Workshop assesses Seychelles’ needs and priorities

A four-day workshop is being held this week to assess Seychelles’ needs and priorities for the implementation of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) Trade Facilitation Agreement,

The workshop has been organised by the Ministry of Finance, Trade and Investment in collaboration with the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) and with the support of the WTO.

WTO representatives Usman Ali Khilji, Mathew Bannon and Mette Azzam are also taking part in the workshop which opened on Monday at the International Conference Centre.

In his address to officially open the workshop, assistant commissioner of the Customs Division Selwyn Knowles said the workshop will help Seychelles establish where it stands with regard to the implementation of the new WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and to prepare us to benefit from the special provisions available to developing countries.

For his part, WTO representative Mr Khilji said: “We are here to identify areas where you can achieve compliance and where you need to achieve compliance.”

Paul Barrack of the Trade Division gave an introduction to the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement including the technical measures and the next steps towards implementation.

“The objectives of this agreement are to expedite movement, release and clearance of goods, improve cooperation between customs and other authorities and to enhance technical assistance and build capacity,” Mr Barrack said.

Haajira Jumaye talked about how this process works. The purpose of this workshop is  to explain how to use the Self-Assessment Guide, which is the tool that will be used to carry out the needs assessment, and the process that needs to be followed. 

The WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation consists of 13 articles which contain approximately 40 different technical measures. The delegates have to analyse those 40 measures and determine the implementation impact of each measure in each particular situation.

Once this process is successful, the output of the analysis is to identify the specific actions that need to be taken in order to comply with each measure; estimate the time needed to implement each measure ; identify the technical assistance and resources needed to implement each measure, if any and estimate how much it will cost to implement the measure. 

On the last day of the workshop, today, delegates will review as a group the results of the individual working groups, and make any modifications, finalise the documents, and prepare the final report.  At the end of the workshop delegates will receive a certificate of participation.

Forrás: www.nation.sc