The Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Investment and Communications of Trinidad and Tobago are pleased to announce the conduction of the “VI Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on Foreign Trade Single Windows: Single Windows and their integration with different links of the international supply chain”, to be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 30 and 31 October 2014.

This VI Regional Meeting on International Trade Single Windows will be carried out in compliance with the mandate issued by the 28 Member States of SELA at the XXXIX Regular Meeting of the Latin American Council (Caracas, 27 to 29 November 2013), as set forth in the Work Programme of the Permanent Secretariat for 2014. Trinidad and Tobago requested to provide the venue for this regional meeting during the “V Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on Foreign Trade Single Windows: Measuring the impact of Single Windows on countries’ economies and adoption of international recommendations – A needed debate”, held in Mexico City on 30 and 31 October and 1 November 2013.

In their recommendations during the meetings, the delegates have reiterated that SELA, in inter-institutional synergy with other relevant organizations, should continue with its analyses and regional consultation efforts started in 2010 with the First Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on Foreign Trade Single Windows, carried out jointly with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism of Colombia.

These high-level meetings with regional scope on Foreign Trade Single Windows, promoted by the Permanent Secretariat of SELA along with relevant authorities of its Member States, have been organized under the principle of building up a regional dialogue favouring coordination processes to contribute to regional integration, thus creating spaces for analysis with the following purposes:

• Discuss about emerging and critical issues with relevant impact on trade facilitation and the development of national economies;

• Take steps to incorporate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into the exchanges of information flows within the context of e-government and digital economy;

• Gain knowledge about the achievements and developments of ongoing Single Window projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a view to achieving a competitive and sustainable insertion into global trade;

• Discuss about pending challenges and convergence issues, with particular emphasis on topics such as interoperability, harmonization, promotion of international standards and common and complementary procedures for simplification and greater effectiveness; and

• Promote digital integration, thus contributing to achieve regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean.

This VI Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting on Foreign Trade Single Windows will be focused, as indicated by its title, on reviewing the requirements to move ahead towards the integration of Single Windows with other links in the supply chain. Thus, it aims at identifying elements to make it possible to transcend the Government-to-Government relationship (G2G), in order to include the participation of private actors involved in the Business to Government (B2G) and Government-to-Business (G2B) areas of action.

As a complement, a review of the international achievements as regards Single Windows interoperability will be made, with emphasis on the work carried out by UN/CEFACT relating to Recommendation 36, along with an analysis of the implications of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation, particularly the role of Authorized Economic Operators in the efficiency of Single Windows, and, of course, a discussion and dissemination of the progress made by Latin American and Caribbean Single Windows, highlighting the presentation of examples of impact measuring models that are being worked out by some countries in the region.