The Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) and the Guatemalan Association of Exporters (AGEXPORT) are pleased to announce the 4th. Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows: Public policies and intersectorality for a globalized, logistic and sustainable foreign trade, which will take place in Antigua, Guatemala, on October 30 and 31, 2012.

The 4th. Regional Meeting is held in compliance with the mandate issued by the Member States of SELA at the XXXVII Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council (Caracas, 19 to 21 October 2011), as foreseen in the Work Programme of the Permanent Secretariat for 2012 (SP/CL/XXXVII.O/DT Nº 4-11/Rev.1).

Prior to this 4th. Regional Meeting, three regional events were held between March 2010 and November 2011. The first one was the “1st. Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Window”. It was held in Bogotá, on 25 and 26 March 2010, and was organized jointly with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, and the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá, with the sponsorship of the International Finance Corporation, an agency of the World Bank Group.

In that first meeting, delegates recommended SELA to work in inter-institutional synergy with other relevant organizations, so as to continue such analytical and regional coordination efforts by conducting the II Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows.

In compliance with that recommendation and the mandate stemming from the XXXV Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council of SELA and the Work Programme for 2010 (SP/CL/XXXV.O/DT N° 4-09/Rev.1), the Permanent Secretariat of SELA and the National Customs Service of Chile organized the “2nd. Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows: Advances and pending challenges”, which took place in Valparaiso, Chile, on December1 and 2, 2010. Also upon a mandate from the Member States at the XXXVI Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council and the Work Programme for 2011 (SP/CL/XXXVI.O/DT N° 4-10), the “3rd. Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows: Paperless Trading and Risk Management in Trading Operations” was organized with the Ministry of Trade and Tourism of Peru, under the auspices of CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the USAID Trade Facilitation Project, and was held in Lima on November 29 and 30, 2011.

These regional events on International Trade Single Windows have been promoted by the Permanent Secretariat of SELA in order to build on regional dialogue and encourage consultation processes to contribute to regional integration. Thus, the analyses are intended to: i) discuss emerging issues with a relevant impact on the development of Single Windows within the framework of foreign trade facilitation from a regional perspective; (ii) gain knowledge about the achievements of the Single Window projects in Latin America and the Caribbean with a view to a competitive and sustained global trade integration; (iii) identify critical aspects that might be hampering the consolidation of SWIT projects; (iv) debate about pending challenges and agreements, with special emphasis on the issues of interoperability, harmonization and promotion of international standards and common procedures for simplification and greater effectiveness; (v) make strides towards Digital integration, thereby contributing to regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean; (vi) lay the foundations for a possible agenda on technical cooperation with a regional scope.

The “4th. Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows: Public policies and intersectorality for a globalized, logistic and sustainable foreign trade” focuses on the challenges posed to Single Windows by the new institutional developments, the comprehensive improvement of processes and management of information flows involved in the supply chain, the compliance with requirements of logistics players and customers (importers and exporters) involved in foreign trade, the public policies and the intersectoral public-private relations, as well as the open debate about breakthroughs and the identification of critical aspects related to the processes of harmonization and interoperability of Single Windows from the standpoint of regional integration.