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Expert Group Meeting on Facilitating Agricultural Trade
through Paperless Trade
Date
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TBD |
Venue
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Bangkok, Thailand |
Organizer
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UNESCAP |
Background
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The international trade in agricultural products is generally considered to be the most complex in terms of movement of goods, because of its time and temperature-sensitive nature. The poor trade facilitation performance, which leads to excessive transaction time and costs, is a major contributor to the limited trade in agricultural products by developing countries in ESCAP region.
Considering that moving agricultural consignments along supply chain involves enormous amount of paperwork, the creation of a paperless trade environment including Single Electronic Window (SEW) can significantly reduce the time and costs of trade transactions. This is largely due to the fact that it minimizes the time and costs needed to prepare, collect, process, and disseminate trade information, as a result, increases the effectiveness of border control coordination, and expedites the customs clearance and release.
The Expert Group Meeting intends to enhance the capacity of developing countries in the region to tackle with the challenges in promoting trade in agricultural products through trade facilitation, particularly, through the implementation of paperless trade initiatives. |
Objectives
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The objectives of the Expert Group Meeting are to:
- Examine trade in agricultural products and the state of play of paperless trade in Asia and Pacific region, including major challenges and prospects
- Introduce relevant instruments for paperless trade and Single Window and provide update on the development of related instruments by international organizations
- Analyze the experiences and lessons learnt from the paperless trade initiatives for the trade in agricultural products in the region; and
- Draw actions and recommendations to be taken, especially through regional facilitation platforms such as the UNNExT
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Participants
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The participants of the Expert Group Meeting include government officials, experts and representatives of research institutions, trade promotion organizations and private sector from selected developing countries in ESCAP region, as well as representatives from international and regional organizations such as WCO and Asian Development Bank. All other stakeholders of paperless trading in the region are welcome to join the Meeting.
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Programme
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Documents
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Related Links
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UNNExT |
Contact
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Sangwon Lim
Economic Affairs Officer
Trade Facilitation Section
Trade and Investment Division, UNESCAP
Tel: 66-2-288-2573
Fax: 66-2-288-1027
Email: lim6@un.org
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Last updated: 19 April 2010 |
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