BCC Workshop
On the 3 November, UK Trade & Investment and the British Chambers of Commerce held an event in Birmingham for the staff of UK local Chambers. The objective of the Workshop was to discuss the export issues that confront the front line staff in their day-to-day work especially the issuing of documents.
SITPRO was invited to participate in the breakout sessions and to give a presentation on the Way Forward to Paperless Trade. Electronic equivalent of trade documents has particular and significant interest for Chamber staff with the recent launch of eCert Xpress, the on-line Certificate of Origin service.
Presenting the SITPRO vision for the future of paperless trading, Gordon Cragge emphasised the important work being done in the European Union, Asia and internationally through UN/CEFACT, especially on the developments of electronic certificates for origin, veterinary and plant health controls. Initially these eCerts will be exchanged between governments but will still speed up the export and import processes.
Single Window Trade Forum
The UK International Trade Single Window programme is picking up pace rapidly as a result of positive input from a number of government departments. However, this is a project where the opportunities and challenges will effect both government and the trade.
SITPRO is keen to ensure that traders have as much opportunity as possible to discuss the Single Window proposals and is therefore setting up a Single Window Trade Forum (SWTF) to give interested parties a chance to express their opinions.
The first meeting of the SWTF will be taking place on Thursday 1 December. If you would like to find out more about this group or submit any written comments for discussion at the meeting, please contact Paul Hiscock (paul.hiscock@sitpro.org.uk).
Survey says...
The results of a recent survey of UK importers by SITPRO’s Andrew Grainger have now been published and reveal that there is considerable variance in perception of the cross-border environment. It highlights how variables like scale, number of Customs entries, exposure to additional regulatory regimes, relationship with third parties and regulatory agencies, use of agents, choice of port, capabilities, training and IT infrastructure are all likely to have an impact on optimal arrangements. However, findings also suggest that government agencies can make considerable improvements to the regulatory environment.
The full report is now available from the SITPRO website at www.sitpro.org.uk/reports/ukimp05.pdf (pdf 428KB 
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Return to SITPRO News: Issue 54, Autumn 2005
