We move into our 40th year with an agenda teeming with trade facilitation. It is a year when SITPRO's role is as strong as it has ever been. Here in the UK, SITPRO begins its task of co-ordinating government policy on border freight management as secretariat to the new International Trade Facilitation Committee. The first meeting this year has a packed agenda of issues from our review of trade burdens.
At the European level, the year has begun with a key consultation with business by the European Commission on its draft Modernised Customs Code Implementing Provisions ("MCCIPs"). The 800 page draft, supported by a series of workshops, has provided the basis for a month of intense trader consultations. SITPRO has produced a simplified guide, drawing out what it sees as the key issues, and is collating inputs from UK trade bodies and individual traders. This is also a subject at the top of the agenda of the now revitalised EUROPRO, a body for which SITPRO provides its secretariat.
At a global level, at the end of 2009 the WTO published a draft consolidated negotiating text for a possible trade facilitation agreement in the Doha round of trade negotiations. Littered with square brackets at this stage, it is a text where we expect to see convergence during 2010. Business organisations are now considering how best to respond.
SITPRO is determined to make its 40th year one which is full of achievement. We want to have our cake and eat it!
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 71, Winter 2009/2010
