The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Customs Administration of North Macedonia, working with the European Commission, the World Bank, CEFTA2006, and UNCTAD/ASYCUDA, noting the importance of the European integration and connectivity of the Western Balkans, organized a online third annual technical cooperation seminar on Single Window and Data Sharing on 27-28 October 2020.
The objective was to identify the ways forward for data harmonization for trade information exchange in the Western Balkans and with the European Union, using international standards. The Western Balkan countries will be invited to share information on progress made since last year in their Single Window and data harmonization projects, how they find solutions to the COVID-19 related challenges. Experts from UNECE and the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) will present the latest work on data harmonization and the UN/CEFACT standards for electronic document and data exchange in a multimodal transport setting, using UN/CEFACT standards and reference data models and report on new products available for use in the Western Balkan countries. The European Commission (DG TAXUD) will present the latest developments in the European Union’s Single Window project based on the EU Customs Data Model (EUCDM) in the light of the COVID-19. The World Bank and the company that will work on the implementation of the World Bank’s Customs modernization project will present the progress made on this project. CEFTA2006 and UNCTAD ASYCUDA representatives will present their take on the proposed way forward for the use of international standards in trade data exchange and the Single Window projects in the Western Balkans.
Download the conclusions and recommendations