OECS Customs Officers specializing in recording data are exploring the usefulness of an automated system for Customs information known as ASYCUDA in facilitating international Trade Negotiations.

 To this end a training programme for OECS Customs Officers is taking place in Antigua and Barbuda from November 20th to 24th.

Senior Trade Policy Advisor at the OECS Secretariat Allan Paul explains that the Customs officers will discuss the extracting and manipulating of trade data in the ASYCUDA System to provide vital information on activities such as the import and export of goods for use by the trade negotiators and other policy makers. 

“Trade negotiations both at the level of the OECS Secretariat and the Member States are constantly requesting and relying on up-to-date trade data for analysis to formulate negotiating positions particularly with regard to Market Access issues i.e. tariff reduction, revenue etc. . Effective use of the ASYCUDA also helps further regional cooperation and/or integration efforts which are the pillars of both a sustainable Economic Union and Common Market. When an item is imported into any country of the OECS and any other Caricom country the information is captured on the ASYCUDA System and in that all the necessary details are captured such as duties CIF Value and country of origin. At the end of the day there is a data base that one can tap into for trade negotiations”

Ms. Desiree Zachariah, an ASYCUDA Consultant is facilitating the workshop. The OECS Secretariat’s “Hub & Spokes” Project is coordinating the activity which is funded by the European Union.  At the end of the workshop, participants should have developed skills in translating trade data requests into ASYCUDA extractions as well as enhance their skills in manipulating trade data to generate useful output.

“This training workshop for Customs Officers is seen as very critical in achieving the noble objectives of skills enhancement and sustainability in compilation of up-to-date trade data from the ASYCUDA to inform the formulation of trade negotiating positions by the Sub-region trade negotiators. That information is also useful for the Ministries of Finance for their budgeting on an annual basis and there froe critical for planning”     

Trade negotiators both at the level of the OECS Secretariat and the Member States are constantly requesting and relying on up-to- date trade data for analysis to formulate negotiating positions particularly with regard to Market Access issues including tariff reduction and revenue. Hence the necessity to expose Customs Officials to this new level of training on extracting the information and formatting it in an appropriate way for negotiators. 

The Caribbean region is currently engaged in a series of international Trade Negotiations such as the WTO Doha Round as well as the CARIFOUM EU Economic Partnership Agreements.