to have a clear set of principles and obligations in order to facilitate trade and enable all
enterprises to engage safely and efficiently in trade activity.
For a small economy like that of Costa Rica, which aspires to become open and whose
economic growth is based on increasing foreign trade and attracting foreign direct investment, it isvitally important to enhance business competitiveness, through increasingly simple and expeditious
import and export procedures that will help reduce costs and delays in ports and airports and at border
posts. We therefore agree that every country's public and private sectors must be capable of
developing new forms of communi cation and new business strategies that include the crucial
component of trade facilitation. Thus, we believe that trade facilitation strategies must form part ofany national policy of liberalization and overall development.G/C/W/297
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For all the above reasons, Costa Rica attaches great importance to the issue of trade
facilitation and to its incorporation in the framework of multilateral and regional negotiations and its
negotiations on bilateral free-trade agreements. The streamlining and harmonization of trade
procedures are undoubtedly instrumental in fosterin g trade facilitation between countries, at every
level of the process of liberalization of trade in goods and services.
Costa Rica welcomes and firmly supports the efforts made in this area by non-governmental
organizations and the work done in the context of the multilateral trading system, which we are
convinced will lead to the establishment of discip lines. It likewise supports the process of business
facilitation under way in the framework of the Free-Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Only three weeks ago, the Government of Costa Rica signed a free-trade agreement with
Canada, in which, for the first time in its trade history, Costa Rica and a major trade partner from a
developed country decided on a regulatory framework with a series of specific provisions on trade
facilitation. The main object of the chapter on trade facilitation is to eliminate trade barriers and
promote a freer and smoother exchange of goods , services, investments and business persons.
We are convinced that the advantages of trade facilitation for small and medium-sized
enterprises, in reducing the costs and delays involved in exporting and importing goods or in
simplifying formalities and procedures for such operations, can prove highly beneficial to export and
import sectors in developing countries.
Role of the private sector in capacity building and technical assistance
Trade facilitation must be viewed by the different players engaged in trade as a necessary
adjunct to trade liberalization. It is becoming increasingly urgent to provide the trade and business
community with a framework of related principles an d obligations that will guarantee facilitation. It is
for governments to develop the necessary processes, however, in close cooperation and coordination
with the private sector.
Governments, and in particular those of developing countries, have traditionally lacked the
budgetary resources required to implement programmes aimed at modernizing, reforming and
continually improving import and export processes.  This has led to serious financial constraints and a
shortage of skilled human resources. In the new foreign trade environment, the public and privatesectors can jointly address such problems.
The private sector must become fully involved in the reform processes, by supporting public
bodies with the inputs needed to make sweeping chan ges. There must also be constant feedback to
provide the impetus for continuously ensuring the transformations without which trade facilitationcannot be achieved.
We must not forget that, while the role of governments is to prepare the ground and the
conditions required for enterprises to enjoy more open and safe access to markets, those who make
use of the opportunities offered, conduct trade transactions and have practical experience of theprocess as a whole are ultimately the members of the business community. Governments should
become the agents of change in this sphere, with support from the business sector, insofar as there is
respect for the rules of integrity and the moral st andards governing relations between the public and
the private sector.
In order to effect these far-reaching changes, it is both necessary and urgent to create a
continuous process of capacity building at all levels of public and private organizations.G/C/W/297
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Change demands adjustment and gives rise to reactions of all kinds. As people adjust to new
processes, previous paradigms have to be abandoned, thus generating instability. That is why the
development of human skills must be viewed as one of the core components of any action aiming to
achieve sustainable results. It would be a mistake to focus exclusively on material aspects or questions
of infrastructure, such as the development of cutting-edge information systems or the definition ofhighly detailed procedures, and to consider as a mere afterthought the officials, namely the people
who will ultimately be responsible for implementing the systems and applying the procedures
developed.
Material aspects are still of unquestionable importance, particularly in developing countries,
for without their support the activities and reforms undertaken would be unable to achieve the goal of
trade facilitation.
Technical assistance is another issue of particular interest, especially for developing countries.
Many of them will find it difficult to introduce the leading-edge techniques applied by certain other
countries, unless effective technical assistance mechanisms are put into place to transfer the necessary
know-how. In this connection it is also important is that technical assistance should be based on theadjustment, and not merely the transfer, of experiences or processes.
It should be remembered that there are often extensive variations in the size and level of
development of national economies. Technical assistance must therefore help not only to implement
changes in import and export processes, but also to  adapt such changes to each country's specific
domestic environment.
Infrastructure enhancement must go hand in hand with substantial improvements to these
processes, in particular by developing the skills of the people involved. Technical assistance provided
by international organizations and developed countries must be geared towards these objectives aswell.
Recent experiences in Costa Rica
Costa Rica's opening up to foreign direct investment, and especially to enterprises
manufacturing high-tech products, has provided a tremendous boost to trade facilitation. In addition to
promoting employment and exports, the arrival of major foreign companies has contributed tofostering a new culture of business facilitation, and of trade facilitation in general, in the domestic
private and public sectors.
It is common knowledge that such companies apply extremely high standards in their
operations, including in customs- and foreign trade-related matters, and their requirements in terms ofsafety, speed and transparency have proved decisive factors of change at the domestic level. These
companies have helped the Costa Rican customs system and related public bodies as well as the other
private enterprises concerned to raise their efficiency to unprecedented levels.
Without going into every detail, I should now like to mention some of the most relevant
aspects of the reform processes which I outlined earlier.
Firstly, Costa Rica’s most recent experience has been to develop an extremely modern
customs legislation, which for the first time includes, as one of its objects, the facilitation and
streamlining of foreign trade transactions.  Likewise, this legislation introduces innovative conceptssuch as the electronic transmission of data betwee n firms, intermediaries and the customs authorities,
electronic signature, and the notion of computer crimes.G/C/W/297
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One of the most noteworthy features of this new legislation is that it empowers the customs
authorities to conclude agreements with customs service auxiliaries (which are generally private
firms), other public bodies or private enterprises with a view to implementing projects for the
enhancement of customs services, including the introduction of new customs techniques and the use
of infrastructure and training.
Considering the role devolving on each country's private sector, in terms of capacity building
this shows how a developing country like Costa Rica has taken appropriate legal measures to foster
the integration and active participation of private enterprises in the bid to improve the national
customs system.
Another noteworthy aspect is the capacity of public institutions, and in particular the customs
authorities, to be sufficiently receptive to the n eeds of high-tech companies. In a world where firms
expect trade transactions to be conducted swiftly and at the lowest possible cost, where the aim is to
maintain the lowest possible level of stocks and where product cycles are ever shorter, customs
services must be capable of adjusting to such requirements if they are not to undermine the
competitiveness of enterprises. The answer lies in  the ability to adapt and in the development of a
strategy geared towards continuous change.
Costa Rica has also made great strides in crucial areas such as the use of electronic media for
the transmission of import and export customs declarations. Although it is true that virtual customs
services are not yet a reality in Costa Rica, the decisions taken so far have had a tremendous impacton the way things are done and have helped improve customs procedures.
Transparency being of the essence in the development of the new processes, simple, clear and
documented procedures have been drawn up so that entrepreneurs feel more secure in conducting
trade transactions. The part played by the private sector has been invaluable in this regard.  As I havesaid before, the emphasis should always be on coordination, as procedures imposed do not always
yield the best results.
I should also like to highlight another development which I think might be of interest to this
forum. As a result of this new relationship and of the changes that have occurred, some private
enterprises - in particular those under special regimes, such as firms in free zones and companies
benefiting from inward processing arrangements - have been granted the legal status of " customs
services auxiliaries ". This concept, which is very new to Costa Rica, places private companies in a
most interesting situation, since they are now expected, in the course of their activities, to help the
State fulfil its customs functions. This has undoubtedly proved a creative means of involving the
private sector more directly in customs-related operations on behalf of the National Customs Service.
Another equally important development is the establishment of a simplified customs clearance
procedure, which provides for the inspection of goods in the transport units directly on company
premises.
It should be recalled that in the case of high-value goods, which require top-level security and
have low tax incidences with little likelihood of fraud, Costa Rica's customs policy has evolvedtowards flexibility, simplification and the immediate release of goods subject to import and/or export
clearance.  Indeed, today it is no longer a matter of exercising greater control but of controlling what
is strictly necessary and in an intelligent manner.
Thank you very much.G/C/W/297
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4.2 Mr. Julian Oliver, Director General, IECC
I am delighted to be here and will try to give  you a commercial view of trade facilitation and
capacity building.
I am speaking with two heads, because I work with both the International Express Carriers
Conference and I am also an active participant in the ICC Customs Trade and Investment
Commissions.
Let me first comment a little on the end of session 3 and pick up some of the comments that
were made then. I would start by entirely concurring  with the Canadian delegate, that indeed this has
been an interesting and very useful learning proces s, certainly for me, and I imagine for a lot of the
rest. I have the impression sometimes that countries invited to speak from the platform are the ones
who are the good guys, and there is a sort of preaching to the converted, but nevertheless, I thought
the presentations were impressive in terms of honesty, integrity, and some of the numbers that were
coming up, and I very much appreciate that. I thought in terms of the questions that Senegal asked
about donors from the Express Industry – of course, there are no difficult donors – we operate inevery country in the world and in that respect we do not have a travel problem as he described. In
terms of the question that the U.S. asked about PSI, I would comment that as far as we are concerned,
when PSI was invented about 30 years ago, I think it di d have a useful role to play. But today if it is
not updated it can actually be as dangerous as the thing it was invented to repair. And so we see PSI
only useful as a very short term emergency process and I think one of the speakers, I think it wasBolivia, yesterday said that they had in fact appointed 4 PSI agencies, 3 to do the inspection and one
to inspect the inspector. I thought that was novel and a good modern way of doing it. But really, PSI
can be a seductive trap for not doing the reforms, so please only think of PSI as of an emergency
instrument.
In terms of ASYCUDA. I heard a lot about ASYCUDA yesterday, ASYCUDA ++ etc. I am
afraid, ASYCUD, as far as we are concerned is a rather dated concept and, although many of you are
struggling to get there,  I would actually council you to talk to our mutual good friend who is sitting in
the back of the room there, Leonid Lozbenko, Deputy Director of the World Customs Organisation,
because I think he and I agree that there are further improvements that can be made in ASYCUDA. So
don' thin k of ASYCUDA as just a goal "once you are there you have done it".
Now let me go back to my presentation.
 So here is a sort of overview of what I would like to talk about. What is this thing the IECC?
What do we want? And then we will talk about three partnerships that the Express Industry has
involved itself with recently; these are current projects, which are ongoing and I am bringing up todate on those. And then I will talk a little bit about government and industry partnerships, involving
the ICC, the International Chamber of Commerce and finally will end up with a strong
recommendation. And I hope to also make some remarks during the presentation to both delegations
and to the WTO Secretariat about how we believe that trade facilitation can be improved.
So what is this IECC?
There are 4 global integrators: DHL, TNT, UPS, and FedEx who dominate the Express
Industry. They invented this industry some 25  - 30 years ago with the paradigm of door to door
international on-time delivery, and they now account for some 85  per cent of the express deliveryaround the world. There are, in addition, a number of regional associations and national associations. I
am particularly grateful today to recognise Sue Presti who is the Executive Director of ACCA, theG/C/W/297
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North American Air Couriers Conference of America. She has been in this business much longer than
me and she is going to answer all the difficult questions that you ask me.
But we also have a vision. We have a vision of the free movement of documents and goods
around the world. At the very end of his presentation, the Costa Rican Ambassador did actuallymention what I interpreted to be local clearance. He talked about private customs as obsidiaries. Local
clearance is a facility which is part of the WCO provisions in the revised Kyoto Convention whereby
local trusted partners of customs can actually release and clear goods at their own premises without
the customs being present. This exists not only in Costa Rica but also in Ireland and in the United
Kingdom and we hope it will spread world-wide. So there are countries, these three, and I know there
is work going on in Belgium as well, where, in fact, goods and documents can be cleared by private
importers without customs being present. Now obviously that takes a degree of sophistication, adegree of trust and of course the customs can walk in at any time. But I think that is the vision that we
would like to see replicated  much more often around the world.
We have a mission. Our mission is to promote trade facilitation, trade liberalization. All our
Members are really intermediaries for real life customers, who are trying to get their goods to the rightplace on time. In a sense the Express Industry is a sort of paradox in WTO terms because we are
obviously a service industry but we are servicing goods manufacturers. I think today something like
10 per cent of manufactured goods cross border before they are actually sold. I think tomorrow that
percentage will go up dramatically.
So what do the IECC Members want? Well here are four headlines of what we would like to
see:
First of all, we would like to see ratification of the revised Kyoto Convention. This was a
revised customs convention on the simplification of trade procedures. We published a booklet on itand I left a few copies outside. You can get it on our web site and its also on the WCO web site.  This
is the modern way to look at customs facilitation. So we would like to see that ratified. It needs 40 or
41 countries out of the 60 contracting parties as soon as possible.
Second headline: We would like to see easier traffic rights. It used to be air traffic by the
Chicago Convention. This was negotiated in 1944. The convention is for bilateral air traffic rights.
When it was negotiated, the majority of the traffic was indeed passengers. Today, the majority oftraffic is cargo. And over the next 20 years, cargo traffic is likely to grow much faster than passenger
traffic. We need to move goods not from A to B and back again as passenger aircraft generally does, it
goes from country A to country B and returns to country A because most passengers return, but with
cargo we want to be able to go from A to B to C to  D to E to F and then back to A. So in that sense,
we would like to see much more liberalised air cargo traffic rights.
Third headline. We would like to see much more use of the ability to release goods
immediately, and then do the fiscal clearance afterwards by modern audit and electronic means.
And fourthly, to the WTO delegates and Secretariat, we are strong and enthusiastic supporters
of a broad based new world trade Round. We have no ifs or buts on that - we do not exclude anything.
I worked extensively in the Uruguay Round, I know th at not everything was attained in the end and
some things went on beyond Marrakech but I think the best way to start is to build up a big broad
comprehensive round we hope that will take off this year.
A couple of facts and figures about the Express Industry. We operate in over 220 countries
and territories. We employ directly some three quarters of a million people, plus of course another
couple of million indirectly. So we are a major source of good jobs in your country. We own 1200
aircraft. Unlike many of the more famous passenger airlines, we actually own the aircraft rather thanG/C/W/297
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leasing and renting them all; we rent and lease a lot more as well. We make some 1300 – 1400
international flights per day, we had revenues last year of some 55 million dollars and we paid in
duties and taxes almost as much. So for every dollar we collected in sales, we paid about 90 cents in
duties  and taxes. So we are a major contributor to the exchequers of your countries. And finally, just
a statistic which I think is quite remarkable: we clear through customs some 10 million items per day.Not per week, not per year – per day. So, this means that we need trade facilitation, we need efficient
customs if we are to supply our customers needs.
The association is less than 20 years young. We all think of customs as the second oldest
profession. We are a bit of a harlot. We will go to bed with you anytime because we have to deliver
for our customers. It is an industry which has enjo yed double digit growth for the last twenty years
and as far as we can tell looks like having that sort of growth over the next 20 years. There are fewthings that Boeing and Air Bus agree on but they do agree that the business for Air Cargo and Express
Freight in particular are liable, are probable, and forecast, to grow at something like 18 per cent per
annum over the next 15-20 years. That is a fairly healthy situation. In the year 2010 McKinsey
forecast – that is less than a decade away – that 80 per cent of manufactured goods will cross borders
before they are sold. So we can see that there is good support for this. E-commerce is, of course, eventurbo-charging these already substantial growth rates.  And so in a true sense I think it is not hyperbole
to claim that the Express Industry is the enabler of global commerce.
Now let's get to trade facilitation and how we get those ten million items through customs
everyday.  Because the industry is young we are not easily classified, and we do not fall into oneparticular intergovernmental organization. We have negotiations and regulations with both IKEO, the
UPU, the WCO, UNCTAD, UNECE etc. etc.  So it is an industry which, because it is young, has not
yet got a single regulator. We are not quite sure whether we want one, but certainly it means that I
spend a lot of time at meetings like these trying to negotiate better terms and conditions and I am
afraid that, although I am a European and based in Europe and very enthusiastic about most of theexperiments in the European Union,  I must say it is a pity that they still continue to try to classify the
Express Industry into the postal sector, and we object strongly to the European Union's paper in
March I think of this year, which tried to put the Express Industry as a subsector of the postal
industry.  This is a total misunderstanding of the realities of the modern Express Industry today.
I am going to talk about three examples of facilitation. First of all, the Facilitation Audit.
Secondly, a project in Malaysia, and thirdly the Shanghai model port project in China.
The World Bank talked to you yesterday and last year we, together with the World Bank,
published a trade facilitation audit methodology and again I have left copies of this outside on the
table. The World Bank has as its major objective the alleviation of poverty and tries to encourage
least-developed countries into the world trading system, an aim which we fully support. As I saidearlier, 80 per cent of trade will cross borders in future but borders impose barriers so the least-
developed countries in particular, those 49 least-deve loped countries who are only getting, what is it,
one per cent of fund direct-investment for the moment, they are the ones who need the most help. The
World Bank finances many projects. They get many requests from developing countries emerging
markets for help with ports, roads, airports. Thos e are almost always inevitably going to end up as
white elephants unless they are integrated into a modern trade facilitation system and in particular a
modern customs facility. So we have donated this audit methodology to the World Bank and they, last
year, have used it in their global facilitation project in South East Europe and six countries in South
East Europe (some of the poorest in the world surprisingly) Albania, and some of the other remnants
of the former Yugoslavia, and they have used this methodology to analyse trade facilitation in thatregion.
One of the statistics that came out of that which is quite dramatic was the imports and exports
to and from Romania with Italy, between Romania and Italy. Romania has more exports to Italy thanG/C/W/297
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it has to Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States put together. So why is this,
how is it, what does it lead up to or what is the trade between Italy and Romania? I am a dedicated
follower of fashion and I like to buy Italian shoes. What I had not realized is that when I buy Italian
shoes, they have crossed the Italian/Romanian border sometimes five and six times, so the Romanian
customs are doing something right because the people who sell high-priced, high-fashion shoes arenot the sort of people who are going to wait for delays, are not going to pay money for it, are not
going to send that leather back and forwards across the Adriatic five and six times unless they are
assured of efficient transport and customs facilitation.
Moving from South East Europe to South East Asia. We have already heard a tribute paid to
Singapore by the delegate from Senegal. I would like to pay a further tribute to Singapore. I was there
earlier this year. Singapore have a customs service standard which promises that they will clearpassenger sea/air freight within eight to fourteen minutes, including queuing time, for 95 per cent of
cases, and we concur that that is accurate and true, and that for express goods going in and out of
Singapore we really have no problems whatsoever. In that sense they have set a sort of gold standard
for the rapid clearance of goods. ASEAN of course consists of more than just Singapore. It consists of
ten countries, two or three of which are the poorest in the world, so it is not a very homogeneousregion, it is a very heterogeneous region and in 1997 there was a customs agreement signed between
the ten. This is a real partnership between the countries and the industry and we have established a
mission and a statement which includes an ambition to have world fast standards within the region by
the year 2020. Now if Singapore is already at this  world fast standard you may well ask why does it
take 19 years to being the rest up? Well Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, all of which I visited,are very poor countries with very weak infrastructure and it may well indeed take them 15 or 20 years
to catch up.
At the moment Malaysia has volunteered as the pilot. Malaysia is a middle-income
developing country and every year all ten director-g enerals from the countries attend an annual review
and we have established these five world best practices: that shipment should be classified by risk
rather than size; that intervention should be by ex ception rather than by rule; that pre-flight release
and clearance should be given wherever possible; that there should be separation of the physical
release from the fiscal clearance; and that the shif t from the traditional transactional assessment to a
consolidated risk assessment process should proceed. To date, I have visited Malaysian customs in
February or March of this year and they told me that so far their revenues are up and their fraud is
down, so this looks like a win-win situation, not only for Malaysia but also for ourselves, the ExpressIndustry, and we are delighted to be part of that experiment.
It is not so far from ASEAN to APEC and indeed several of the ASEAN members are
members of APEC. But it is a world of difference from Malaysia to mainland China. The Shanghai
Model Port Project was selected three or four years ago because this August 2001 the APEC leadershave a conference in Shanghai. So in 1999 about ten international compan ies, including the four
global express companies, together with GM, Ford, Microsoft, Proctor and Gamble, Applied
Materials, Mattel, Oracle, GE and Hewlett Packard, joined into a consortium joint venture between
U.S. Customs, Chinese Customs and ourselves to establish a modern, fully-fledged, international,
state of the art, facility in Shanghai by 2003. We are applying the APEC Sub-Committee CustomsProcedures and Collective Action Plan and we have got a whole range of things we want to get done
there, establishing an express handling centre. There is a lot of advanced training going on, and the IT
companies are putting in a lot of both hardware, software and in-kind support. Funding continues to
be the challenge, as you can imagine for a project of this size. Although the hardware costs seem to go
down every day, the software costs go up in proportion. So the potential is to enable Shanghai to opena world-class facility airport and seaport, and the real attraction for us is the potential to replicate this
across the rest of China. I must say that for the Express Industry, one of our biggest challenges is
operating in countries like China, Russia, Brazil, sometimes other physically big countries, but ones
with diffuse and devolved customs administrations where the capital or the national customs and tradeG/C/W/297
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facilitation measures are not always replicated and copied and identical or consistent across the
territory and, as you can imagine, flying in, as we do every night, into China, even they have bad
weather from time to time, and if the aircraft is diverted from Shanghai to, say, Beijing, which is not
very far, we can be into a totally different set of regulations, so for us one of the incentives of working
with mainland China has been not only helping to improve and put into place a model port project inShanghai, but also getting an international consistency across China.
Let me talk a moment about ICC, that is the World Business Organization. There are
representative chapters in every country around the world, more or less, and they have a long history
of standards, codes and rules, strong relationships with governments and they work extensively on a
whole range of issues. They have been particularly helpful in terms of the revision of the Kyoto
Convention and again I have put out on the table their international principles for customs and whichwere used very extensively in the revision to the Kyoto Convention. They have also worked
substantially on the G7 data certification set, and are a great ally in terms of supporting trade
liberalization. One particular example of ICC's work is in the business anti-smuggling coalition, so-
called BASC. This was a U.S. customs industry voluntary initiative, initiated I think on the private
sector side by Mattel, the manufacturers of Barby Dolls, who as I said already about manufacturedgoods, are putting these toys together in different countries, and one of their nightmares, of course, is
that one day someone will open a Barby Doll and find it stuffed full of heroine or cocaine or
something, so they have a very obvious and bottom-line reason for getting into this, but they have
been joined now by more than a dozen internati onal companies, including the software companies
who are concerned more about intellectual property protection, and this is a project which now haschapters up and down the American continent and is an excellent initiative.
Finally, in conclusion, I would like to say that we feel there has been tremendous progress
made over the last ten to fifteen years in the modernisation of customs, and pay particular tribute to
the work of the World Customs Organization. There is barely a week which goes by in which the
international Express Industry is not involved in some working party or committee in those revisions.
However, the World Customs Organization, whilst it is the world centre of customs expertise, it does
lack enforcement powers and despite their best efforts, there still are many national customs which
are, let's be frank, corrupt and inefficient, and while we are undiminished in our support for the
revised Kyoto – it has trade facilitation as an obligatory annex in it – we do believe that it would and
could be beneficial to have the Kyoto Convention, once it is ratified, bound into the next WTO round.
Just as during the Uruguay Round, WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization developedsubstantial protection for intellectual property which was then introduced as TRIPs in the Uruguay
Round, and it did not take away from WIPO's responsibilities for intellectual property. I do not
propose that anything be taken away from the WCO' s technical competencies, but we do feel strongly
that it would be something to be wish ed for, to have stronger enforcement.
Thank you.G/C/W/297
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4.3  Mr. Michael J. Moffett, General Manager, Gateway Services Limited (GSL)
This is the general introduction, first of all, to GSL. The approach we have is one of
partnership.  I would like to say a word about the objectives we have, the investment involved in this
and our approach and process, particularly look ing at the Computerized Risk Management System
CRMS, x-ray scanning technology. We believe this is the way forward in the future. I would also like
to look at capacity building before coming to results and concluding remarks.
What is GSL? Gateway Services Ltd. It is a Ghanaian registered, joint-venture company. It is
established under the Gateway Trade and Investment Gateway Project and the idea of this is to
establish Ghana as a Gateway to West Africa, hence the name "Gateway". GSL acts under or through
the Ministry of Trade and Industry, known as MOTI. The general objective is to establish in Ghana anenvironment which will facilitate trade and investment in Ghana and also attract trade through Ghana
going to neighbouring countries which are landlocked. How do we do this. By modernizing our
services and infrastructure and focusing on front-lin e agencies and institutions to make them trade
facilitators.
The partnership. This concept of partnership intrigues a lot of people. For example, we had a
visit from South African senior officials and they could not get over the fact that this was a
partnership between a private company, a foreign company, and a local government and its agencies.
70 per cent is owned by Cotecna Inspection S.A of Geneva, right here, 10 per cent is Customs Excise
and Preventative Services known as CEPS which is basically customs, 7 per cent is a port authority,Ghana Ports and Harbour authority, and 13 per cent private investors bringing it up to your 100. 210
people are employed.
What are the objectives? Established in November 1999 after full open comparative tender to
all inspection companies and became effective on 1 April 2000 utilizing ACV. The Agreementbetween GSL and the government of Ghana, a contractual agreement acting through the Trade
Ministry as I have said and the objective is to move away from PSI.
We are in the year 2001, a new millennium, where there are available to us tools, very
complicated and intellectually challenging tools su ch as modern x-ray, highly sophisticated risk-
management tools which can be used to go forwar d, and that is what GSL is doing. We decided to
implement a new destination inspection scheme, not a preshipment inspection scheme and that thecore is trade facilitation. That is what this confer ence is all about.  Our motto or slogan "Always
working" with my friend and colleague, distinguished Mrs. Comfort Boohene-Osafo, we are working
together to facilitate trade, to speed up trade while not losing revenue.
What was the investment. The investment was  private. We have had lots of investment from
World Bank and IMF. This is a private investment. Share capital is $ 3.8 million, loan capital of $ 6
million, a total investment of $ 10 million. Now the capital was contributed by COTECNA. The
Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority contributed their equity in the form of land where we have our x-
ray scanner and CEPS customs have contributed their equity in the form of know-how and expertise,
officers working in GSL with 26 officers working in GSL, experts in valuation, in HS coding and
particularly working on the x-ray scanner where we have a 50-50 sharing between customs and
ourselves.
GSL represents a long-term commitment to the goal towards helping to modernize trade
management in Ghana. Now you do not buy a Jumbo Jet expecting to get your money back next day.In the same way you do not buy an x-ray scanner and expect to get your money back next day. This is
a long-term commitment. But it is one thing just to talk of transaction value and to cut down the
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What is the model? This concept which we have generated – we started on the 1 April, has
generated an extraordinary amount of interest. We have had visitors from the UK customs who have
stayed with us for two weeks, and the head the anti-smuggling, went back and ordered four mobile
scanners – this is just what we want for smuggling. South Africa sent a team. They were fascinated bythe Joint Venture concept integrating both priv ate and government and the idea of destination
inspection and x-ray. The Tanzanians sent a high-powered delegation as well, equally interested, and
just recently we have had a visit from the head of the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Honourable Mr.
Munge who is in charge of 84 per cent of Kenya's revenue and he also is fascinated by the concept of
destination inspection coupled with computerized risk management and x-ray. You have to have the
three working together.
What is the approach? I have mentioned a Computerized Risk-Management System (CRMS).
This is absolutely key, one of the keys. And this is to supply a selective approach to inspections. Use
alternating statistical tools to assess risk. This limits the need for full physical inspection and gives a
far more efficient allocation of resources. Having said that, this requires very sophisticated software to
operate correctly. We have got now some 500, 000 separate entries and there are 18 differentparameters per entry, or up to 18: seller, exporter, country of export, country of shipment, type of
shipment, currency used etc. etc. and I am pleased to say, somewhat immodestly, we had a recent visit
from the World Bank and they said to us "You in Ghana, with GSL, are the only proper computerized
risk-management system in the whole of Africa with proper software techniques" which pleased us,
but we keep on trying to improve daily.
X-ray scanning.  We start off with a mobile x-ray - I will show you a picture of it later - in
June. This is where the x-ray scanner was mounted on a truck and passed over the container. And then
we moved on to a fixed x-ray scanner which was commissioned in December and I will show you a
picture of that also. Absolute crucial and key is training and transfer of knowledge. We work hand inhand with CEPS, the customs, and we give them training ACV and also CRMS, Transaction Price
Database Training, and also scanner training for operators and image analysts and computer and
technical training. Now it was mentioned several times yesterday, this is again the concept of train the
trainer.  People come in, we train them, they train us about various aspects of Ghana as well – not just
one way. Then having received the knowledge, they go back to customs and spread the knowledge out
like a snowball.
The benefits of Computerized Risk Management implements a selective approach to
intervention based on risk, it focuses on high risk imports, it reduces greatly the need for physical
inspection, by almost 50 per cent, it facilitates legitimate imports through the fast-track release,
reduces the cost of compliance.
How about the x-ray? This provides a non-in trusive means of looking at your goods. It
reduces the need for physical inspection as a matter of course. Previously up to 100 per cent of
containers were being physically inspected. It speeds up the verification and clearance process and it
contributes to port decongestion.
The process. CRMS analyses data to provide a level of risk for each shipment. A specific
level of intervention is prescribed for each shipment based on risk.  Each shipment is designated to a
specific channel for processing, green, yellow or red.
What are the results? Reduction of physical inspection by almost 50 per cent. The objective is
to reach in two years, only 20 per cent physical inspection. The objective is only 80 per cent green.
Let me say, also as mentioned yesterday, that when we launched this programme there was of course
enormous resistance. Human nature hates change. Leave me with what I am used to – do not give me
anything new. Secondly there was an even fiercer resistance by those importers who previously hadG/C/W/297
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unfortunately been able to pay their way to dishonest customs officials; so there was fierce resistance
there. By dint of repeated seminars, 150 at a time we had done our best to educate people and now,
freight forwarders particularly, clearing agents, shippers, importers and small traders, there is a much
greater acceptance, a much more efficient allocation of CEPS resources, it facilitates legitimate trade
by reducing clearance times, and it provides adequate revenue protection.
Now a question was raised yesterday by, I think, the honourable delegate from Senegal,
saying "It is ok but ACV is going to reduce your revenues".  Well, all I can say is that in the case of
Ghana, in 1998, CEPS fell short of their revenue target by 8 per cent. In 1999 they just made the
target. Last year with ACV only starting in April, with the full results only starting to flow through
mid-year, last year with ACV and GSL they passed their target by 11 per cent. And I understand from
Mrs. Boohene-Osafo is well satisfied with the revenue results so far this year.
X-ray scanning has the capacity to scan up to 210 containers per day. So far almost 12,000
containers have been scanned. What happens is that the container goes through. It is looked at on the
screens by a team of operators. If anything look s funny, that container is brought out and physically
inspected. But this only happens in 15 per cent of the cases.  And of these 15 per cent only 9-10 percent have been found to have actual discrepancies.  But it has greatly reduced clearance time and poor
congestion. And we are in the hands very much of the Port Authorities as well. You can do a great job
clearing all the documentation and containers but if there is congestion in Port there is not much you
can do.
Another point very well worth stressing is that if importers know there is an x-ray waiting it
has a very powerful deterrent effect. Take the example of the mobile scanner. You see that there is a
track on the right and the scanner goes over the container. That is mobile – it moves up and down.
Here is a photograph of the fixed scanner. This shows a truck carrying a container being dragged by a
central chain through the tunnel in which there is an x-ray.  Now there is a lot of misconception aboutthe danger of x-ray. This is entirely safe. It is inspected for safety reasons every three months but it is
entirely safe and behind concrete. Now it is an extremely powerful scanner. It has 330 millimetres
penetration of steel capability. The only other x-ray scanners of similar strength are in Le Havre,
Hamburg, Rotterdam, Santiago California and I believe two have just started in Indonesia. There is
one scanner in South Africa with 25 per cent of this strength. Now this system of x-ray is useless
unless of course you can penetrate the steel of the container and this can. This is what happened last
Friday. It shows a container of spare parts being br ought in from Holland and if you can look at the
top you can see red squares. Those are television sets. This importer thought he would bring in 14
television sets disguised in his spare parts. Bang. X-ray scanner picked up straight away. Stop.
Unload. There they were. And we have gone into papers and television to show this is what happens.
Do not try and cheat the scanner.
Finally your question facilitation of trade before I hand over to Mrs Boohene-Osafo. Our
contract says that under destination inspection we in GSL should produce a clearance certificate, after
we verified the HS code price, within ten days of receipt of the final documents, ten days within
receipt of the bill of lading and the final invoice.  This chart shows you, we have got this down now to
four days. In four days of getting the bill of ladi ng. Bang. There is a clearance certificate. If you want
a fast track clearance for real emergencies we give it to you in 24 hours.
Thank you very much.G/C/W/297
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4.4 Mrs. Comfort Boohene-Osafo, Deputy Commissioner for Research and Monitoring of
Customs Excise & Preventive Service (Ghana)
I am representing the government of Ghana and at the same time representing a shareholding
position of Gateway Services Ltd. The government of Ghana found it necessary to adapt to inspection
services of Ghana to respond to the trade facilitation as set out by the Gateway programme. Through
customs compliance and modernisation; at the same time to enhance revenue and enhance cargo
handling at the ports. This is because a vital objective of Ghana is to become the beacon for this sub-
region for investment.
As they have said already, we had seven measurable indicators. You know, if you want to do
something you need to measure yourself by certain things and it became necessary that we looked at
these measurable indicators before we took any decisions.
First thing we wanted to do at CEPS because we had a lot of front liners to the Gateway
objective or aspirations, was to reduce clearance from ten working days, that is two weeks, to one dayby 2003. Presently with the Gateway Services Ltd. and other destination inspection scheme operators,
we have been able to reduce it to two by certain efficient customs house agents. The second
measurable indicator we have to look at was to reduce the physical examination of  goods to 20 per
cent, for dutiable goods, and 10 per cent for statutory free goods by 2002.  So far we have been able to
do it to 60 per cent because of the destination inspection scheme.
Necessary training of customs house agents and CEPS officers for transfer of technology of
modern customs procedures to enhance revenue and to improve compliance. This has also started with
us in partnership with GSL. These three indicators amongst others made it necessary to enter into this
joint venture with COTECNA, Ghana Ports and Harbours authority and other front liners. We havebenefitted as a customs organization or, as it is called in Ghana, CEPS, Customs Excise and
Preventative Service from the destination inspection scheme, and as a scientist we always believe
there should be empirical evidence of these benefits. The Computerized Risk Management system has
been of very high benefit to CEPS and I implore ot her customs organizations in the developing world
to look at this closely.
The basis of information for the Computerized Risk Management for CEPS and GSL were
the parameters my colleague has already mentioned. But for CEPS we added another parameter, that
was the declarance, i.e. whether you were sole declarance or whether the customs house was declaring
for you. Because of our parameters and GSL parameters we formed a committee to look at this and
they meet every week to look at these parameters and to feed the CRMS. The profiles of these
declarants were very important because that helped to determine to improve the other parameters.
We have the high, medium or low risk channels. We have a green for low, yellow for medium
and red for high. This has helped reduce examination tremendously because for high risk we had
physical examination of all the goods of high risk, and this is the red channel. This was mandatory for
CEPS.  These included food items, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and selected electrical goods. We allwill agree that as a developing world, as a developing country we have had an experience of dumping
of sub-standard goods. We have had expired canned foods and pharmaceuticals and hazardous
chemicals dumped on our country so it made it imperative for the Ministry of Trade and Industry to
have this mandatory list. We are still working on it to reduce the list. We are hoping that risk
management will help us reduce the list especially looking at electrical goods.
When it comes to the medium-risk, we have a yellow channel where all goods going through
the medium risk or the yellow channel  pass through a scanner. Here the documents of the goods areG/C/W/297
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closely looked at by customs officials as well as the customs officials within the DSO domain. All full
container load goods are just scanned by the scanner whilst the documents covering them are checked
by them. We also have a yellow CEPS where medium risk, non-full container loads are either
subjected to physical or documentary examinati on, depending on your risk again. If you may be
subjected to both physical and documentary if you are reasonable we look at either of them. Thedecision is at the discretion of customs or CEPS.
Green or low-risk transactions were to pass through without any hindrance at all and customs
is to look at only 5 per cent only randomly to satisfy ourselves that we are doing the right thing with
regard to the low risk. However, empirical evidence shows that  we are a bit high for the year. We are
expecting that 5 per cent was the ultimate but we are expecting by now we will get to about 50
because next year we will be going down and by 2003 5 per cent should be the random that wechoose. On no account shall a transaction assessed as high risk be treated otherwise unless randomly
selected for examination. The CRMS therefore enables CEPS to check only those transactions that
need to be followed thoroughly and facilitate clearance by allowing low risk goods to be cleared
without hindrance.
We have another facility available to CEPS now which we initiated when we started the WTO
Agreements last year, the post-clearance verification units. This has been adopted by CEPS and is
really bringing in a lot of revenue. The adoption of the WTO Valuation Agreement in April 2000 by
Ghana required technology and necessary network to assess sources for valuation information for
individual transaction. The TPD had been able to help in this regard. The use of price reference isvery essential in the implementation of WTO Valuation you will all agree with me. CEPS adopted a
WTO Valuation concurrently with the introduction of destination inspection scheme. I must say it was
quite a bold decision but we have been able to do a lot with it. Fortunately, the aspect of destination
inspection deals with a verification of values submitted by importers is based on the WTO valuation
concept.
Presently the destination inspection scheme is working with CEPS officers who are
experienced in classification and valuation. Notwithstanding the values presented by these officers in
GSL are considered only as an opinion. CEPS is not bound to accept if available information to the
experienced valuation officers at the CEPS units does not support the value. The final ruling on what
should be the value for tax purposes still rests with customs officers.
GSL happily provides to CEPS computerized records of all transactions they have been able
to process with details required in the exercise verifying values for tax purposes. The Transaction
Price Database, as already mentioned, is an opinio n provided to CEPS. Under this information given
us these are the issues that are raised: the name of the commodity; source of supply; unit price and
freights; importer and data of transaction. The x-ray scanner has also been very useful to CEPS.  AsMr. Moffet said, we scan all full container loads of homogenous goods. This is supported by the
CRMS where the risk of the importer is determined. So far the discrepancies detected from scanning
has enhanced revenue tremendously for CEPS and in fact we are talking of hundreds of millions of
CDs. As examples as shown here this will go b ack to CEPS and penalties will be taken from the
importer who misled the service.
It has a limitation though for a customs officer. You cannot determine the size, the material
the commodity was made of, the quality and so on, but the computerized risk-management again is
used to pick on various declarants who are likely to defraud CEPS so that at random we pick on these
containers and check physically on some of them depending on the declarant or the importer.
In conclusion I will say that the Ghana government has abolished the PSI and replaced it with
destination inspection scheme which so far has yielded a lot of revenue, has helped with clearance
from the ports and also the Ghana Harbour and Ports Authority has come in unison with us and areG/C/W/297
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working better before we had a lot of clashes with them. This also has helped with clearance of
containers from the ports. We have a DSI Committee made up of shipping companies, shipping
council, Ghana Customs Excise and Preventive Service, GSL and Ghana Harbour and Ports
Authorities to look at our problem fortnightly so that we can improve on them.
Thank you very much.G/C/W/297
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4.5 Ms. Sue Welch, Chief Executive Officer, CrossStreetTrade Inc., United States
I would like to talk about building the trade platform that unites what we see as the primary
constituencies of trade, which are the countries, the associations, your SMEs and your global 2000
organizations.
If we look at the developing countries and what is driving them we see that they are trying to
promote the more traditional industries. At the same time that they are also trying to promote
emerging industries, they are trying to remove trade barriers through the negotiation of trade
agreements and again they want to attract investment and as they do all this they need to modernize
their trade facilitation infrastructure to support these multiple industries and to attract multiple
investment into their country.
The associations tend to work closely with them to promote a specific industry which they are
trying to value add with their current members and expand their membership. What is interesting with
the associations today is that they are also starting to explore regional capacity building so if Costa
Rica takes an order for a product that they can produce cheaply in part in some other country, you arenow looking at that regional capacity building. And this group is also a key source of information and
services to their members.
From the SME side, a recent study showed that their number one concern is about legislative
stability in their own country and in obtaining market  information for countries that they want to sell
to. However the trade barriers tend to inhibit and intimidate them as they enter global markets. They
lack experience, trade readiness. We were recently in a country where a new change caused such
problems within an organisation it took them 6 mont hs to figure out how to complete a document.
That 6 months meant that every single shipment that  went out, went out late or had problems for the
receiving country.
Finding and developing new partnerships for the SME market is both time-consuming and
expensive, and as they enter new markets they just simply do not have the credibility in that market.
Part of that is the result of not having a standard supply chain infrastructure in place. The global 2000
which are your largest trading organisations in the world tend to buy from who they know, having
well represented this group and built systems for them, they are probably the laziest group you are
going to come up with. So as they buy from the fo lks that they know, they are also paradoxically
seeking to find new partners for goods and services. It takes them about 3-6 months to find and certify
a new partner, during that time they are competing against designs to a delivery cycle that have
shrunk by up to 90 per cent.  When I started this business this group was trying to deliver products to
market in 270 – 360 days. They are now trying to deliver the same products to the same market in
under 30 days so they have tremendous time pressures on them. They are also trying to implementregional capacity programmes in the developing countries and are having varying levels of success in
doing that.
What is important to this group is that they value information as much as they do products
and services. They always plan for a worse case scenario, if I clear my goods in your country and thefirst time I do it in 2 days and the second time in 2 days and the third time in 8 days, then my system
will plan 8 days to clear goods to your country, so you start to lose a competitive edge. Their systems
are increasingly decision support based which means that they have less and less human interaction to
what is happening and they establish the rules within the system to decide where to source and how to
source, in other words who gets the order and where do they invest their money.
So that looks at what is the value of information. Aberdeen Group recently did a study that
said that 53 per cent of the entire sourcing cycle is spent in finding and identifying qualified sourcesG/C/W/297
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for the goods and services. Now part of that 53 per cent, the first part is looking at the countries that
they are going to deal in. 80 per cent of the cost of a product is built in the design and development
stage when sourcing occurs, i.e. before the shipment occurs. Automating these processes again
according to Aberdeen Group will reduce these cycles by 30 per cent, so what does that mean? It
means that if I am looking to do business in your country I already have to take 58 days of the cyclefor you to be competitive and 24 cents is the cost of the information.
So information really becomes a competitive diff erentiator. It is also the internet and various
technologies that have really changed information into a commodity and it is a tradeable commodity.
The trade partners are highly dependent upon each other to drive the basic processes within their
organization and those processes really reduce the costs and allow people to deliver products to
markets quicker. Failure to provide this information breaks down those processes and marginalises thenon-provider. If I am looking to source a new product and cannot really understand what the duty rate
is in your country because the only thing I can access are bound rates instead of applied rates then you
may not be competitive, your bound rate might be 20 per cent, your applied rate might be 3 per cent
but I cannot access that information.  If I think it takes 8 days to clear through customs and it really
takes 2 days, I cannot access that information so not providing data to this group means that the groupbecomes marginalized as a provider.
We see a strong technology role for governments and that is to provide an infrastructure that
supports both information and processes. On the information side it is extremely important to let the
information be timely and easily disseminated. It just simply is not happening. There is no electronicform of HS schedules of all countries in the world for all countries in the world. That is a huge
impediment to looking at countries that a company may want to trade in. Information is not consistent
nor is the action of the various customs agencies when you go into a country. One time you are
charged 8 per cent duty, another time you are charged 12 per cent duty and then the third time it might
be duty free.  All these things remember the larger organizations always play it for the worst case. Itmust be complete, reflective of actual fees and charges and readily available. What is happening in the
private industry is that because of the frustration and the inability to access information as data, they
are starting to form their own groups, there is the GCI, the Global Commerce Initiative; they have set
a dot  net so private industries stepping in with what they had hoped a government would lead.
The processes must be transparent, when we look at that SME organization that is trying to
ship to a new country, if all of a sudden he has to deal with a whole host of new forms, if he has togive new information and he does not understand what he is supposed to do, then if he stops his
process as he is trying to prepare for this then it is not transparent. Nor does it become transparent on
the receiving party. The information must be both globally normalized and non-isolationist.  Several
people have been asking me what does this mean and it means that if I refer to cotton, everybody
knows what cotton is. If I look in your HS schedule and I see CTN, COTTON we even have
misspelling of COTTON or CTN then  I cannot look at that as globally normalized. One of the things
that we are exploring is creating a HS schedule that is not only normalized but is cross-referenced to
the major trading parties. And it cannot be non-isolationist again because of the regional capacity
building.  When I looked at trade with a country a nd also looking at the surrounding countries to see if
I can off set some of these processes to be built in those surrounding countries. And the processobviously must speed goods, raw materials and services to market.
So we look at this as an opportunity to really create bridges over trade barriers by beginning
today to build a standardized trade platform that provides tools, content, business infrastructure and
contacts that unite the governments with the associa tions and companies. It used to be that being a
software provider we used to be able to provide empty software to a customer and they built up their
own content and database and this is no longer acceptable today because we are all trying to deal with
standards and to communicate in the same way that we can understand each other. More and moreG/C/W/297
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content has to be built in to the software that is being provided to the users and that software must be
able to unite with the various trading parties.
One of the things that we see as a key issues is establishing a transparent payment process for
customs, duties and fees.  There, is that what happens is that if I cannot get my goods cleared throughcustoms we have been meeting with various organizations and the banks and say is there a way that
we can guarantee payment so that the goods can flow  faster through the various customs agencies and
out into the commerce community. We have seen bonds implemented in countries and then we have
also seen them rejected. What we have seen as a result of that is that an organization starts to back off
from that country because it means that the goods are going to be held up. So we are exploring
various other alternatives, things like authority to pay, similar to a letter of credit for services and
taxes.
It is important that a country or region establish centralized internet accessible national
database for certain information; again the HS schedule is one of the one that comes to mind
immediately as does carrier schedules, so that everyone has immediate access to this information.
Inexpensive access to hardware and software is certainly available, we ran across a company recentlythat supplies hardware and software that gives internet access as well as basic business software for
under $200. We think of online testing for exporters, we were in a country recently where they have
export training programmes which are terrific because it promotes the trade but it also requires the
exporter to come in to a facility two days a w eek. Well technology can now bring that out to the
exporter through e-learning programmes and then testing.
Another very important thing is a centralized site for international document creation. Again
when we look back at that poor exporter that we met with last week that had spent 6 months trying to
figure out how to complete these documents, the capabilities are there today to take basic information
and complete any document that is necessary, prov iding that service to th e export community would
certainly facilitate trade.
We think a great way to do this is obviously through virtual trade centres and the beauty of
virtual trade centres is that it allows you to really do this one step at a time, so that you can look and
say what can I do easiest fastest.  A virtual trade centre has 4 areas. The first one is the information
centre. This might be where your potential exporter goes for basic information, may be looks at some
of the ITC trade analysis maps. I make widgets, what kind of countries would be open to buy my
widgets, how do I position or competition in that country. Also we would have things like standard
codes, HS schedules, carrier schedules.
Going over after they have gone to the informatio n centre, then they could then go over to the
trade tool centre where they could take a trade readiness audit. I want to export widgets from CostaRica to Canada, am I really ready to do that and what do I need to do and what do I need to do know.
A global cost calculator. The SME market tells us they are extremely frustrated when they go to trade
internationally that they really did not understand all of the expenses involved in it and thought they
were making money and found out that were not. Now the exporters should be able to say is that all I
know is that I am making this much I want this much profit now tell me how much to sell it for in
Canada or France or the United States. And in the tool trade centre also the ability to create your
trade, international documentation.
Now from there they have gone to the information centre and the trade tool centre and now
know that they are ready to trade and know how to pr ice their products so the next step in virtual trade
centre is to go to the community centre.  Here I re gister, I give more information about who I am and
who I am looking to trade with. I might go on a vi rtual trade mission. Governments put on these trade
missions, and they are great, I remember  the first one that I went on, I thought it was really stamina
tasked because we hit 5 cities in 5 days. We met 10 companies in each city and then in the eveningG/C/W/297
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had a reception. By the time I had got back I had met with 50 companies a nd did not know who the
heck they were anymore and so not really doing much on the trade mission. However a virtual trade
mission can set something out 30-45 days in advance to try to bring partners together, introduce them,
web conferencing means that they can even see each other. They can bring them to their on line
showroom, these are the products that I am selling. These are the people that if I want to promote mysoftware capacity in my country, these are the people that we have, you can interview them on line. A
lot of partner profiling, electronic links to banks, orders and governments to make trade easy.
Now from a community centre I actually get an order and now I can go to the fulfilment
centre, and this is where the SME would have a sophisticated infrastructure to support their business
operation which makes the larger organisation buy from them comfortable. They can buy and self
create orders, do basic things like trace and track, invoicing, financing, tell us whether your shippingwill create  all the export documentation, we will transmit that data to customs, we will book the
freight with the carrier, again making that process as transparent as possible to that SME.
All of what I have just talked about is all technology that exists today, we have been working
with this for years now, what is happening is the la rger organizations are so sophisticated that if they
do not have access to this data you just do not get counted. One of the larger organizations that we
worked with, we actually built into their system a whole rules engine and the first thing it says is they
can establish if currency fluctuates by more than 5 per cent then cancel my orders. However there
might be 250,000 orders and they do not want to see 250,000, so the next rule will be if it is these
countries, these commodities, these prices ranges cancel, so now it cancels another group of orders onthere.  Then the engine notifies banks, then the next rule is resource my goods, find a new supplier for
me, well maybe when I placed my order I had 50 days to get it to market and now I only have 25 days
to get it to market. If it is using bad information to find a new source that does not meet the cost of
requirements, that does not meet the timing requir ements, then people are just not included in that
selection. So a virtual trade centre really gives us support to the SMEs so that they can provide thatinformation now.
Who benefits? Everybody benefits, certainly the governments because they are providing the
services to their SME market, they are able to attract investment and they are able to create a platform
that builds a transparent trade process and also they can now easily collect, standardize and
disseminate their information. The associations increase their offerings to their membership
companies and grow.  The SME is now able to enter the electronic economy and the world economyfor new products and new offerings. In the Global 2000, they have access to companies they could
never access before because the systems they put into place they cannot get to you, just as an SME
has a hard time getting market information, the Global 2000 organisations have a hard time getting to
the SMEs.
The next steps? We think that countries and associations should start small, take one piece of
that virtual trade centre and say this is the only piece I am going to do right now, if it is just to provide
my HS schedule as data  electronically, that is what I will do. Connect one group to another, looking
at those exporters, if you have got courses in place for exporters, then put them on the Internet, create
an e-learning environment. Explore alternatives to high cost equipment, again there are organizations
out there that can supply hardware and software re ally cheaply and always remember to build on your
success with another small step that is easy to impl ement. It is also extremely important to build a
system that is configurable, the worst mistake people make is to build something that they hard code
because business changes and if you change and you cannot reconfigure your system but instead you
have to re-code it then it is both expensive and time-consuming. And be competitive, share yourinformation.
Thank you.G/C/W/297
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4.6 Mr. Noriyoshi Osumi, Executive Manager, NTT Communications Corporation, Japan
How Does NTT Group Contribute to Trade Facilitation?
Introduction to NTT Group’s Measures to Promote International Trade
With the coming of the 21st century, the world is facing dramatic changes at an accelerated
rate. In order to adequately cope with such changes, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
(NTT), a company that has supported Japan’s telecommunications for more than 100 years,
reorganized itself in July 1999 into NTT Group. NTT Communications Corporation began its
business providing domestic interprefectural and international communications services, and in mid-
2000, it set a goal of becoming a global IP company, declaring inside and outside the company that itwould achieve that goal in two years.
International cooperation of NTT Group
While sending abroad approximately 900 overseas cooperation experts for technical
assistance since 1979, NTT Group has, for about 45 years, been accepting trainees from other
countries. What is worth mentioning here is that in 1985, NTT Group was commissioned by Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to provide a training course at the Okinawa International
Center for information processing technicians as  part of the Official Development Assistance
(ODA),　which the Japanese government offers through the governments of developing countries.
Since then, a total of 2,165 trainees from approximately 70 countries have taken the course. Former
trainees are actively engaged as core personnel in information-related fields in their respective
countries. The training course is the only one of its kind sponsored by JICA.
NTT DATA, a key company in NTT Group, which contributed for many years to the
construction, operation, and maintenance of NACCS, Japan’s clearance system, has, making the most
of its accumulated know-how, conducted a study of the clearance and related systems of Indonesia
under an ODA project. NTT DATA worked with the Indonesian Directorate General of Customs and
Excise and the Customs and Tariff Bureau of the Ja panese Ministry of Finance. The study concluded
that it was able to fully achieve the objective of securing the transfer of clearance operation, know-
how, and system technologies to the Indonesian Directorate General of Customs and Excise as well as
the transfer of system technologies to local consultants. The clearance system proposed by the study issupposed to respond to a variety of national requirements, including efficient and adequate clearance
operations; improvements in the quality of clearance service for traders and government agencies;
increases direct investments from abroad, the furtherance of domestic industries, the promotion of the
international division of labour, and the expansion of trade volume; improvements in the accuracy of
export and import data through the collection of clearance statistics; 　and adequate industry
policymaking based on accurate export and import data.
Role of NTT Communications as a global enterprise
Amid the rapid economic growth of Asian countries that is recently taking place, Japan’s
direct investment in other parts of the Asian region is on the rise, and Japanese companies expanding
into Asian countries are constructing networks throughout the rest of the Asian region to procure and
process parts and materials. Parallel to this is the growth in trade in the Asian region. Recognizing that
in order to guarantee a smooth transition to such an increased trade volume, it is essential not only to
introduce electronic B-to-G systems but to link that system with electronic B-to-B systems as well,NTT Communications will continue to support inter-corporate exchanges of data in such areas as
trade operations and the linking of B-to-G and B-to-B systems, constructing a global B-to-B
communication network infrastructure with partners from other countries.G/C/W/297
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Example of advanced work on efficient trade procedures
As an example of improved efficiency in both B-to-B and B-to-G systems, NTT
Communications has been working on the Trade Electronic Data Interchange (TEDI) Project, whichis a nationwide undertaking under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s fiscal 1998
supplementary budget plan. 　The project has now materialized as one contributing to improving
efficiency in the entire trade operation through secure and reliable network 　by connecting such
enterprises as manufacturers, commercial firms, banks, customs agents, shipping companies, and
insurance companies. TEDI also enables to conver t documents necessary for trade to those exchanged
between enterprises to be compatible with B-to-G systems. As a member of TEDI Club*, together
with more than 60 enterprises related to trade, NTT Communications is examining the practicalconnection between clearance systems in several Asian countries.
Furthermore, NTT Communications is promoting in conjunction with overseas
telecommunication service providers, the establishment of a consortium called Global Trading Web to
secure interoperability between electric-marketplaces throughout the world.
Conclusion
NTT Communications recognizes the importance of the fo llowing in offering technical assistance in trade
facilitation:
/g110 Strong leadership from local governmental departments concerned;
/g110 Participation of local experts with operational know-how;
/g110 Securing of local engineers with adequate skill;
/g110 Efficient technology transfers through the participation of a private enterprise that has experience
in similar projects;
/g110 Backup from industrialized nations in terms of financing
Moreover, when introducing a B-to-G system to facilitate trade, it is important to secure
interoperability with its related B-to-B systems.  In addition to constructing a B-to-G system, NTT
Communications is helping to link that system to B-to-B systems as well as improving the overall
efficiency of international commerce.
*TEDI Club is an organization that supports the realiz ation of EDI for trade finance through system and
rule maintenance and revision and through the promotion of standardization for the member companies.
(http://www.tediclub.com/)G/C/W/297
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General Discussion following Session 4
Mexico
I would like to pose some questions about three aspects related to what has been mentioned
by, for example, Mr. Oliver, on the objectives of the IECC, particularly on the issue of the Kyoto
Convention for a liberalisation of air cargo, which fall s within trade in services and the immediate and
transparent entry of cargo, that is, free circulation of goods and better clearance at customs.
I was intrigued by the objective to make the Kyoto Convention binding, make it very sincere;
for this I would like to thank him, because in addition he gave as an example intellectual property
rights, that is WIPO,  and related it to what is happening in the WTO.
I was struck by this and based on it I would like to pose my first question. For example, when
I listened to the speaker talking about preshipment inspection and about the system of risk assessment
that has been proven to be much more efficient and that facilitates quick dispatch, which is one of the
objectives of the IECC, when he said we are now usin g x-rays and showed us that it is a good thing, I
already had something on my mind, but he gave us a much better vision, a better understanding of all
that, indicating that there is technology transfer and also technical formation.
So my question goes therefore directly to Mr. Oliver. If we take this type of systems related to
preshipment inspection there exists one Agreement in the WTO. Is it necessary to create a bindingagreement, which on some issues, could be a monster without having analysed these types of
implications within the WTO, or would it be better to go step by step and come to a consensus on
some form of cooperation, or would it be better to thoroughly analyze the perspectives which each of
these WTO Agreements have, or simply make a modification or improve the procedures? What I am
trying to indicate is that there has to be internal coherence with what already exists in WTOAgreements in order to help private initiative improve their efficiency and also to support private
initiatives with regard to the automation of installations and systems like the ones that were described
by Mr. Osumi. So is it necessary to sign up to an agreement to have this kind of help ?
Mr. Oliver, IECC
The WTO is the only international system of dispute settlement with a track record of it
working. And it seems to me that no matter how  good the WCO is in terms of propagating its
recommendations, they lack the power of enforcement and it seems to me that the certainty that the
rule of law brings is a substantial improvement over the rule of the jungle. So while I recognize all the
good things that many countries are doing, this is a rapidly changing world and it does not seem to me
that voluntary and best endeavours practices will be sufficient in the course of the next decade or so. Irecognize that a new round will take a decade or so, 5, 7 years to get implemented. I think that is a
faster track then waiting for best endeavours by individual countries.
Mr. Clarke, European Communities
A couple of points perhaps from the Community side, first of all on the Mexican intervention
and the reply of Mr. Oliver of the IECC. I think we would share the overall thesis that predictability
and guarantees for business are what the WTO is involved in. The need for some kind of clear
commitments at some point is evident and is really what is the "value added" of the WTO over any
other international body. Mr. Oliver, however, used the example of the TRIPs agreement as a model. Imust say that, from our point of view, there seems to  be other ways in which one can seek to bring
into WTO standards or instruments which have been developed in other fora. I do not regard the
WTO simply as a police force or enforcement agency. We have to find our own way in the WTO toG/C/W/297
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negotiate the kind of rules that we want, which must be negotiated from the trade policy point of view
and then see how we support them. I do think that the Kyoto Convention contains many standards and
objectives that would be worth trying to work towards in the WTO, but I am not convinced yet that
one can simply import a whole international convention lock, stock and barrel into this organisation
and simply lock it in place through enforcement. I th ink we have to take an approach which suits the
WTO Membership in the broad sense. It is one approach, but there are others.
I was interested by the presentation of Mr. Moffett on the work that his company has been
doing in Ghana with Ghanaian customs. I was at a conference recently in Africa and had a very
interesting presentation from the ICC in Ghana who indeed confirm that the situation in terms of
customs release and facilitation has improved, but I do have a question mark over the value of these
famous container x-ray systems. The contact I have had with governments, with the private sector,with customs agencies around the world show a gr eat deal of scepticism about the use of these
systems, which many argue are simply a substitute or alternative for what is more important, which is
building up a much more comprehensive management system amongst customs. So my question is,
what is the real long-term value of that kind of technology and I will not ask you, Mr. Moffett, to
reply because you demonstrated the value in your opinion. Perhaps Mr. Oliver, as a user industry ofcustoms, or Mr. Osumi, could give us their view about the role of these technologies in terms of
improving and simplifying customs.
India
My question is a follow up question to what my colleague from Mexico has already addressed
to Mr. Oliver. Perhaps Mr. Olivier's presentation gave the impression that WTO is being used as a
policeman for bringing in so many disciplines, and also perhaps that for effective implementation of
those instruments, the WTO is the best body to do so. I was just drawing attention to Mr. Oliver's
example when, in his presentation, he gave the example of Singapore versus other Members ofASEAN and he himself recognized that perhaps there may be a difference of 20 years before some of
the poorer states of  ASEAN can reach the standards set by Singapore. For these two kind of nations
within the same regional grouping, and there are many divergent groups across the world, how do we
justify the same binding rules on these two sets of nations?
Canada
I will be very brief. I just want to agree fully with what the EU said with regards to the WTO
developing formal rules as opposed to just simply inheriting or incorporating conventions from
outside. We may certainly draw upon some principles, we may certainly draw upon some ideas but I
would not see – I will be very frank about it – I would not hold my breath on watching the Kyoto
Convention being brought right into the WTO. I do not think that is possible, feasible. I agree thatthere are aspects that are useful, principles that we can draw upon, some elements that we can steal,
that is true, but we have our own way of doing things and, as you pointed out, we have rather a unique
organization  here because we want to do things that we can do.
Mr. Oliver, IECC
In terms of the x-ray machines, I really would ask 2 or 3 questions in return. Do countries
who use these have a deadline for reducing physical inspection to close to zero as have major traders
such as Singapore, Ireland, Costa Rica? What mechanisms are there for consultation with traders and
carriers affected by, and paying for, PSI and x-ray machines? Does the system exchange dataelectronically with traders, because it seems to us that electronic exchange of data actually can catch
99.99 per cent of illegal traffic and you do not need x-rays for anything other than a very small,
exceptional number of transactions.G/C/W/297
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The question from India is an excellent question about whether you need the same rules. I
emphasized in my presentation the number of manufactured goods these days that cross borders
before they are finally sold. I think that, to the extent  that countries are playing in the same field, if the
Vietnamese are making T-shirts and running shoes which are then partially completed in Malaysia
and partially then shipped from Singapore, then, in fact, I do think the same rules will have to applyeventually. It is part of globalization if they want to take part in the benefits of trade. Certainly when I
visited Laos, which is a pathetically poor country, they had a big programme on to try to encourage
farmers away from drug production into high quality silk production. That high quality silk is being
bought by pop stars and Hollywood personalities and shipped across the world using express carriers.
So it is not just into the market it is also out fr om the markets, and so I do think if they want to
participate in the global market then they have to participate with global rules.
Mr. Osumi, NTT Communications Corp.
I would like to comment on the enforcement question raised by the Mexican and Indian
representatives from our private sector experience.
I was deeply involved in a private electronic sector initiative led by the U.S. and Japan.
Basically we cannot enforce the compliance of a lot of our trading partners within the trading
industry. But we made it clear that this is a whole industry effort so that everybody has to comply if
there is a tremendous interest there. Secondly there are tremendous education opportunities there.
Also we have a compliance committee to check the compliance of the technology. Another majorfactor is the economy behind that. If you do not comply, you are going to loose a lot of business,
especially nowadays. For example, the U.S. and the Japanese electronic industry do a lot of strategic
sourcing to developing nations like China. We are trying to integrate other suppliers, inexpensive
suppliers, into our network, so basic business and economic factors drive the whole thing. If you
devise this kind of strategy, the chance of success should be greater.
Philippines
All the speakers gave us a very good idea of the technologies that they are using right now to
facilitate trade and I was just wondering how long did it take the private sector people to implement
this kind of technological development. Singapore is an example. I was just asking my Singapore
colleague here how long did it take them to achieve the level of trade efficiency that they have rightnow, and very honestly she said it took them 10 years.  And I think this goes very well with the paper
commented on by Ms. Welsh which says that you have to start small, select one process with a high
probability of success or which can be easily implemented, and then build on your success. We should
bear this in mind in our debate.
United States
I too was curious about the situation in Ghana. First of all I have a question about the
interface between the computerized risk management system and a physical inspection rate that is still
as high as 20 per cent. How do these 2 systems relate? Because I would think with a risk managementsystem I am going in the direction of a much lower physical inspection rate.
Secondly I have seen an earlier presentation which suggested that, I am not sure whether this
is true, that the fee structure associated either with GSL or PSI activities in Ghana, was one which was
imposed on the importer and one which was based on the ad valorem  rate and ad valorem  payment
based on the value of the shipment. I would seek c onfirmation for that, whether that is true and ask
whether that is trade facilitating. Is this a service that is actually being offered to the importer, and
how does that service relate to the value of the transaction.G/C/W/297
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Mr. Moffett, GSL
There seems to be quite a lot of the interest in the x-ray scanners. For over 20 years Ghana
has had preshipment inspection and it has paid for itself. The fee charge was 1 per cent of the CIF
value as declared by the importer of the goods to be imported into Ghana.
The x-ray destination inspection fee is confidential but it is less than that. Another question
was: "Is there much value?" Well, let me say th at the government of Ghana visited the ports of
LeHavre, Hamburg, Rotterdam, which are not exactly mini ports – Rotterdam is the biggest port in the
world - what they saw in terms of the benefits of x-ray scanning convinced them and, after having
talked to the port authorities, they decided to install one in Ghana.
Some of the benefits of scanners are: the deterrent effect, and secondly: speed. You can get
your container cleared through customs in 10 minutes. I tell you one story. The third day we started
scanning, we are scanning hides and skins from Gambia. We detect one discrepancy. Stop. Unload.
What did we find? We found two bottles of milk, a loaf of bread and a pair of shoes. Which is funny.
But when we made it known to the importers that we can find just that, the deterrent effect was huge.X-ray is beneficial  to the importer for speed; the freightforwarders in Ghana went public to say that
they were very satisfied with the resulting speedier process.
Thank you.
ICC
I actually represent SITPRO which is a UK government funded agency focused solely on the
simplification of international trade but we are also members of the ICC. I would like to emphasize
that we are totally supportive of a rules-based system. The revised Kyoto Convention is complicatedbut certainly a good basis for discussing a WTO rules-based agreement.
I was slightly concerned that at the outset of this conference there was some reference to the
subject as a boring and complicated one. It is as boring and complicated as you wish to make it. It is
certainly a vital and extremely important subject for national and world economies. We have seen
over the past two days some exciting and very good examples of progress on simplification and really
forward looking projects.
I congratulate the organizers of this workshop, which has helped us share these experiences
but I am however concerned that this workshop has not yet resulted in a more coherent approach on
the technical assistance and capacity building that developing countries need.
For the private sector to be fully encouraged to fund and assist capacity building it must see
the efficient use of public funds. This should also mean that the funds being used should be directed to
achieve the same objectives. Clearly defined objectives agreed by all the international organizations
involved in training and capacity building would be an excellent start. I hope that this conference is a
start to that, but we really do need to see some positive progress in coherence to capacity building andtraining.G/C/W/297
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V. ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS AND
OBSERVERS
In addition to the papers submitted by the panellists, the Secretariat also received
communications by Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Mauritius and the UN/ECE which were madeavailable at (or immediate following) the workshop. Upon request, the papers submitted by Australia
and Costa Rica were published as WTO documents under G/C/W2643 (Australia) and G/C/W265
(Costa Rica). The remaining communications can be found below.
V. 1. Canada
CANADA’S NEW WORK ON TRADE FACILITATION
IN THE APEC COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND INVESTMENT
Trade facilitation has been a key priority for Canada within the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation Forum, APEC.   Canada believes that AP EC is particularly well suited for work on trade
facilitation, as success in this area depends largely on cooperation, exchange of information, capacity
building and technical assistance.  APEC has been active on the trade facilitation front in recent years
and some of its subfora have made significant progress in areas such as customs.
In September 2000, in order to provide a better focus to APEC's work on trade facilitation,
Canada organized, along with the World Bank and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, an APEC
Workshop on Trade Facilitation. The workshop brought together over 100 trade facilitation experts
from 20 of APEC's 21 economies. Its objective was to contribute to a renewal of APEC's trade
facilitation agenda - including exploration of obstacles and opportunities for developing members of
APEC - by identifying the most effective measures for action in four areas: regulatory reform andstandards, customs procedures, mobility of business people and professional accreditation; and
electronic commerce as a mechanism of trade facilitation. The major conclusions of the workshop
were that APEC needs to look at trade facilitati on in a coordinated manner and that APEC should play
a major role in facilitating trade among its members by being more active in the area of capacity
building. A copy of an independent report on the workshop prepared by the Asia Pacific Foundation
of Canada is attached.
In order to follow up on the workshop's recommendations, Canada has just been granted
APEC funding to co-ordinate a major research project which will assist APEC to develop a
coordinated capacity building initiative in trade facilitation, aiming to lower the cost of doing business
in the region.  The resulting report will provide APEC with:
• a better understanding of the economic benefits of trade facilitation in three areas: customs,
standards and conformance, and business mobility;
• a better understanding of the impact of trade facilitation on development;
• a better understanding the potential benefits resulting from exploiting synergies across facilitation
areas;
• a comprehensive evaluation of the usefulness of its past and current work on trade facilitation.G/C/W/297
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An improved understanding of these issues will allow APEC to better identify capacity
building projects where it will truly be able to add value to the work of other organizations.  This
report aims to identify a number of such potential projects.
CANADA CUSTOMS & REVENUE AGENCY (CCRA)
 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
 IN TRADE FACILITATION
Introduction
In keeping with Canadian tradition of providing demand-driven and practical assistance, the
CCRA’s focus on trade facilitation projects has been on capacity building rather than on individualtechnical assistance activities.  The overall objective is to help technical assistance recipients to
increase their own ability to help themselves and to ensure that benefits are sustained beyond the life
of each project.
The CCRA has been committed to sharing its e xperience and knowledge in a practical way
with other countries since the early 1980’s.  This endeavour has expanded in recent years in response
to new challenges presented by the global economy, e-commerce, tax havens, trade liberalization,
transational crime and the resulting need for in creased international cooperation. The CCRA recently
adopted an International Technical Assistance Strategic Framework which basically provides
guidance for the management of the CCRA’s international technical assistance activities in order toachieve focus, corporate consistency and cost effectiveness. The Framework is designed, among
others, to identify countries and areas of expertise in which to concentrate our efforts.
Much of the CCRA’s technical assistance has been aimed at the simplification and
harmonization of customs and tax procedures. While these are important elements, trade facilitationgoes beyond customs to include standards, regulations, physical infrastructure and financial
instruments.
The CCRA delivers technical assistance to other countries through a range of customs and tax
administration activities. These include capacity-building reforms, short-term consultations, training
and learning events, study tours and, where appropriate, providing long-term advisors.
Major Projects and Initiatives in Trade Facilitation and Customs Reform
(1) Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC)
Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures (SCCP)
The CCRA is very active in providing technical assistance on the implementation of the WTO
Valuation Code.  The APEC Sub-Committee on Cu stoms Procedures developed a comprehensive
framework for technical assistance and human resource development which provided the basis for the
Collective Action Plan (CAP) initiative.  There are currently 13 CAP initiatives and of these, Canada
is the coordinating economy for 3 i.e. WTO Valuation Agreement, Clear Appeal Provisions andCommon Data Elements.  Over the last 2-3 years, the CCRA has been actively involved in providing
training to APEC member economies, not only for th e 3 initiatives it is coordinating but other CAP
items, as follows:
WTO Valuation Agreement (i.e. Thailand, China, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Chile, Peru)
Clear Appeals Provisions (i.e. Philippines, Indonesia)
Common Data Elements
Adoption of the Principles of the HS ConventionG/C/W/297
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TRIPS (i.e. Thailand, Indonesia)
Express Consignment Clearance (i.e. Vietnam, Philippines)
WCO Kyoto Convention
Temporary Importations
Risk Management
(2) WTO Valuation Agreement – Implementation in the Caribbean
We also provided valuation training to the customs administrations of Barbados and Jamaica,
under the auspices of the Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (with IADB funding). For
instance, a training session was held in January 2001 with the objective of increasing Jamaica’s
capacity to conduct valuation post-importation verifications and another session was held in March2001 to address infrastructure issues, in support of the valuation programme.
(3) Trade Readiness Technical Assistance Project in Partnership with a University
Research Group
In partnership with the Carleton and Ottawa University Centre for Trade Policy and Law
(CTPL), the CCRA is assisting six countries in Central America to implement the 8 business
facilitation measures of the FTAA.  The countries involved are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama.  This three-year project presents a comprehensive approach tocapacity building in the areas of trade policy development, business and trade facilitation instruments
implementation and customs reform.  The outcomes of the project are threefold:
/g110 an expanded capacity to analyze trade policy issues and to participate in international trade
negotiations as well as improved administration of trade agreements
/g110 the ability to meet the obligations arising from the FTAA customs-related business facilitation
measures and the WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation and Rules of Origin
/g110 improved and expanded business facilitation practices (uniform customs codes, procedures,
harmonized system of classification, etc.) within the region.
(4) Facilitating Customs and Finance Reform in Benin
The CCRA is also funded by CIDA to facilitate reform of the Customs and Inspection
générale des Finances in Benin.  This reform is part of a Benin government-wide reform facilitated bythe Public Service Commission of Canada.  Interestingly, Benin recently jointed the WTO and the
World Customs Organization (WCO) as a programme participant through the Integrated Framework
for Trade Related Technical Assistance.  While the main thrust of the project will be to enhance the
ability of the Benin authorities to increase revenues and facilitate import and export, a segment of the
project will be carried out in partnership with other Canadian government departments to complementcapacity development in tax policy, financial management and independent audit mechanisms.
(5) Customs Reform and Modernization Programme
We have been extensively involved in the Customs Reform and Modernization Programme of
the WCO.  To date, the CCRA participated in diagnostic studies in Pakistan, Cyprus, Latvia,
Bahamas, Uganda, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Mauritius and Namibia.  The aim of the DiagnosticG/C/W/297
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Studies process itself, which was developed by the WCO with the help of Canada and The
Netherlands, is to facilitate the attainment by member revenue administrations of higher levels of
effectiveness and efficiency in revenue collection, trade administration and law enforcement. The
methodology is transferable to any type of government organization and therefore may be beneficial
to organizations within the CCRA outside of the customs programme.
The WCO Diagnostic Study is a management tool designed to assist customs senior managers
to make a self-assessment of the state of their organization and to plan for modernization.  A special
feature of the Diagnostic Study process is that it provides for an analysis of not only the functioning
of the customs but also the environment in which it operates including its stakeholders’ expectations
(the public, trade operators, other government departme nts, banks, etc.)  Plans established through the
Diagnostic Study form a solid foundation upon which to concentrate technical assistance and becomethe basis for evaluating improvement and value for money.
(6) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
The CCRA also works with the OECD in the provision of technical assistance to its non-
member countries.  The objective is to eliminate tax measures which distort trade and investment
flows, prevent double taxation and counteract tax evasion and avoidance. This contributes to the
OECD’s overall objective of promoting economic development through free trade and the free
movement of capital and labour.
This involves the delivery of tax training courses to senior tax administrators of emerging
economies and the Russian Federation. Given its success in Central Eastern Europe and in order to
encourage and assist non-member economies to adopt OECD standards, the OECD tax training
programme was extended to Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. The key objective
of the programme is a transfer of technical expertise which will allow the tax  administrations of thesecountries to strengthen their legislative base and improve revenue collection, impacting on the overall
economic health of the countries and the region.
(7) India Capacity Development of Revenue Administration Project
The CCRA is assisting the Government of India (GOI) in improving and modernizing its
customs, excise and income tax administration and to the State of Rajasthan in improving itscommercial tax administration.  The CCRA works w ith GOI counterparts in five cooperative working
groups: customs, excise, direct tax, training and information technology, to provide advice as required
and to determine sub-projects and activities to be undertaken by each component of the project.  The
CCRA is also involved in developing a Model VAT Law and Administration Manual for use by the
Indian States in establishing a VAT system. This $8.5 million project is funded by CIDA and isscheduled to end in 2002.
(8) Customs Laboratory – Czech Republic and Thailand
The Laboratory and Scientific Services in Ottawa is an international leader in detection
technology and has trained scientists in many parts of the world on how to analyze goods crossing the
country’s borders.  As a result, recipients are better able to collect the appropriate duties and taxes and
control the cross-border flow of goods, especially contraband alcohol, arms and narcotics. For
instance Czech customs scientists were trained on how to use contraband detection technology, and
were generally better able to analyze and categorise imported products such as textiles, plastics,ceramics and spirits. A viable customs laboratory system is now in place, including a central
laboratory in Prague and six small regional laboratories.G/C/W/297
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(9) Ukraine Customs Code
At the request of the World Bank, two CCRA experts carried out a review of the Ukrainian
Customs Code in order to determine whether the Code and any proposed amendments supported theWorld Bank’s requirement for regulatory policy reforms that encourage economic development and
global integration.  In particular, whether:
- the Code, in its current form, complies with WTO and WCO standards and international best
practices
- the Code succeeds in unifying and streamlining customs procedures, rendering them
transparent to traders
- the Code reduces the possibility for arbitrary or discretionary application of customs rules and
procedures
-  proposed amendments, if any, enhance or detract from the quality of the Code
- further amendments are needed to strengthen the Code and its compliance with international
standards.
CANADA CUSTOMS & REVENUE AGENCY (CCRA)
 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
FISCAL YEAR 1999-2000
(Projects funded directly by Canada or through regional or international organizations -
*CCRA also provided assistance to recipients on a cost-recovery basis)
Argentina - Revenue Administration
1. Assessment of telephone consultation services & advice in developing a client services strategy
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999-05-17 - 1999-05-21
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
2. Technical expert to the second APEC workshop to  provide member economies with training in the
concepts and processes of risk management, Melbourne, Australia, 1999-11-08 - 1999-11-20
3. Assistance on WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Malacca, Malaysia, 1999-05-14 - 1999-05-18
4. Assistance in the implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Bandar Seri Bagawan,
Brunei, 1999-06-07 - 1999-06-12
5. Assistance in the implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Vina del Mar, Chile,
1999-07-02 - 1999-07-11
6. Technical assistance on WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, China, 1999-08-09 - 1999-08-13
7. Assist Chinese customs officials to establish/ improve their border measures dealing with intellectual
property rights, Kunming, China, 1999-11-08 - 1999-11-12
8. Assistance on the implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Jakarta, Indonesia,
1999-05-17 - 1999-05-22
9. Assist in establishing/improving border measures dealing with intellectual property rights (APEC
Collective Action Plan on Trade Related Aspects on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Jakarta,
Indonesia , 1999-07-26 - 1999-07-30
10. Assistance on WTO Customs Valuation Agreement and introduction to transfer pricing, Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea, 1999-06-21 - 1999-06-25
11. Assistance on WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Lima, Peru, 1999-06-21 - 1999-06-2512. Assistance on WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Manila, Philippines, 1999-05-24 - 1999-05-2813. Assistance on WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Bangkok, Thailand, 1999-06-10 - 1999-06-20
14. Assistance on WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, Hanoi, Vietnam , 1999-08-02 - 1999-08-05G/C/W/297
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Azerbaijan
15. Tax/Social Security Collecti ons Needs Assessment Mission on behalf of the World Bank, Baku,
Azerbaijan, 2000-02-17 – 2000-02-27
Bénin
16. Mission d'identification des besoins de l'administration des douanes du Bénin., Cotonou, Bénin, 1999-
11-15 - 1999-11-24
Bolivia
17. Needs Assessment – Tax Collection Risk Assessment Information System, La Paz, Bolivia, 1999 -07-
16 – 1999-07-16
18. Bolivia Tax Collection Reform Project (Part II – Needs Assessment) Ottawa, Canada , 1999-10-27 –
1999-10-29
19. Tax Audit Collection Course in the Hydrocarbons Sector, La Paz, Bolivia, 2000-01-10 – 2000-01-28
20.  Training Techniques Session for Bolivian Tax Audit Collection Course Participants, La Paz, Bolivia,
2000-01-31 – 2000-02-04
Brazil
21.  Financial Policy Seminar – Sharing of best practices on the use of technology as applied to tax audit.
Victoria, Brazil,1999-10-19 – 1999-10-21
Bulgaria
22.  Technology/knowledge transfer on the administration and technical operation of a customs and revenue
laboratory, Sofia, Bulgaria
Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (CCLEC)
23.    Assistance in implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement (Module 2: Organizing the
Infrastructure of the Valuation Programme); Barbados; 1999-10-28 – 1999-11-05
24.     Assistance in implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement (Module 3: Post Importation
Environment) Bridgetown, Barbados, 2000-03-27 - 2000-03-31
25. Preparatory session for the development of CCLEC Valuation Training Workshop, Trinidad & Tobago
1999-04-26 - 1999-04-27
26. Mentoring Programme - Regional Airport Anti-Smuggling Initiative (RAASI), Barbados & Antigua,
1999-04-01 - 1999-04-30
27. Regional Clearance Systems Project - Intelligence Awareness Training for CCLEC Senior Managers
Castries, St. Lucia , 1999-05-22 - 1999-05-29
28. Middle-Management Training Course, Castries, St. Lucia, 1999-07-03 - 1999-07-18
29.   Assistance in implementation of the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement, (Module I: Complexities of
the WTO Agreement) Barbados, Barbados, 2000-02-15 - 2000-02-24
30. Regional Airport Anti-Smuggling Initiative (RAASI), Phase 2 Develop interrogation, investigative and
examination techniques in air environment, Kingston , St. Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua,
2000-02-09 - 2000-02-27
31. Provide training on Precursor and Risk Profiling to Jamaica Customs Officers, Kingston, Jamaica,
2000-03-11 - 2000-03-31
Cuba Tax Assistance Project
32. The Cuba Tax Assistance Project is an initiative sponsored by CIDA and for which the CCRA is the
executing agency.  The overall goal of the project is to improve the ability of the Cuban government toadminister tax policy.G/C/W/297
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Czech Republic
33. Presentation at the Workshop of the Customs Technical Laboratories, Prague, Czech Republic, 1999-
05-24 - 1999-05-27
Dominica
34. Detector dog training for Dominica Customs, Rigaud Learning Centre, Quebec, Canada, 1999-04-06 -
1999-06-11
Iceland
35. Ionscan 400 (Drug detector) training for 2 Iceland Customs Officials, Ottawa, Canada, 1999-12-06 -
1999-12-07
India
36. Capacity Development of Revenue Administration Project - To assist the Government of India (GOI)
in improving and modernizing their customs, excise and income tax administration and to the State ofRajasthan to improve its commercial tax administration.  CCRA participants work with GOI
counterparts in five cooperative working groups (Customs, Excise, Direct Tax, Training and
Information Technology) to provide advice as required and to determine sub projects and activities tobe undertaken by each component of the project.  In addition, CCRA is providing assistance indeveloping a Model VAT Law and Administration Manual for use by the Indian States in establishinga VAT system.
Inter-American Center of Tax Administrators (CIAT)
37. Seminar on the Control and Transfer Pricing for MERCOSUR countries, Buenos Aires, Argentina,
1999-11-15 - 1999-11-20
Latvia
38. Seminar on Special Import Measures Act., Ottawa, Canada, 1999-11-02 - 1999-11-02
Lithuania & Estonia
39. Officials from Lithuania and Estonia participated in the Baltic Economic Management Training
Programme, Ottawa, Canada, 1999-10-18 - 1999-10-21
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
40. Deliver a GST implementation presentation at the International Conference on Managing Tax Reform ,
Vienna, Austria, 1999-07-06 - 1999-07-07
41. Deliver Tax Collection Course for NIS Tax administrations, Ankara, Turkey, 1999-10-08 - 1999-10-1742. Workshop on Capital Flight and Tax Evasion and Avoidance, Santiago, Chile, 1999-10-25 - 1999-10-
29
43. Deliver a course on "Principles of International Taxation" to participants from Latin and South
America, Mexico City, Mexico, 1999-11-22 - 1999-11-26
44. Deliver a Seminar on Taxpayers Rights and Obligations to NIS Tax administrations, Ankara, Turkey ,
2000-02-14 - 2000-02-18
45. Deliver a seminar on Capital Flight and Tax Evasion and Avoidance., Moscow, Russia, 2000-02-10 -
2000-02-24
46. Principles of International Taxation and Tax Treaties, Mexico City, Mexico, November 200047. Co-facilitate a Seminar on Developing and Maintaining Training Organizations for the Chinese State
Administration of Taxes at the Vienna Tax Centre, Vienna, Austria, 1999-04-12 - 1999-04-23
48. Deliver a Seminar on Principles of International Taxation and Tax Treaties, Beijing, China , 2000-03-
06 - 2000-03-11G/C/W/297
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Romania
49. Assistance to the Romanian Customs Laboratory as set out in a one-year laboratory training
programme, Bucharest, 1999-05-30 - 1999-06-05
50. Assistance on contraband detection to Romanian Customs Laboratory, Ottawa, Canada, 1999-09-27 -
1999-10-01
Russia
51. Study tour of 14 government representatives as part of the Yeltsin Democracy Fellowship Programme,
Ottawa, Canada, 1999-05-31 - 1999-06-02
Slovakia
52. Technical Assistance on contraband detection to th e Slovak Customs Directorate, Bratislava, Slovakia,
1999-05-30 - 1999-06-05
South Africa
53. Implementation of UNDCP project aimed at improving the control capacities of drug law enforcement
in Eastern/Southern African Seaports, Durban, South Africa, 1999-09-03 - 1999-10-09
Thailand
54. Visit by 18 Thai delegates to study a Canadian Gasohol project and Excise Duty application, Ottawa,
Canada, 1999-06-06 - 1999-06-07
Uganda
55. Audit training in the large manufacturing sector, Kampala, Uganda,  2000-02-28 - 2000-03-24
Ukraine
56. Review the Ukraine Customs Code, Ottawa, Canada, 1999-09-01 - 1999-09-15
United Arab Emirates
57. Develop an evaluation guide and conduct interviews to assess the capacity of actual and potential
Dubai Customs senior managers, Dubai, UAE, 1999-05-08 - 1999-05-26
Uruguay
58. Transfer Pricing and International Tax Audit Seminar.  Co-delivered with French taxation, 
Montevideo, Uruguay, 2000-03-13 - 2000-03-17
World Customs Organization (WCO)
59. Facilitate a self diagnostic study of the Vietnamese Customs Administration, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2000-02-
15 - 2000-02-26
60. Review and modify existing WCO compliance and enforcement publications, Brussels, Belgium, 1999-
06-20 - 1999-06-27
61. Formalize, in conjunction with management training experts from France, Great Britain and
Switzerland a training manual for the Fellowship Management Course, Liestal, Switzerland, 1999-08-
30 - 1999-09-03
62. Fellowship Management Course (English), Brussels, Belgium, 1999-10-11 - 1999-10-2263. Fellowship Management Course (French), Brussels, Belgium, 2000-02-21 - 2000-03-03G/C/W/297
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CANADA CUSTOMS & REVENUE AGENCY
 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
FISCAL YEAR 2000-2001
(Projects funded directly by Canada or through regional or international organizations –
*CCRA also provided assistance to recipients on a cost recovery basis)
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
1. Provision of expert advice to Hong Kong customs on the implementation of a risk management regime
China, June 12-16, 2000
Cuba
2. Canada-Cuba Tax Assistance Project - This initiative is sponsored by the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) and for which the CCRA is the executing agency.  The overall goal ofthe project is to improve the ability of the Cuban government to administer tax policy. Cuba, April
2000 - March 2001
Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (CCLEC)
3. Implementation of customs intelligence units, St. Lucia, July 7-8, 2000
4.     Management Training Course, St. Lucia, September 18-29, 2000
5. Assistance in the delivery of basic airport interdic tion skills training, St. Lucia, October 8-November 3,
2000
6. Participate in the review of the activities of the Joint Intelligence Office in Puerto Rico,  St. Lucia
October 12-13, 2000
7.           Co-facilitation of first CCLEC/WCO Integrity Workshop, Castries, St. Lucia, October 16-20, 2000
8. Facilitate the design of customs intelligence units, St. Lucia, October 21-27, 2000
9. WTO Customs Valuation Agreement Implementation – Fact-finding missions, Jamaica, November 14-
16, 2000
10. WTO Customs Valuation Agreement Implementation - Complexities of the WTO Agreement, Jamaica
January 3-12, 2001
11. WTO Customs Valuation Agreement  Implementation - Post Importation Environment, Jamaica,
January 31 - February 9, 2001
Francophonie
12. Tax audit seminar for African francophone countries, Montreal , July 31 - August 11, 2000
India
13. Capacity Development of Revenue Administration Project - Assistance to the Government of India
(GOI) in improving and modernizing their customs, excise and income tax administration and to the
State of Rajasthan in improving its commercial tax administration.  CCRA participants work with GOIcounterparts in five cooperative working groups (Customs, Excise, Direct Tax, Training andInformation Technology) to provide advice as required and to determine sub projects and activities tobe undertaken by each component of the project.  In  addition, CCRA provides assistance in developing
a Model VAT Law and Administration Manual for use by the Indian States in establishing a VAT
system., India, April 1, 2000 - March 31, 2001
Mexico
14. Conference - 100th Anniversary of the Mexican Customs Laboratory, Mexico, November 22-26, 2000G/C/W/297
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Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
15. Workshop on Taxation of Natural Resources , Ankara, Turkey, May 8-12, 2000
16. International Taxation and Tax Treaties – ISTAX-OECD Seminar, Japan, October 10-13, 200017. Workshop on Developing and Maintaining Training Organizations in Budapest, Hungary, (for Chinese
tax officials) November 13-24, 2000
18. Transfer Pricing (Introductory) , Tianjin, China, February 12-16, 2001
19. Seminar on Resolving Tax Disputes, St. Petersburg, Russia, February 19-23, 2001
20. Evaluation Group Meeting to design a questionnaire and scoring system for the new evaluation strategy
of the OECD, Paris, France, February 27-28, 2001
21. Seminar on Indirect Methods of Taxation, Ankara, Turkey, March 12-16, 200122. Regional Seminar on the Exchange of Information and Bank Secrecy, Yaounde, Cameroon, March 26-
30, 2001
Peru
23. Mission on express consignment clearance training, Peru, August 20-23, 2000
24. Valuation Workshop for Peruvian customs officials, Peru, October 2-13, 2000
Philippines
25.  Meetings with programme and fund managers at the Asian International Development Bank (ADB) to
explore opportunities for funding CCRA TA activities in priority countries in the Asia-Pacific region,Philippines, December 12-14, 2000
Romania
26. Canada/Romania laboratory assistance project, Romania, April 2000 - March 2001
Russia
27. Build a constructive 4-year Canada-Russia programme of cooperation under the tax dispute 
resolution component of the judicial partnership programme, Russia, May 19 - June 19, 2000
28. Share lessons learned in a tax environment and address management and strategic planning 
Issues, Russia, November 13-17, 2000
Slovakia
29. Provision of technical assistance to the Slovak Customs laboratory and give a presentation to the
European Customs Chemists Conference in Rome, Rome/Slovakia, October 14-29, 2000
Suriname - Inter-American Center of Tax Administrators (CIAT)
30. Assignment of an audit and an organisational development expert June 2000 - June 2001)
Thailand
31. Canada/Thailand Laboratory Assistance Project, Thailand, April 2000 - March 2001
World Customs Organization (WCO)
32. Fellowship Programme Management Course (for English speaking administrations), Brussels, October
9-20, 2000
33. International Senior Managers’ Valuation Seminar (provision of 2 lecturers), Brussels, October 23-27,
2000
34. Forum on New Training Technologies – To deliver a presentation on “E-learning solutions to reduce
costs and to reach more learners, more quickly”, March 1-2, 2001G/C/W/297
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35. Fellowship Programme Management Course (for French speaking administrations), Brussels, March 5-
16, 2001
36. WCO Integrity Workshop, Paraguay, Spring 2001
37. WTO Customs Valuation Agreement Implementation – Organizing the Infrastructure of the Valuation
Programme, Jamaica March 2-16, 2001
CANADA CUSTOMS & REVENUE AGENCY
INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
FISCAL YEAR 2001-2002
(Projects funded directly by Canada or through regional or international organizations –
*CCRA also provided assistance to recipients on a cost recovery basis)
Azerbaijan
1. Tax/social security collections needs assessment mission (phase 2) , Azerbaijan, April 2001 (planned)
Benin (Ministry of Finance)
2. Customs and Finance Reform Project - This 3-year project (April 2001 to March 2004) is aimed at
modernizing and strengthening the capacity of the Benin Customs Administration as well as theFinance Inspectorate in the areas of:  generation of  revenues, streamlining of the customs process and
expenditure control and monitoring.
3. Customs and Finance Reform Project - Preparatory mission, Benin, April 30-May 11, 2001
Central America
4. Trade Policy Capacity Development Project in partnership with the Centre for Trade Policy and Law
(executing agency) - The outcome of this 3-year project (customs segment) is to assist six CentralAmerican countries to: - meet their obligations aris ing from the FTAA (business facilitation measures)
and the WTO Agreements on Customs Valuation and Rules of Origin -improve and expand business
facilitation practices (uniform customs codes, procedures, harmonized system, etc.) within the region
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, PanamaInception mission:
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
5. Meeting of the Advisory Group on Co-operation with Non-Member Countries, Ankara, Turkey,
January 25, 2002
6. Meeting of the Board on Co-operation with Non-Member Countries, Mexico, April 18-19, 2001
Suriname - Inter-American Center of Tax Administrators (CIAT)
7. Assignment of an audit and an organisational development expert June 2000 - June 2001)
Thailand
8. Middle Management Professional Development Programme, Thailand, June 11-29, 2001
World Customs Organization (WCO)
9. International Training for CCRA Officials , Diagnostic Studies/Integrity Workshops, 
April 9-12, 2001
10. Commercial Fraud Training Course – Brazil, April 23-27, 2001
11. WCO Training & Technical Assistance Group Meeting, May 21-22, 2001G/C/W/297
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12. Rules of Origin Seminar – Brazil, May 2001
13. WCO Integrity Workshop, Paraguay, Spring 200114. 12th Session of the Technical Committee on Customs Valuation, Presentation on “Post Import Audit in
Ensuring Compliance with the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement” May 28-29, 2001
15. Harmonized System Seminar – Benin, June 200116. Provision of technical expertise from the Marine Centre of Expertise, South Africa, Fall 2001
East Timor
17. Two 1-year assignments offered by the East Timor Revenue Service under a United Nations initiative.
Dili, East Timor, June 2001G/C/W/297
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V. 2 Mauritius
SEMINAR ON TRADE FACILITATION
THE MAURITIUS Tradenet SYSTEM
PAPER BY THE DELEGATION OF MAURITIUS
GENEVA, 10 – 11 MAY 2001
‘TRADENET’ IN MAURITIUS
1. Background
Following the recommendation of the World Bank in 1992 to increase the use of IT in
Mauritius, studies were initiated in November 1993. Their purpose was to examine the feasibility ofthe setting up and running of an electronic netw ork that would facilitate the existing trade
documentation process. This system would allow for the submission, processing and approval of
declarations by the Customs Department within 15 minutes. (See Harvard Business School Papers
191-009, 193-136)
Following the undertaking of detailed system studies and the carrying out of intensive
discussions with potential users, it became obvi ous that a Value-Added Network (VAN) needed to be
set up, with an operator running the system and being in a position to also offer other IT
communications services.  The VAN was conceived as a joint venture company which would involve
public and private sector interests and a foreign technical partner.  It was also meant to operateautonomously and, perhaps even more importantly, to become self-sustainable in the long term.  After
a careful examination of the costs and benefits of such a proposal, the decision to set up the Mauritius
Network Services Ltd. was taken.  From then onwards, the race against time to set up a strategic IT
communications infrastructure in Mauritius began.
Company Brief
Mauritius Network Services Limited was incorporated on 15th, April 1994. Its shareholders are:
MauriNet Investment Ltd (60 per cent) of which
53 per cent is held by para-statal organizations, as follows:
The Cargo Handling Corporation Ltd.
The Mauritius Ports Authority
Mauritius Telecoms Ltd.
The State Investment Corporation Ltd; and
47 per cent is held by the private sector, through
The Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry (a private law institution)Singapore Network Services (Pte) Ltd (40 per cent)
SNS is a company operates a similar venture in Singapore since 1989G/C/W/297
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The role of each shareholder is the following:
MauriNet : To represent and actively involve both the public and private sectors of the Mauritius
economy in the company’s activities and services.
SNS: To invest in and implement TradeNet & ot her projects, to transfer EDI technologies to
Mauritius, and to participate in their im plementation experiences within the country.
There are currently over 300 public organisations and private concerns in Mauritius linked to
TradeNet.
2.  TradeNet
With a PC and a modem, traders can retrieve customs reports, manifests, and ‘port situation’
information sheets (ShipLink) from the system. Furthermore, and more importantly, ‘ TradeNet ’
allows them to submit declarations and obtain approvals without having to be physically present at the
Customs Department.
The first 5 phases of TradeNet , as described underneath,  have been implemented:
a. TradeNet Phase 1 - Operational as from 28th July, 1994
Transmission of approved ‘non-verification’ de clarations from the Customs Department to
freight stations for the delivery of goods. This phase has become obsolete with Phase 3 now
being fully operational.
b. TradeNet Phase 2 - Operational as from 5th January, 1995
Submission of manifests from Shipping and Cl earing & Forwarding Agents to the Customs
Department.
 c. CMS & TradeNet Phase 3 - Operational as from 28th July, 1997
Submission of declarations to the Customs Depart ment by traders, and subsequent decision of
the Department on such submission.
d.     TradeNet Phase 4 - Operational as from 11th July, 2000
            Submission of forms (No.28) for the transfer of containers.
e.         TradeNet Phase 5 - Operational as from 11th December, 2000
           Submission of Import and Export  Permits to the Customs Department for approval.
Phase 6 of TradeNet  will be implemented when the submission and approval of certificates
of origin (such as EUR 1s and GSP forms) by electronic means will become an accepted practice
throughout the world.
Database Information (ShipLink and Customs Online)
- Shiplink  is operational since January 1995, and is an online Port Situation and Shipping
Schedules database
- Customs Online  was implemented in July 1997 with TradeNet Phase 3, and is an online
Report Number, Manifest, Tariff and other Customs codes database
Overall, the TradeNet system aims at providing the following benefits :G/C/W/297
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a. reducing the processing times for declarations fr om 2-3 days to within minutes or hours; thus,
traders can use the faster turn-round time to conduct more business,
b. minimizing time previously needed to move between and deal with up to 7
different agencies, saving processing costs and time, and increasingproductivity,
c. eliminating duplication in the capture of information and in unnecessary paperwork by each
controlling agency,
d. tapping into the information database of the network to obtain such information as exchange
rates and tariff rates for duty computations (Customs Online).
3.  The Customs Management System (CMS)
In conjunction with TradeNet, an automated Customs declaration processing system has been
developed, so as to process and approve the declarations submitted by traders electronically.  This
system has been designed with the assistance of Customs Consultants of international repute.
The CMS is tailor-made for Mauritius, and has been developed locally.  As MNS possesses
the source codes and local technical expertise needed to run the system, support and modifications to
it can be readily implemented.  Thus, it is possible not only to run the system in an effective manner,
but to also meet the ever changing needs of the Mauritian economy promptly.
TradeNet and CMS Awareness Campaigns
As part of the implementation and change management efforts, workshops have been
organised to create awareness and solicit feedback on TradeNet and CMS.
4. Other Issues
- Occasional traders
As all declarations are to be submitted electronically to the Customs Department, the occasional
trader has to approach the Customs Brokers, or Cl earing and Forwarding Agents for the submission of
a declaration.  The issue of Service Centres (i.e. subm ission of declarations on behalf of traders) was
raised but resolved by the decision that operators of Service Centres must possess a Customs Broker’s
Licence.
As part of the business proposal to set up TradeNet, it was agreed among members of the
trading community that TradeNet users would pay a service fee to MNS instead of Customs for every
declaration processed electronically.
- Income tax number
An Income Tax Number and a Declarant ID are used to identify the various users of the
TradeNet System.
- Equipment and information
The following equipment and information are needed to run TradeNet :
• PC (see hardware specification for details)G/C/W/297
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• Modem
• Telephone line (Direct or Individual)
• Declarant ID (from the Customs Department)
5.  TRADENET FAQ's
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON THE ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF
DECLARATIONS TO THE CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT
Q. What is the key benefit in submitting declarations electronically ?
A. The key benefits are faster responses, streamlined procedures, transparency and elimination of
duplication of work through the electronic submission of ONE type of form.
However, there are other benefits of TradeNet which, although having no direct bearing on
the country’s trade facilitation process, are most beneficial to the system. Please refer for such
benefits to the brief description (next page attached herewith) of the Contributory System set
up in Mauritius in 2000 using TradeNet as the value-added network.
Q. What is the current state of TradeNet/CMS ?
A. TradeNet Phase 3 and CMS were launched on 28th July 1997 with pilot users (mainly
forwarders). Phase 3 has been fully operational since 1st July 1998, and Phase 5 is the latest one
to have been implemented.
Q. How can one become a user to submit Customs Declarations electronically ?
A. Firstly, complete registration forms and submit to the Customs Department for approval.  Once
this has been done, register with the Mauritius Network Services Ltd. So as to be able to send
Single Goods Declaration (SGD) forms electronically.  A software, a mailbox and training will
be provided.
Q. What will be the price of the communications software ?
A. The price of a TradeNet Phase 3 software single-user licence is currently $1300 (payable prior to
installation). This includes the TradeNet Software Licence, a Centura SQLBase single-user
licence, the on-site installation and hands-on training for 2 users.
Q. What are the processing fees for each SGD sent ?
A. MNS will charge a service fee of approx. $ 5.- for each declaration sent through TradeNet.
Q.    Will we still need to submit hard copies of the Single Goods Declaration (SGD) form ?
A. Yes, a print-out of every SGD form sent electronically, with supporting documents attached, is
required by the Customs Department.  The system will inform declarants when these are needed.
Q. Will the goods of users of TradeNet be held  up if there is a problem with the system ?
A. In all cases, contingency procedures have been defined, and the priority is to facilitate the
clearance of goods declared electronically.
Do you wish to know more about TRADENET ?
You may contact:
The Permanent Mission of Mauritius in Geneva
7 chemin Louis Dunant, 1202 Geneva. Tel: 734 8550G/C/W/297
Page 215
or
The Office of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Europe
1 Cornavin Street, P.O. Box 2082, 1211 Geneva 1. Tel: 731 6145
The Contributions Network Project
After the successful implementation TradeNet, the Contributions Network Project, an
initiative of the Ministry of Finance for the electronic submission of returns and payment of tax
(VAT, PAYE, Corporate Income Tax), submission of corporate information and payment of fees tothe Registrar of Companies as well as the electronic submission of returns and payment of
contributions by employers to the National Pe nsions Fund, the National Savings Fund, and the
Industrial and Vocational Training Board, has been launched.
The project has been worked out in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Security, the
Companies Division of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Corporate Affairs & Financial Services,
and the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology for the public sector, and with
the Joint Economic Council (the apex body of the Mauritian Private Sector) and the Mauritius
Employers Federation.
The consultancy services for the project, which were financed by the World Bank through a
loan from the International Bank for Reconstr uction and Development (IBRD) under the Technical
Assistance to Enhance Competitiveness Project, were completed in February 1999.
Hence, it was decided to implement the project based on the final report submitted in
February 1999 by the Consultants. The implementation of the Contributions Network Project was
mentioned by the Minister of Finance in the Budget Speech of 1999 - 2000. The project makes use of
time-tested and proven EDI technology, and also provides a web-enabled, Internet based version
through TradeNet’s e-commerce Network Infrastructure.
Phased Approach
The Contributions Network project will be implemented in several phases, with a first phase
consisting of the electronic submission of one Single Return for VAT and PAYE  and payment of
both taxes in one single amount to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.
• This first phase started with about 30 users in May 2000.
• Phase II will be the electronic submission and payment of NPF & NSF contributions, and
IVTB levy.
• Phase III will be the electronic submission of corporate information and payment of fees to
the Registrar of  Companies.
• Phase IV will be the electronic submission of corporate income tax return and payment of tax.
• As the project develops, other tax/contributions may be added (e.g. excise duty on locally
manufactured goods).G/C/W/297
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BENEFITS
The Contributions Network Project aims at providing the following benefits
a. Eliminate paper returns and paper payments, and reduction of errors by use of standard
software
b. No need to go to the different departments for submission of returns and payment
c. Harmonization of the different deadlines for submission of returns and payment
d. Reduce data entry at the different departments, faster processing of returns, and hence
better service to the public
SCOPE
Via the CNP network, tax payers, government  revenue departments, and banks will be
electronically linked using both EDI and Internet technologies.G/C/W/297
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V. 3 UN/ECE
THE ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE AND
NATIONAL TRADE FACILITATION BODIES (PRO COMMITTEES)
Renewed Interest in Trade Facilitation
Trade liberalisation cannot bring full benefits without simpler trade procedures. Multilateral
trade negotiations under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have resulted in a
substantive reduction of overall tariff protection world-wide. However, as tariffs become less
important, there is a growing realisation of the adverse impact of procedural barriers to trade. If tariffs
are cut, but trade procedures remain complex, full benefits from trade liberalisation are unlikely to be
attained. There is therefore increasing interest  in international forums, including the WTO, in
reducing or eliminating procedural barriers in order to stimulate and simplify international trade. Yet
one of the challenges facing public authorities who wish to facilitate international trade is to reconcile
the apparently contradictory objectives of controlling illegal cross-border traffic, while minimising
obstacles to legitimate trade.
The technological revolution offers unprecedented opportunities to sustained productivity
gains and economic success depends on rapid acquisition of skills, effective utilization of technology
and information and their exploitation through markets. However, it is a prerequisite that these
technologies and skills are made available to all countries so  that any technological or digital divide
is avoided.
The UN Economic Commission for Europe and trade facilitation recommendations
As international trade expanded in the 1960s, it was agreed within the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe to establish a working party (WP.4) on the Facilitation of
International Trade Procedures. In 1996 this working party was transformed into UN/CEFACT(United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business). 30 trade facilitation
recommendations have been developed under the au spices of the UN/ECE, which brings together
members from all United Nations Member States, international and non-governmental organizations
to develop standards and conventions in a wide range of fields, including trade and transport. The
texts of these recommendations can be downloaded from the UN/CEFACT web site:
www.unece.org/cefact  (click on “Recommendations”).
Trade facilitation activities need a coordinated approach, in order to ensure that solving
problems in one field would not create problems in another part of the international supply chain. The
needs of all parties, both private and public, have to be taken into account before decisions are made.
All this requires an effective forum, where private sector managers, public sector administrators and
policy makers can work together towards the effec tive implementation of jointly agreed facilitation
measures. With this objective in mind, the UN/ECE adopted its Recommendation 4: National Trade
Facilitation Bodies  (www.unece.org/cefact/rec/rec04en.htm ). This Recommendation contains a list of
national trade facilitation bodies. The purpose of these organizations is to identify issues affecting the
cost and efficiency of their country’s international trade; develop measures to reduce the cost and
improve the efficiency of international trade; assist in the implementation of those measures; providea national focal point for the collection and dissemination of information on best practices in
international trade facilitation; and participate in international efforts to improve trade facilitation and
efficiency.G/C/W/297
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NATIONAL TRADE FACILITATION BODIES
The various national trade facilitation bodies assume roles and tasks which reflect the
specifics of their countries. In some countries they focus on formalities, procedures and documents, or
on the promotion of UN/EDIFACT as the only globa l and internationally recognized standard for
electronic data interchange (EDI). In other countries, particularly in developing countries and
countries in transition, it serves as a forum to coordinate broader trade-related policies covering not
only the use of standards and recommendations, but also profound legal reforms in the field of
finance, banking, insurance, trade and transport. Participants in such bodies should represent all
companies and institutions that take part in international trade transactions: manufacturers, importers,
exporters, freight forwarders, carriers, banks, insurance companies and public administrations.
In order to avoid certain institutional conflict of interests implied in the term “national trade
facilitation body”, some countries have chosen to use the more neutral term “”PRO Committees”. The
“pro” element originally reflected the idea of simplifying trade “ procedures”, but is increasingly used
with reference to “ promotion”. This is reflected in the names of most national facilitation committees,
such as:
SITPRO  The Simpler Trade Procedures Board in the UK
AUSTRIA PRO  Association for the Promotion of Electronic Data Interchange
ROM PRO Romanian Trade Facilitation Committee
JAST PRO Japan Association for Simplification of International Trade Procedures
NITPRO  Nigerian Committee on Trade Procedures
The main task of PRO Committees is to advise administrations and companies on relevant
trade facilitation measures, on best business practices and on non-tariff barriers. They can promote
trade in developing and transition economies by encouraging the growth of national exports andattracting foreign investment, especially through providing information about the particular
international trade procedures and requirements. These organizations represent their countries at
UN/CEFACT, but also in regional cooperation activities, such as EUROPRO, the association of EU
and EFTA committees for trade facilitation, and SECIPRO, the trade facilitation segment of the
Southeast European Cooperative Initiative. Further, UN/ECE has developed a joint technical
assistance project with the Czech Republic for trade facilitation in selected transition economies. The
experience of the Czech PRO-Committee, FITPRO, is used to support the establishment and firststeps of new PRO-Committees. The beneficiary c ountries are, or are planned to be, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The UN/ECE Regional Advisor for Trade Facilitation
The principal objectives of the activities of the UN/ECE Regional Adviser on Trade
Facilitation are to increase awareness of trade facilitation issues and act as a catalyst for trade
facilitation in countries in transition. The Regional Adviser has been proactive in supporting the
establishment of national trade facilitation bodies. He actively participates in seminars and
workshops, and develops information materials to be used for trade facilitation education and training.
Recently, the Regional Adviser has been instrumental in promoting major trade facilitation
initiatives in the transition economies, especially in Southeast Europe, Central Asia and the other
countries of the CIS. He is the focal point of  the trade facilitation se gment (SECIPRO) of theG/C/W/297
Page 219
Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI).41 UN/ECE, through a regional advisor, provides
the secretariat for the Regional Steering Committee of the Trade and Transport Facilitation project for
Southeast Europe (TTFSE), realised within the SECI framework and supported by the World Bank.42
In the same context, particular effort continues vis-à-vis promoting trade facilitation in Working TableII (economic and commercial issues) of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe. In addition, UN/ECE,through its Regional Adviser for trade facilitation, is closely observing the work of such organizations
as the European Commission and the World Bank on trade facilitation in the UN/ECE region, with a
view to avoid duplication of activities in the area of technical assistance.
Contacts:Hans Hansell
Trade Division, UNECE
Palais des Nations
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
tel.: +41-22- 917 2457
fax: +41-22- 917 0037e-mail: hans.hansell@unece.org
Mario Apostolov
Trade Division, UNECE
Palais des Nations1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
tel.: +41-22- 917 1134
fax: +41-22- 917 0037
e-mail: mario.apostolov@unece.org
                                                     
41 The web site of SECIPRO: http://www.unece.org/secipro
42 See: http://www.seerecon.org/index.html  G/C/W/297
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VI. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON SPEAKERS
SESSION 1 (9.15):  OVERVIEW OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES  BY
INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
• Mr. Leonid Lozbenko, Deputy Secretary General, World Customs Organization
Mr. Lozbenko is Deputy Secretary General of the WCO. As Head of Human Resources
Development Services, he was instrumental in the launching of a number of initiatives to enhance co-
operation between Customs administrations world-wo rd wide. Mr. Lozbenko was previously First
Deputy Director General of the Customs Service of the then Soviet Union. In the 1980s, he was one
of the architects of Customs modernization in the Former USSR during the transition from acommand to a market economy.
Contact address: Rue du Marché 30, B-1210 Bruxelles, Tel: 0032 2 209 9408, Fax: 0032 2 209 9292
E-mail: leonid.lozbenko@wcoomd.org,  Internet: ht tp://www.wcoomd.org
• Mr. Jean Gurunlian, Director, Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade
Efficiency, UNCTAD
      Mr. Gurunlian is Director of UNCTAD's Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade
Efficiency Division. Before appointed direct or, Mr. Gurunlian was head of UNCTAD's Special
Programme for Trade Facilitation as well as of the Programme for Trade Efficiency. In 1981, he
launched the ASYCUDA programme for a world-wide reform of customs administrations.
Contact address: Avenue de la Paix, CH – 1211 Geneva, Tel: (0041 22) 907 5544, Fax: (0041 22) 907
0052, E-mail: Jean.Gurunlian@unctad.org, Internet: http://www.unctad.org
•  Mr. Maxence Orthlieb, Economic Affairs Officer, SITE, UNCTAD
Mr. Orthlieb has been working with UNCTAD on multimodal transport and trade facilitation
issues since 1985. As part of his main duties, he carries out research work and prepares substantivedocuments on the promotion of multimodal transport and logistics, directs  seminars and workshops
on international transport, and manages technical as sistance projects in the fields of international
transport  and trade facilitation. Before joining UNCTAD, he worked for the Government of
Venezuela in the area of transport and national planning.
Contact address: Avenue de la Paix, CH – 1211 Geneva, Tel: (0041 22) 907 2001, Fax: (0041 22) 907
0052, E-mail: Maxence.Orthlieb@unctad.org, Internet: http://www.unctad.org
• Mr. Peter M. Kalil, Chief, Integration, Trade and  Hemispheric Issues Division, Inter-
American Development Bank
Mr. Kalil is Chief of the Integration, Trade and Hemispheric Issues Division of the Integration
and Regional Programmes Department at the Inter-American Development Bank. Mr. Kalil has
worked for the IADB for 20 years, previously holding positions as loan officer for Central America,
Advisor to the Chairman of  the Loan Committee and Chief of the Fiscal Division.G/C/W/297
Page 221
Contact address: 1300 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20577, Tel: (202) 623-2554, Fax:
(202) 623-2169, E-mail:  peterk@iadb.org
• Mr. John S. Wilson, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
John Wilson is a Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group of the
World Bank.  He is currently managing projects on trade facilitation, standards and trade policy. Mr.
Wilson was previously Vice President for Technology Policy at the Information Technology Industry
Council in Washington, D.C. and a Senior Staff Officer at the National Research Council of the
National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. Mr. Wilson has served as Assistant to the President
at the Committee for Economic Development and as Adjunct Professor of International Affairs atGeorgetown University.
Contact address : 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433, United States, Tel: 202-473-2065, Fax:
202-522-1159, E-mail: jswilson@worl dbank.org, www.worldbank.org
• Mr. James T. Walsh, Senior Economist, Tax Coordination Division, International
Monetary Fund
Mr. Walsh is Senior Economist in the Tax Coordination Division of the International
Monetary Fund. Before joining the IMF, Mr. Wa lsh spent approximately twenty-five years in
Revenue Canada, Customs and Excise. Since working for the IMF, he has been involved in providing
technical assistance in customs and tax administration to more than twenty-five countries. This
included leading missions to diagnose problems and recommend solutions and recruiting and
supporting advisors to work in some of these countries.
Contact address: 700 19 th Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20431, United States, Tel: 202-623-6394,
Fax: 202-623-8171, E-mail: jwalsh@imf.org
SESSION 2 (11.30):  OVERVIEW OF TECH NICAL ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES BY DONOR
MEMBERS
• Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, Director , International Affairs and Research Division, Customs
and Tariff Bureau, Japan
Mr. Mikuriya is Director of the Division for International Affairs and Research of the
Customs and Tariff Bureau in the Japanese Ministry of Finance. He has extensive experience  in
customs and tariff policies. Mr. Mikuriya served in the Mission of Japan (1990 – 1993) to participatein the Uruguay Round negotiations and later served as  a member of the tariff negotiating team. Under
his current position, Mr. Mikuriya considerably enlarged Japan's Customs technical assistance
programme to meet the growing needs of recipient countries.
Contact address: 3-1-1 Kasumigaseki Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8940, Japan, Tel:  0081-3-3581-2852,
Fax: 0081-3-5251-2175, E-mail: kunio.mikuriya@mof.go.jpG/C/W/297
Page 222
• Mr. John Clarke, Coordinator, WTO Affairs, DG Trade, Commission of the European
Communities
Mr. Clarke works in the WTO division of the European Commission, responsible for strategy
and coordination on the New Round as well as for a number of specific dossiers, including trade
facilitation. Before joining the Commission in 1993, he was an official of the Hong Kong Governmentand part of the negotiating team during the Uruguay Round. In 1992, Mr. Clarke chaired the GATT
TBT Committee.
Contact address: Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 170, B-1040 Bruxelles, Tel:  0032 2 299-01-64, Fax:  0032
2 229-09-00, E-Mail:  John.Clarke@cec.eu.int
• Mr. J. Rob Van Kuik, Ministry of Finance, the Netherlands
Mr. Van Kuik has been working for the Tax and Customs administration of the Netherlands
for twenty years in different posts. His present tasks as senior policy advisor in the Customs Policy
and Legislation Directorate include general international policy issues for Dutch Customs,
negotiations on the revision of a number of international conventions and negotiations on bilateral
treaties on mutual administrative assistance in cu stoms matters. He has been involved in Dutch
technical assistance programmes in the context of the EU for a number of years on a policy and more
practical level.
Contact address: Korte Voorhout 7 P.O.Box 20201, 2500 EE Den Haag, The Netherlands, Tel:  0031
70 342-82-67, Fax:  0031 70 342 79 38, E-Mail:  j.r.kuik@minfin.nl
• Mr. Mark Linscott, Attaché, Mission of the Unites States to the WTO
Mark Linscott has served in the U.S. Mission to the WTO for over four years. In addition to
trade facilitation, he has covered customs valuation, government procurement, TBT, antidumping andsubsidies, balance-of-payments, and rules of origin during this period, but he now focuses on services
and the GATS.  Prior to this, Mr. Linscott worked in the USTR office of WTO and Multilateral
Affairs and served as the U.S. trade negotiator on government procurement issues
Contact address: 1-3 Avenue de la Paix; 1202 Geneva, Tel: (41-22) 749-5332, Fax: (41-22) 749-5308
• Mr. William A. Claypole, Director, Strategic International and Domestic Partnerships
Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
Mr. Claypole is currently the Director of the Strategic International and Domestic
Partnerships Division in the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. As a member of Canada
Customs’ senior executive team, he has participated in and managed the delivery of many
international projects as well as participated in Technical Assistance Missions in Asia, Africa, the
Caribbean and Central and South America.  Dr. Claypole currently chairs a number of international
customs committees including the World Customs Organization’s Rules of Origin Committee, the
WCO Ad hoc Reform Group, the APEC Customs Evaluation Working Group and the NAFTA
Customs Sub-group.
Contact address: Canada Customs and Revenue Ag ency, 191 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada, Tel. 613 954 6980, Fax: 613 954 2224; e-mail: William.Claypole@ccra-adrc.gc.caG/C/W/297
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• Mr. Pierre Trudel, Manager, Training and Technical Assistance, Origin and Valuation
Policy Division, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
Mr. Pierre Trudel currently occupies the position of Manager, Training and Technical Assistance
in the Origin and Valuation Policy Division of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.  Mr. Trudel
has spent more than 25 years as an employee of that Agency and the Department of National Revenue,Customs and Excise. Mr. Trudel has held a number of positions since joining the Customs, primarily in
the field of technical assistance and as the Manager, Planning and Co-ordination unit.
Contact address:  Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, 191 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada; Tel: 613 954 0630; Fax: 613 954 5500; e-mail: Pierre.Trudel@ccra-adrc.gc.ca
SESSION 3 (15.00):  OVERVIEW OF EX PERIENCES BY RECIPIENT MEMBERS
• Mr. H. Cahit Soysal, Director General of Turkish Customs
Mr. Soysal is Director General of Turkish Customs. He joined Turkish Customs as an
Assistant Inspector in 1977 after graduating from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences. Mr.
Soysal worked for Turkish Customs at different pos itions such as Inspector, Head of Department,
Deputy General Director and Head of Inspection Board. Since 1997 he is acting as the Project
Manager of Turkish Customs.
Contact address: Hükümet Meydani Ulus, Ankara, Tel: (0312) 311 30 04 -.311 28 77, Fax: (0312)
311 13 45, E.mail: csoysal@gumruk.gov.tr
• Mr. Georges M. Jereos, Deputy Commissioner, Philippines Customs
Mr. Jereos is Deputy Commissioner of Philip pines Customs for the Assessment & Operations
Coordinating Group. He is also concurrent Deputy Commissioner for Exports. Mr. Jereos was head of
the Philippine Delegation in the APEC Subcommittee on Customs Procedures and delegate in the
Asean Working Group on Customs Matters.
Contact address: Port of Manila Building, Room 305, Port Area, Manila, Tel: 527 9473, Fax: 527
4602
• Mr. José E. Gutiérrez Ossio Director, Reform and Modernization Programme, Bolivia
Customs
Mr. Gutiérrez is Director of the Customs Reform and Modernization Programme of the
Bolivian Customs. He previously worked as a c onsultant for the World Bank, the Inter-American
Development Bank, the Andean Corporation and the Government of Bolivia.  His principal expertise
relates to institutional reforms. Mr. Gutiérrez was also a lecturer of macroeconomics and
microeconomics theory in different universities of La Paz, Bolivia.
Contact address: Tel: 00 59 12 406 220, Fax: 00 59 12 406 340, E-mail:jeduardo@aduana.gov.boG/C/W/297
Page 224
• Mr. Mahmoud Wafa, Project Director, ASYCUDA Project, Jordan Customs
Mr. Mahmoud Wafa is National Project Director of the ASYCUDA ++ project in the
Jordanian Customs Department. He previously was Director of Planning and Development,
Consultant at the Director General's Office and Head of the Valuation Section in the Jordanian
Customs Department. Among his current responsibiliti es are the management of the national project
personnel of the ASYCUDA ++ team, the supervision of the refurbishment programme, and the
coordination of the training programmes of the ASYCUDA ++ team.
Contact address: P.O. Box (926429) Amman (11110) Jordan, Tel:  462 3186 Ext: 2453, Mobile: 079-
580516, Fax: 4610697, E.Mail: asycuda.@customs.gov.jo
• Mr. Mobarak A. Molla, National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh
Mr. Molla is a Member of the Customs Administ ration of the National Board of Revenue and
Project Director of the Bangladesh Customs Administration Modernisation  Project. He joined the
Bangladesh Customs and Excise Service in 1977. Mr. Molla was Commissioner of Customs for 9
years and became Member, National Board of Revenue in 1999.  The Board of Revenue isresponsible for implementing the government's fiscal policy and formulating the revenue budget.  In
addition to his duties as Member, Mr. Molla acts as the Project Director of the Customs
Administration Modernization Project funded by a World Bank loan.
Contact address: National Board of Revenue, Segun Bagicha, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tel: 880 2 831
6048 or 880 2 811 8799, Fax: 880 2 831 61 43, E-mail: mobarak@nbr-bd.org
• Mr. Ibrahima Diagne, Director of Marketin g and International Cooperation, Ministry
of Commerce, Senegal
Mr. Diagne is Director of Marketing and International Cooperation of Trade Point Senegal.
He is also chief of the ORBUS 2000 and of the "Web incubateur" project. He has extensive
experience in elaborating models for the simplification and automatization of trade procedures.  Mr.
Diagne is further a trainer in the area of e-commerce.
Contact address: Trade Point Senegal, Km G5 Route de Rufisque, Tel: 0221 639 3091, E-mail:
idiagne@tpsnet.org
SESSION 4 (9.15):  THE RO LE FOR PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN CAPACITY
BUILDING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
• Mr. Ronald Saborío Soto, Ambassador of Costa Rica
Mr. Saborío is currently the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the
WTO.  He has served in the Mission of Costa Rica to the WTO since 1990. During this period, he was
responsible for the negotiations of the Uruguay Round and has been directing the processes ofdispute settlement of his country, besides other responsibilities.  Mr. Saborío was the Chairperson of
the WTO Council for Trade in Goods and is at present the Chairperson of the WTO Working Group
on Transparency in Government Procurement.G/C/W/297
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 Contact address: Mission Permanente de Costa Ri ca ante la Organización Mundial del Comercio, rue
de Lausanne 145, CH – 1202 Geneva, Tel. (0041 22) 715 00 90, Fax: (0041 22) 715 00 99, E-mail:
mission.costa-rica-wto@ties.itu.int
• Mr. Julian Oliver, Director General of the International Express Carriers Conference
Mr. Oliver is Director General of the International Express Carriers Conference. In addition to
his IECC duties, Julian is a Senior Policy Adviso r to The European Policy Centre, a leading think-
tank in Brussels. Mr. Oliver was actively involved in the liberalisation of financial services in the
European Union and in the Uruguay Round of the GATT. He is on the board of a number of not-for-
profit organisations. He also teaches and directs courses on public affairs and global governance.
Contact address: 3 Rue Joseph II, 1000 Bruxelles, Tel: 0032 2 230 99 86 (Direct), Tel: 0032 2 230 47
14 (Switch), Fax: 0032 2 230 99 19, E-mail: julian.oliver@IECC.CH
• Mr. Michael J. Moffett, General Manager, Gateway Services Limited (GSL)
Mr. Moffett is a graduate of Trinity College,  Dublin, who has substantial business experience
in many countries world-wide. He has worked for the Dunlop Tyre company, then as a private
Management Consultant and, during the last 10 years, for Cotecna S.A. of Geneva, a private
inspection company. He is currently General Manager of Gateway Services Limited, a joint venture
between Cotecna and the Ghana government, includ ing Customs, the port authorities and private
investors, to carry out Destination Inspection of imports in order to facilitate trade.
Contact address: Amaane House-Mo torway Ext., P.O. Box C2212 Cantonments, Accra-Ghana, Tel:
00233 21 7012012-5, Fax: 00233 21 506826, E-mail:  michael@gsl.com.gh
• Ms. Comfort Boohene-Osafo, Deputy Commissioner, Ghana Customs Excise & Preventive
Service
Mrs. Boohene-Osafo is Deputy Commissioner for Research and Monitoring of the Customs
Excise & Preventive Service. She is also departmental head of the ASYCUDA programme. Mrs.Boohene-Osafo has in-depth knowledge of Custom s practice and Preshipment Inspection and is also
intimately involved with Ghana's new Destination Inspection scheme for the Gateway Project.
Contact address: PO Box 68, Accra, Tel: 662935 (Direct), Tel: 666 841-5 Ext. 40111, Mobile: 024-31
62 76
• Ms. Sue Welch,  CEO. CrossStreetTrade Inc.
Ms. Welch is Chief Executive Officer of CrossStreetTrade Inc. Ms. Welch has extensive
experience in helping the Small and Medium Enterprises to participate in the
global e-economy In her current position, she is building Virtual Trade Centers that provide the tools,
content, contacts, community, and supply chain infrastructure that unites governments, associations,
SME and Global 2000 businesses.  
Contact address: 2 Main Street, Gloucester MA 01930, Tel: 1-978-281-3723, Fax: 1-978-281-0673,
E-Mail: swelch@CrossStreetTrade.comG/C/W/297
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• Mr. Noriyoshi Osumi, Executive Manager, NTT Communications Corporation  
Mr. OSUMI is Executive Manager of NTT Communications. He also serves a as member of
the board of directors of Commerce One, a US-based Marketplace company. Dr. Osumi joined NTT
Basic Research Labs in 1980 as a research scientist. He was previously Vice President of NTTAmerica, Inc. and Senior Research Manager. Osumi was also a visiting scholar at the University of
California, Berkeley.
Contact address: Yamato Seimei Building 11F, 1-1-7 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0011
Japan, Tel: 0081 3 3504 2503, Fax: 0081 3 3504 2487, E-mail: n.osumi@ntt.com
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