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Trade

Introduction

Trade home
 

The Trade programme, implemented by Economic Cooperation and Trade Division, works to develop closer economic relations among member States, as well as to better integrate their economies into the world economy. The trade programme's inter-governmental bodies make policy recommendations, develop standards for use in trade and assist member States in implementing them. These bodies also suggest ways and means of creating legal and administrative frameworks for fostering trade. Work includes a range of activities to assist member States with: trade facilitation; regulatory and standards policy; commercial agricultural standards; and e-business standards.

ECTD Newsletters

In focus

WP.6 33rd Annual Session was successfully completed on 24 November with a revised Recommendation K, a successful conference on “Continuous compliance of products with embedded AI or other technologies” and the launch of the publication Basics of Quality Infrastructure for Trade.

The 41st UN/CEFACT Forum, held in Bangkok, which brought together over 300 participants from more than 60 countries, has successfully concluded!

Over 25 UN/CEFACT projects have made significant progress during the Forum and a number of new project ideas were brought to the table. Several emerging topics have been presented in 23 insightful discussions and engaging sessions, as well a joint UNECE-UNESCAP conference.  

Access the press release summarizing key highlights of the Forum.

If you wish to review the slides presented during the Forum, please refer to the Presentations tab on the Forum page

Highlights

  • UN/CEFACT has recently published several White Papers, Guidelines and Executive Guides which are available on the website
  • UN/CEFACT has over a dozen active projects ranging from Single Window recommendations to eQuality Certificates and Sustainable tourism to Blockchain. If you are interested in joining our work, please contact us at [email protected] 
  • The 17th MARS Group meeting in Moscow showcased coordination possibilities of market surveillance worldwide with the example of the EU, addressed product non-compliance risk in international trade and the use of WP.6 Recommendations R, P, S and T in creating risk-based import compliance frameworks using predictive risk management tools. The meeting also outlined the important role of standards in the market surveillance agencies’ work.
  • Working Party 6, in collaboration with the Kyrgyz Economic University, organized a Workshop on Women Entrepreneurship which raised awareness regarding the challenges faced by women in business, when trading internationally, and identify measures to build capacity for increased female entrepreneurship.
  • New brochure on “Gender Responsive Standards”: Standards are often developed by technical committees where the participation of women is far below parity. Very few methodologies exist to probe if standards respond to gendered needs and to correct any gender bias in standards. The UNECE marked “World Standards Day” by raising awareness about UNECE Gender Responsive Standards Declaration, which aims at making standards work for women.
  • New brochure on “Standards for Sustainable Development”: The UNECE marked World Standards Day by launching the Standards for the SDGs Portal a vital awareness-raising tool, that allows UNECE and other standards developing organizations to highlight how their work helps advance Agenda 2030 and shares stories about successful implementation. All users are invited to use the available templates to submit information to be added to the portal.

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