The Boksburg Group is a think-tank brought together by SITPRO and the Commonwealth Business Council and comprising mainly public (trade and customs) and private sector representatives of mainly developing countries. It takes its name from the venue of its first meeting in 2003. The Group takes stock of progress with the WTO negotiations and tries to stay one or two steps ahead. Initially its role was to build confidence amongst all WTO Members in appreciating the potential benefits to them of trade facilitation. The case for trade facilitation has now been widely accepted. Indeed, many of the proposals for a WTO trade facilitation agreement, which have often come from developing countries themselves, were inspired from the informal Boksburg Group discussions.
The latest meeting of the Boksburg group, which took place in Brazil at the beginning of November
In many countries trade is frustrated, and transaction costs escalated, by inefficient and over bureaucratic procedures. Simplification would reduce time delays at the border, get goods moving, increase speed of payment and delivery, attract inward investment and help companies to avoid having to overstock to compensate for delays. A WTO Agreement would support the revised Kyoto Convention of the World Customs Organisation by establishing binding commitments to modernise and simplify customs and other border trade procedures.
The main concerns that continue to be raised by developing countries are how the costs of modernisation could be met and their capacity to implement the obligations in a WTO agreement. The Boksburg Group has discussed these capacity constraints and formulated ideas on how flexibility could be achieved in an agreement, for example by pegging the extent of obligations to levels of development.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 54, Autumn 2005
