2011/SOM1/CTI/010
APEC Ease of Doing Business Workshop on Trading Across Borders [CTI 12/2010T]
Workshop Outcomes
Background
This workshop constituted Phase 1 of the capacity building work programme for Trading Across Borders.under the APEC Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Action Plan. As champion economies for ‘Trading Across Borders’, Singapore and Hong Kong, China organised a two-day workshop in Sendai, Japan on 18-19 September 2010 for about 90 participants from coordinating agencies overseeing national economic reforms related to Trading Across Borders; practitioners from Customs and other border clearance agencies; government officials from Finance, Transport, Trade, Commerce, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs ministries; as well as representatives from business associations.
The key objectives were to:
(a)share experiences of economies that had implemented successful reforms;
(b)emphasize to economies the wide menu of existing APEC initiatives that economies could draw on in improving their performance in Trading Across Borders; and
(c)provide a forum for economies to offer feedback on the key obstacles they faced that were preventing them from embarking on or making progress in reforms.
See Annex 1 for the workshop agenda.
Workshop outcomes
The workshop was successful in promoting an improved understanding and awareness of effective reforms in the region – feedback reflected that 88%found that the workshop had increased their knowledge and understanding of successful reforms and best practices. APEC speakers were drawn from a range of different disciplines, geographic and developmental contexts, and offered participants a variety of ideas and lessons learnt from reform. Experts from the World Bank and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) meanwhile updated participants on some of the latest approaches to trade facilitation in the international community.
By bringing together APEC economy representatives from various backgrounds, the workshop also proved to be a good forum for cross-fora sharing on relevant APEC initiatives. Singapore took the opportunity to build greater awareness within APEC of the design and objectives of the APEC EoDB Action Plan, which had been developed by Senior Officials, in cooperation with the Economic Committee in 2009. New Zealand meanwhile shared key findings from the Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group’s (SMEWG) Private Sector Development initiative. Participants were updated by the Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures (SCCP) Convenor’s office on the extensive work and latest discussions at APEC on the APEC Single Window initiative, while Australia shared with participants learning points from the use of the Time Release Study as a tool in reform, which was another ongoing SCCP initiative.
83% also indicated that the workshop had improved their understanding of the World Bank’s Doing Business ‘Trading Across Borders’ indicator. It was acknowledged that the indicator would not be able to capture all improvements that had been made in an economy through reforms. Responding to concerns from some economies that the World Bank was not reaching out to appropriately knowledgeable respondents for its survey, the World Bank’s expert explained its efforts to clarify feedback from respondents, as well as its rationale for allowing respondents to stay anonymous, and urged APEC members to help to put the World Bank in touch with more private sector respondents.
The three concurrent breakout discussion sessions provided a relaxed and informal environment for participants to exchange views on reform efforts in their own economies, and to exchange ideas with each other on the key difficulties faced. Participants also used the workshop feedback forms to identify areas that might pose challenges to reform in their economies.This is useful as itwould help organisers in designing and structuring Phase 2 of the capacity building programme.
Key findings
Discussions at the workshop indicated that there was interest in APEC member economies across the board to embark on reforms to improve the ease of trading across borders. Many economies also reflected that they had already begun efforts to reform.
However, a key challenge was in coordinating and securing buy-in from the relevant partner agencies. Other barriers to reform included budget constraints, difficulties in making changes to legislation, a lack of expertise to design or implement the reform, or a lack of a strong political mandate. (See Chart 1 for feedback from participants on key challenges to reform.)
Chart 1:What do you think are the key challenges for your agency/economy in pursuing reforms to make it easier to trade across borders?
Suggested strategies to overcome resistance from partner agencies,and to promote stronger coordination across stakeholders, included:
- Securing high-level political mandate for reforms, such as a presidential order that establishes clear timelines for implementation.
- In cases where the costs of reform fell on certain agencies, while the benefits accrued to others (i.e. principal-agent problems), looking to the private sector as an important voice in demonstrating to the government the benefits of such reforms to the government as a whole.
- Beginning stakeholder engagement at an early stage in the reform process, and to ensure proactive communication with both private and public sector stakeholders.
- Seeking solutions that would not infringe on the existing authority of agencies involved. For instance, a one-stop shop solution such as a single window could route the relevant application information to each of the corresponding approving authorities, rather than centralise the authority to grant approvals to a single agency.
- Finding champions or frontrunners within the government, which could lead the way by demonstrating the positive impact of being actively involved in the reform process.
- Recognising the importance of change management, to help stakeholders adapt to new systems and processes and work effectively during transition periods.
Participants also considered the importance of ensuring that reforms were sustainable. Good practices included:
- Taking the opportunity to begin implementation of long-term reform plans during periods when there was strong political interest in championing reform. Once a reform had gained a certain degree of momentum, it was easier to sustain reforms.
- Periodically reviewing the outcomes of review, including by regularly monitoring service quality.
- Ensuring that the government invests not only in the creation of relevant IT systems, but also in the continued maintenance of such systems, and continual training of manpower to ensure that IT systems are utilised effectively, as well as education and outreach to users.
- Considering how best to ensure that reform solutions are sustainable from a cost perspective, e.g. by charging users a transaction fee, or by ensuring that the government can afford to continue to bear the cost burden in the long-term.
There was especially strong interest amongst workshop participants in Single Window initiatives, including the use of Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) as one of the methods of implementing Single Window at the national level. Participants recognised the benefits of Single Window to traders such as reduction of business costs, and to Customs officials such as shortened turnaround time for cargo clearance. Customs officials nonetheless pointed out that a single window was not the only panacea for improving an economy’s performance in trading across borders. Tools such as Time Release Studies could also offer useful insights to governments on major chokepoints in the supply chain.
Workshop participants were also very interested in the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) programme. The growth of global trade and increasing security threats to the international movement of goods, have shifted Customs administrations’ focus to secure the international trade flow while still maintaining their traditional task of collecting customs duties. The World Customs Organisation (WCO), recognising these developments, drafted the WCO Framework of Standards (SAFE) to secure and facilitate global trade. The Framework, provides guidance to Customs administrations to co-operate among themselves and partnering the business community through the AEO programme to meet these new challenges. By meeting the criteria of an AEO programme, the accredited AEOs could reap trade facilitation benefits, for example,such as faster physical clearance of goods by Customs which translate into time and costs savings.
Ultimately, there was a recognition that the design and implementation of reforms had to take into account the individual circumstances of each economy.
Reference materials
Presentations shared at the workshop can be found on the APEC website:
Next steps
Singapore is currently developing Phase 2 of capacity building for Trading Across Borders, which will involve customised diagnostics for selected APEC member economies, with the aim of helping economies to design action plans tailored to address the specific concerns and constraints of their line agencies. We will work closely with learner economies to develop these customised programmes. Implementation of Phase 2 will begin in 2011.
APEC might also wish to consider ways to improve international awareness of reforms that are being pursued in APEC member economies by working more closely with the World Bank and other international organisations.
. . . . .
Annex 1
CTI 12/2010T: APEC Ease of Doing Business Workshop on Trading Across Borders
Sendai, Japan, 18-19 September 2010
Workshop Agenda
Day 18.30-9.00am / Arrival/Registration/Coffee
9.00-9.05am / Welcome
Ms Eva Yam, Assistant Director-General, Trade and Industry Department, Hong Kong, China
9.10-9.35am / Introduction to the APEC EoDB Trading Across Borders capacity building programme
Dr Cheong Wei Yang, Deputy Director, Industry Division, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore
09.35-10.35am / Understanding the World Bank Doing Business Indicator on “Trading Across Borders”
Ms Mikiko Imai Ollison, World Bank Doing Business Team for “Trading Across Borders”
Q&A
10.35-10.55am / Coffee Break
10.55-11.55am / Recent Trends in Trade Facilitation
- Lessons learnt from the APEC Private Sector Development (PSD) initiative
- Modern Approaches to Trade Facilitation
- Joint Q&A
11.55am-12.30pm / SESSION 1: Making it Easier
- Mexico’s Programme to Facilitate Trade Across Borders
The Ministry of Economy recently launched a programme to facilitate trade across borders, particularly to contribute in raising SMEs’ competitiveness. The aim of this presentation is to share Mexico’s experience on the implementation of this program and the way ahead in the work on trade across borders.
Q&A
12.30-2.30pm / Lunch
2.30-3.40pm / SESSION 1: Making it Easier (Continued)
Harnessing IT to Reduce the Number of Documents for Export and Import
Panel discussion on Single Window initiatives
Moderated by: Mr Lim Teck Leong, Senior Assistant Director-General (Trade), Singapore Customs
The APEC Single Window Implementation Guide identifies a number of core elements that an economy may need to consider during the life cycle of the development of a single window system: Project Planning, Political Mandate, Lead Agency, Feasibility Study, Stakeholder Engagement, Business Case, Governance, Legal, System Design, Implementation, and Post-Implementation. Speakers are encouraged to share strategies that can help APEC economies overcome challenges towards the implementation of a Single Window.
- The APEC Single Window Vision: Ongoing work at the APEC Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures (SCCP)
- Public-Private Partnerships towards a Single Window
- Effectively managing change in adopting a Single Window
Discussion and Q&A
3.40-4.00pm / Coffee Break
4.00-5.00pm / SESSION 2: Making it Faster and Cheaper
Effective Use of Risk Management, Fast-Track and Concurrent Procedures
- APEC Time Release Study: Identifying areas to reduce the time taken to clear cross border cargoes
- Case Study: Cooperation at land boundary
With the assistance of technology, different measures could be put in place at the land boundary to speed up cargo processing at land boundary and as a result contributing to a faster, easier and cheaper process. Experience on implementation of a “Green Customs Seal” system to reduce the cargo processing time through mutual recognition of cargo processing results, sharing of X-ray inspection images to shorten cargo clearance time and implementation of the Road Cargo System “ROCARS” to allow advance electronic submission of cargo data to Customs, etc. will be shared.
Joint Q&A
5.00-5.15pm / Wrap-up and Overview of Day 2
Ms Mary Elizabeth Chelliah, APEC Committee on Trade and Investment Chair
Day 2
8.30-9.00am / Arrival/Registration/Coffee
9.00-10.10am / SESSION 2: Making it Faster and Cheaper(Continued)
Effective Use of Risk Management Procedures
- Panel Discussion: Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) Programmes and other Risk Management Tools
Mr Kang Taeil, Director, Audit Policy Division, Korea Customs Service
Effective risk management systems such as AEO programmes allow Customs and border security agencies to speed up the clearance process by reducing the share or extent to which goods are inspected, while at the same time ensuring that adequate measures are put in place to maintain security. What are the key implementation challenges to moving to an AEO programme and how have APEC economies with successful AEO programmes overcome these obstacles?
- Secure Trade Partnership: Singapore’s AEO Programme
- AEO Pilot Programme of Hong Kong, China (HKC)
Discussion and Q&A
10.10-10.30am / Coffee Break
10.30-11.10am / SESSION 2: Making it Faster and Cheaper(Continued)
Leveraging on the Private Sector to Reduce Inland Transportation Costs
- Heavy Vehicle Road Pricing Reform in Australia – Unlocking Productivity and Investment
What are the key transport challenges facing Australia and how heavy vehicle pricing reform and other significant transport reforms are assisting Australia to meet these challenges? An overview of Australia’s current exploration into mass-distance-location (MDL) pricing, touching on international experiences and whether MDL may be a solution to unlocking greater productivity and investment will be covered.
Q&A
11.10-11.30am / Administrative Instructions on Breakout Discussion Sessions
11.30am-1.30pm / Lunch
1.30-3.30pm / Breakout Discussion Sessions
- Championing and Motivating Reforms
- Deepening and Prioritising Reforms in a Sustainable Manner – Public Sector Initiatives
- Involving the Private Sector in Reforms – Financing and Operating Trading Across Borders Initiatives
3.30-3.50pm / Coffee Break
3.50-4.50pm / Report back from Breakout Discussion Sessions
Mini-presentations of small group discussion outcomes by discussion facilitators
Discussion (Q&A)
4.50-5.10pm / Workshop Evaluation by Participants
5.10-5.30pm / Wrap-up of Workshop
Ms Mary Elizabeth Chelliah, APEC Committee on Trade and Investment Chair