PDK Fernando (Sri Lanka), Diana Reaich (New Zealand), Claire Williamson (UK) & Ernesto Fernandez (Costa Rica)
The fourth meeting of the Boksburg Group took place on 24 and 25 February at the Whitesands Hotel, Mombasa, Kenya. The Boksburg Group, which was established in 2003 to exchange views on trade facilitation within a WTO context, consists of developing countries that are represented by government trade policy specialists, customs experts and international businessmen and women.
Twenty-seven developing countries were represented at the latest meeting. Chairman Chriticles Mwansa welcomed new participants from the African, Caribbean and Pacific States' Secretariat, Barbados, Costa Rica, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Madagascar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Rwanda and Zambia.
The Boksburg Group
A lively and informative day of discussion was followed by a dinner at the Whitesands Hotel on the evening of 24 February where the guest of honour was the Kenyan Government's Minister of Trade, The Hon Dr Mukhisa Kituyi. Dr Kituyi addressed the group and said that he was positive about the future for a trade facilitation agreement, although he highlighted concerns about the absence of a draft text covering trade facilitation and the broader question of border management, not just those issues focussed on customs issues.
The Hon Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, Gregor MacKinnon (Commonwealth Business Council) & Chriticles Mwansa
The meeting concluded on 25 February. Emphasis was placed on co-ordination and coherence covering a range of key aspects of a trade facilitation agreement, including the need for the WTO to 'own' the process of capacity building and to co-ordinate the activities of donors. The group also noted that the border management process needs to be fully integrated and customs' administrations should work closely together and share information to manage international transactions more effectively.
There was unanimous support for the continuation of the Boksburg Group process and the participants will share the outcomes of the latest meeting with policy and decision makers. The nucleus of the group met WTO negotiators and Ambassadors in Geneva in the late spring, with a view to holding a fifth meeting of the group in early summer.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 52, Spring 2005
