United Nations
Transport and trade connectivity in the age of pandemics
The webinar will discuss practical measures for assessing and enhancing Trade Information Portals (TIPs) to make them more sustainable and provide more relevant and up to date information to the trade community.
Additional information:
The consultation session will invite experts with experiences in establishing and operating National Trade Repositories (NTRs) and review the draft guide to enhancing National Trade Repositories for its further improvement.
The Guide to enhancing Trade Information Portals is available here.
Following the successful conclusion of a Policy Hackathon as part of the Initiative on Model Provisions for Trade in Times of Crisis and Pandemic in Regional and other Trade Agreements, a webinar series is organized to discuss and build upon the
he COVID-19 crisis and policy responses by Governments have highlighted the importance of enhancing trade and global value chain resilience to ensure access to essential goods and services - and accelerate recovery. In that context, ESCAP is organizing a first Expert Group Meeting on Trade Facilitation (TF) Measures in Times of Crisis and Epidemic, in order to identify good practices that countries have implemented during the crisis and develop a set of recommended measures that will help cope with future crises.
This assessment was prepared pursuant the Governing Council of the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The decision stipulates preparing a study on regulatory and procedural barriers to trade in the sub-region, as per the “Concept Note for a Study on Regulatory and Procedural Barriers to Trade in the SPECA Subregion”.
The assessment also forms part of UNECE’s rapid COVID-19 response within the context of the United Nations Development Account project “Transport and Trade Connectivity in the Age of Pandemics: UN solutions for contactless, seamless and collaborative transport and trade”.
The exponential growth of cross-border movements of goods often pushes States to develop more effective border management procedures implemented at border-crossing points (BCPs). Issues related to the facilitation of border-crossing procedures (time and documentary formalities) are of particular relevance to the countries participating in the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), through which important transit corridors run between the global trading centres in East Asia and Europe.
ESCWA organized in cooperation with UNECE, IRU and Euro Med Transport Support Project a capacity building workshop “Implementation of the eTIR International System in the ESCWA region” on 16 and 17 December 2020. The workshop was held online from 10:00 am until 13:00 pm.
The main objectives of this workshop are:
International transportation of goods across the region is covered by numerous international legal instruments, including international conventions, other multilateral, including subregional, as well as bilateral agreements.
This Policy Hackathon was organized by ESCAP as part of a United Nations Initiative on Model Provisions for Trade in Times of Crisis and Pandemic in Regional and other Trade Agreements, in collaboration with ARTNeT, WTO, CUTS and other organizations from civil society, academia and the private sector. [Update: Online repository of contributions prepared and selected as a result of the Policy Hackathon are available
With trade and transport connectivity becoming a central consideration in the COVID-19 pandemic response as well as building back better, a high level regional meeting will explore how trade and transport facilitation measures can be implemented more effectively during and in the aftermath of the unprecedented crisis to improve the countries’ resilience.