. /. RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TF/M/9/Corr.1 
13 December 2005 
 
 (05-5924) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation  
  
 
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard
 
on 5-6 October 2005  
 
Chairman:  Mr. Muhamad Noor Yacob (Malaysia) 
 
Corrigendum  
  
Page 19 - Intervention by the representative of Honduras
 
  The intervention by the representative of Hond uras should be corrected with the addition of 
the following text and all subsequent pa ragraphs should be renumbered accordingly: 
  
143. The representative of Honduras wished to o ffer some comments on various aspects of the 
proposals, starting with the element of Article X. 
144. In the case of Honduras, all laws, decrees or regul ations were published in the official gazette 
("La Gaceta") after their approval and entered into force after being published in that gazette. Each 
public entity made a collection of the laws, decrees or  regulations of interest to them and made them 
available to the public. 
145. The Fiscal Code, as well as the other fiscal a nd customs laws, and the fees collected at 
importation could be found on the webpage of the "Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos" 
(www.dei.gob.hn) as well as on the webpage of the Finance Secretariat ( www.sefin.gob.hn
). 
146. The Secretariat of Industry and Trade was in ch arge of publishing, through the same means, 
commercial treaties negotiated with other countries th at had been ratified by the National Congress.  
All provisions affecting trade in servi ces and goods were published as well ( www.sic.gob.hn ). 
147. All of those publications were a service rendere d by the different institutions to the public, but 
there was no systematic procedure nor an obligation to  provide that information.  That called for the 
need to harmonize all this information and to est ablish coordination mechanisms to offer the user 
unified and complete information on the entire process involved in trade, transit and customs 
clearance of goods. 
148. Honduras agreed that the publication and making available of information related to 
importation and exportation to traders contributed to  improving a country's trading environment.   
However, Honduras asked up to what level of specifi city all Members wanted to make commitments 
in this area. 
149. In relation to Article VIII, and particular ly with respect to the Single Window, it was 
Honduras' understanding that the idea was to provide the importer or exporter the opportunity to carry TN/TF/M/9/Corr.1 
Page 2  
 
out all the necessary procedures in one single o ffice. Currently, there was one Single Window for 
exportation in the country located in the Secretar iat of Industry and Trade, where there were 
representatives of the institutions involved in th e procedures of exporting goods, the clearance of 
which must be carried out at the respective cu stoms. In the case of importations, the Executive 
Directory of Income (Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingr esos) was the entity where the majority of the 
procedures took place, with representatives of animal and plant health dealing with matters under their 
own responsibility. There was no Single Window for im portation and exportation. This was an area 
where there was much work to do and where coopera tion  of the corresponding entities in the country 
was required for its application.  It was also an issue which required technical assistance and capacity 
building. 
150. With respect to risk management, in H onduras, the Executive Directorate of Income 
(Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos), was in charge by  the law on customs procedures, and this entity  
maintained a unit of Risk Management and Analys is. This unit was in charge of analyzing and 
establishing parameters to determine the risk le vel of selected imports and for establishing the 
procedures to be followed, which in turn were sent to the different customs offices for their 
compliance. That unit lacked expert personnel w ith capacities in the area and Honduras considered 
this to be an area for which a lot of techni cal assistance and capacity building was required. 
151. As for the withdrawal of goods, it had been proposed for the merchandise to be withdrawn 
with promptness, including before paying customs fees  and charges, if a guarantee had been provided, 
which could be done either by paying cash, by a cer tified cheque, or by posting a government bond or 
a private agency bond. In the case of Honduras, there would not be any difficulty accepting the 
proposal TN/TF/W/21.  Therefore, Honduras could support that proposal. 
152. With respect to consular rights and proceedings and the proposal to eliminate them, Honduras 
could support that initiative. The maintaining of that requirement could lend itself to acts of 
corruption in some embassies and consulates.  Hondur as agreed that consularization led to a loss of 
time and affected traders, delaying
 the movement of goods. 
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