By: Staff Writer
November 8, 2023
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in their International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) said that the Caribbean needs to implement electronic single windows
The report said: “Since 2015, the five United Nations regional commissions have periodically conducted the United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. Its core comprises questions about 31 measures in six categories: transparency, formalities, institutional arrangements and cooperation, transit facilitation, paperless trade, and cross-border paperless trade. Of the 163 countries that participated in the latest edition, published in the first half of 2023, 26 are from Latin America and the Caribbean. The region had an average implementation rate of 71%, which is slightly higher than the world average, albeit with considerable dispersion of results in the region. Of the 11 countries with scores below the regional average, 8 are in the Caribbean.”
Trade facilitation has always been a sore spot for Caribbean countries, because they are small countries that have to compete against larger exporters and producers when they penetrate the smaller Caribbean markets.
Some countries, like The Bahamas, are in the application stage for the World Trade Organisation, which has been lagging on since the early 2000’s. Also, countries like Aruba, have no interest in joining the WTO and taking advantage of the benefits the trade group brings like resources for enhancing trade facilitation among members.
The report also said: “The countries of the region have average implementation rates of 80 percent or more for 18 of the 31 main measures of the Global Survey. Overall, their worst performance is in trade digitalization. To make progress in this respect, it is crucial to accelerate implementation and interoperability of electronic single windows (one-stop shops) for foreign trade. Implementation of such single points of access is highly complex owing to the financial and technological requirements and the level of inter-agency coordination needed. Therefore, international technical and financial assistance will be important in supporting countries in the region that have not yet rolled out single windows.”
Coordination among the countries of the region is key to maximizing the impact of trade facilitation. In recent years, there have been advances in this regard, such as mutual recognition agreements for authorized economic operator mechanisms and the growing electronic exchange of certificates of origin and phytosanitary certificates, among other documents. Stepping up these efforts should be a priority in the coming years.
Meanwhile, the report also discussed the impact The People’s Republic of China is having on the entire LAC. It said: “China’s share of Latin America and the Caribbean’s foreign trade has grown dramatically over the past two decades. Bilateral trade, having barely exceeded US$ 14bn in 2000, approached US$ 500bn in 2022, multiplying by a factor of 35.” As a result, China has displaced Europe as the LAC’s second largest trading partner. It continued, “Since 2018, Latin America and the Caribbean’s share of China’s total imports has exceeded that of the United States. In 2022, their shares were 8.5 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively.