Washington D.C., 07 December 2015
Upon invitation by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the WCO participated in a one-day IDB Policy Dialogue on Trade Facilitation and shared thoughts on WCO standards, tools and approaches in Trade Facilitation matters. The WCO was involved in the general opening panel as well as in 2 panel sessions on Single Window and Authorized Economic Operator approaches, and in addition shared several pieces of information on other Trade Facilitation matters, including its Mercator Programme and related tools in support of implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
The Policy Dialogue brought together around 100 participants from different stakeholders - including from the WTO, WCO, development partners, Customs, Trade Ministries, private sector and researchers. Several panels and active contributions from the floor concentrated on sharing experiences with the implementation of various Trade Facilitation initiatives, including support by performance measurement and research wherever possible.
The WCO participation formed part of the close cooperation it has developed over many years with the IDB which among others had also been underlined by the IDB support for the WCO regional workshop related to WTO TFA implementation for the WCO Americas and Caribbean Region in Colombia held in October 2015.
More information on the IDB event and its detailed agenda can be obtained via the IDB webpage : http://events.iadb.org/calendar/eventDetail.aspx?lang=En&id=4950