The Permanent Secretariat of SELA, together with the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the Chamber of Commerce of Bogota and sponsored by the International Finance Corporation, agency attached to the World Bank, carried out the “First Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows”, in Bogota, during the 25th and 26th of March of this year. This event was organized to comply with the mandate issued by XXXV Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council of SELA (Caracas, October 27 to 29, 2009), and contained in the Work Program for 2010 (SP/CL/XXXV.O/DT N° 4-09/Rev.1).

The “First Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows”, was the first of its type, it comprehended Latin America and the Caribbean and succeeded in creating a regional dialogue, which facilitated the exchange of experiences and best practices in the design and implementation of the VUCE, and, in general, incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to the processes of international trade facilitation. It also gave the possibility to learn about the most relevant projects regarding the development of VUCE and the digitalization of foreign trade procedures on behalf of the international, sub-regional and regional organizations that operate in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Among the recommendations made by the delegates of the “First Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows”, stands out that the SELA, in inter-institutional synergy with other relevant instances, would give continuity to the analytical effort and regional concertation initiated with this First Regional Meeting, by undertaking the Second Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows. In view of which, the Permanent Secretariat of SELA and the Customs National Service of Chile, organize the “Second Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows: advances and pending challenges”, which will take place in Valparaiso, Chile, during the 1st and 2nd of December, 2010.

The organization of this “Second Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows: advances and pending challenges”, constitutes an important effort of continuity to build the regional dialogue, in the context of international and cross-border paperless trade facilitation, aimed at: learning the advances of the development of the VUCE in the different countries of the region, detecting critical aspects that could be stopping its consolidation, debating about the pending challenges and about the common aspects with special emphasis on issues of inter-operability, harmonization and promotion of common standards and procedures to simplify them and enhance their effectiveness, in order to lay out the groundwork for a possible technical cooperation agenda at a regional scale, and take a step forward in the process of Digital Integration, thus contributing to the achievement of regional integration of Latin America and the Caribbean.