Capacity Building & Standards

1. Capacity Building & Standards UNCTAD Trade Facilitation Section Birgit Viohl

2. Implementation Trade Facilitation is • a public policy issue driven by urge for administrative effectiveness and pro-development growth strategies • a private sector issue driven by search for operating effeciency, quality & innovation , and compliance effectiveness Standards are an important element of the implementation of trade facilitation reform

3. Implementation and Standards Link between public policy and private sector operations. Drivers for standards • industry’ s demand and industry itself which apply them de facto or formalise them • change in the regulatory context; e.g. security regulations • developed to concretise certain abstract norms / rules in national regulation and int’l agreements (legal character if they are referred to in regulation or jurisprudence.

4. WTO and Standards • WTO « agreement » on trade facilitation will set basic general rules on TF. Countries will concretise their implementation. • There is a marge / scope for differences in implementation • Existing standards (int’l or regional) will be looked for • Need for capacity building on standards

5. UNCTAD’s work and standards UNCTAD has a global mandate for technical assistance and capacity building for the public sector in support of trade facilitation • WTO negotiations related support (capacity building, institutional strengthening, needs assessments, advice) • Support to national and regional trade facilitation programmes on the strategic level • ASYCUDA implementation (applies many of CEFACT standards (UN layout key, EDI, XML, CCL)

6. Capacity building for TF • Training, Institutional building, Awareness raising How much do we touch upon the issue of standards? …Not a lot but understanding of standards and standardisation process is necessary

7. …not a lot but why • Political level and technical level seems to be disconnected • Reactive approach to standards. Reliance on tf projects and tools which are based on standards. • Fundamental capacity building questions: What ? , Who ?, How ?

8. What ? • Sensitivation on standards • « where do they come into play? What do they solve? What are the requirements? » • Sensitivation on implementation of standards • e.g. how is the UN layout key used in a national context ? • Regulatory actions necessary • Information on which standards are used by the industry in country x • How can the political level find out of the use and needs of standards on the national level

9. Who ? • Public and private sector • Public includes national standard setting body (very limited in developing countries) • Who need to know what and how much of standards? • Flexible and adjusted information

10. How ? • Information packages • Training packages and modules for specific target groups • Case studies of use in developing countries • In collaboration with UN agencies working on the strategic and political level • Regional commissions • UNCTAD (national trade facilitation working groups constitute fora of stakeholders) • Support to initiatives raising the profile of standards in developing countries; e.g.Pan-African alliance for e-commerce

11. Thank you? Birgit.viohl@unctad.org