Left to Right: Vanuatu delegate Mr. Harold Tarosa; Head of OCO Secretariat Mr. Allwyn Netto;Fiji delegate Mr. Tevita Tupou; Solomon Islands delegate Mr. John Dafanisi.
The four day forum started on 24th and ended on 27th September 2014. Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were the three pacific island nations to have represented the whole Oceania region in this year’s trade facilitation forum.
Under the theme “Trade Facilitation for inclusive Development”, the forum mainly focuses on facilitating agricultural products into the markets, incorporating Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs’) into the supply chain network and enhances the inter-agency coordination among border agencies. Certain sessions within the forum focuses ultimately on the recent WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA) that was adopted in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2013. The main WTO TFA articles discussed were Trade Facilitation Committees (TFC) under article 23.2 of the TFA, Single Window (SW) under article 10 of the TFA, and Perishable Goods under article 7 of the TFA.
This year marks the 6th APTFF since 2009 and was jointly organized and sponsored by Asian Development Bank (ADB) together with United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP). The panel discussions conducted on the first two days provided a platform for interactions among agencies within the public and private sector. Two separate workshops conducted on the third day has enabled senior officials, experts and specialists to further network among themselves, share experiences and dialogue on how planned ideas can be materialize within their respective administrations and agencies in the near future. The four day event ended with a round trip tour to the Thai perishable cargo centre at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport where delegates and participants were astonished by the remarkable investment made by the Thailand Government to facilitate perishable items.
In their closing remarks, Head of Regional Economic Integration office within the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Mr. Arjun Goswami and Head of Trade and Investment Division within UNESCAP Mr. Ravi Ratnayake, both have jointly express their appreciation and gratitude for the tremendous level of contributions, engagements and participations made by distinguish delegates during the forum. Both institutions were grateful to have hosted such wonderful event and have jointly expressed their ambition for future progressive reports, especially on the methodologies undertaken to demonstrate regional leadership and unity, despite the global challenges to trade facilitation.
As the leader of the pacific delegation, the Head of Secretariat for the Oceania Customs Organization Mr. Allwyn Netto has called for greater representation and participation of the pacific island states in future Asia Pacific trade facilitation forums. Speaking at the Bangkok International Trade Centre (BITEC), Mr. Netto said that “while he appreciates ADB and UNESCAP’s assistance on bringing together three pacific countries, he still feels that a greater representation of pacific island countries would enable greater level of impact in the pacific and Oceania region.” Mr. Netto also made a presentation and spoke of a number of critical factors which makes OCO a particular leadership entity in the Pacific. Firstly, Mr. Netto spoke of OCO’s strategic position in the pacific which allows it to respond to the needs of its members in terms of capacity building and technical assistance. Secondly, he also spoke of the need to avoid overlapping and duplications amongst development partners when coordinating and facilitating capacity building and technical assistance reforms in the Oceania region. Lastly, he reiterated the need for greater collaboration amongst agencies and finally concluded by saying that “OCO is committed to securing borders in order to promote economic prosperity”.
