Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
8
The final desk study country, Singapore, has already fully implemented the four relevant
articles of the TFA, and so has notified them all in Category A. It has one of the first electronic
single windows, and is widely recognized as an example of global excellence in transport,
logistics, and trade facilitation. As part of its commitment to continuous performance
upgrading, Singapore is currently developing a new Networked Trade Platform that will not
only integrate transaction processing and information dissemination, but will allow the
development of applications by the private sector to further integrate trade related procedures
with other aspects of export and import processing. In Singapore’s case, development of the
NTP is part of a long standing government commitment to information transparency, again
incentivized by the country’s relatively high level of dependence on external trade.
4.2 Field Visit Case Studies
Dr. Shepherd highlighted that Senegal is an LDC that has seen strong growth in per capita
incomes over recent years. Trade is an important part of the economy with a trade to GDP ratio
of around 70%. The country has an ambition, partially achieved, to be a trade and logistics hub
within West Africa. A review of the data shows that although there are areas of strong
performance, there is still a considerable gap to global best practice, proxied by Singapore.
Standout points include the fact that Senegal has a Single Window in place, and that it has
developed a Trade Information Portal with external support. As a result, it has been able to list
most of the first four articles of the TFA in its Category A notification, although with
exceptions. Many of the core systems of public information availability are in place, including a
Single Window, along with key elements of a TIP and systems for appeal and advance rulings.
The government is well aware that further improvement from this encouraging base is
important, including through the regional Single Window initiative. Stakeholders highlighted
the fact that Senegal’s successes in this area have burnished the country’s image, and boosted
its attractiveness as a regional hub. They also highlighted the programs’ effectiveness in
reducing the cost of doing business across borders.
Moreover, he continued by pointing out that Morocco is a lower middle income country, which
has also seen strong per capita income growth over recent years. Trade is typically around
80% of GDP, so the external sector is recognized as important to Morocco’s future growth
prospects. Morocco has not yet ratified the TFA, but has notified all of the first four articles
under Category A. The key resource in Morocco is PortNet, integrated information
dissemination and transaction processing online resource that also allows for payments and
other transactions between relevant counterparties. Morocco’s experience shows the
importance of bringing the whole trade community together, which was a key step in the
development of PortNet: the government was a convener, but ultimately the choice was made
for PortNet to be a company under private law. An important impetus for greater transparency
came both from internal political changes, but also from the trade agreement with the USA,
which includes provisions on transparency. As such, the deployment of PortNet was one part
of a much broader-based commitment to improve government transparency. Stakeholders
cited reductions in the cost of doing business, as well as improved security of transactions and
assurance of a level playing field, as key benefits of the program.