ASYCUDA++ IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE Ó UNCTAD - SITE (V1.15) B.5 Trade Facilitation Trade facilitation is defined as: - “the systematic   rationalisation  of  procedures  and  documentation  for  international  trade (trade  procedures  being  the  activities,  practices  and  formalities  involved  in  collecting, presenting,  communicating  and  processing  data  required  for  the  movement  of  goods  in international trade)”. Over   the   years   international   and   national   organisations   have   made   many   Trade   Facilitation initiatives  that  have  introduced  improvements  in  trade-related  information  flows,  by  simplifying requirements and documentation and standardising practices and coding. However, certain countries still maintain requirements that run contrary to these facilitation efforts because  of  historical  precedents,  commercial  inertia,  difficulty  in  adjusting  the  methods  of  their control bodies or ignorance of solutions that have been developed elsewhere. The  problems  created  by  trade  documents  fall  into  two  categories:  the  supply  of  data  and  the complexity of some of the procedures. Generally procedural requirements should be re-examined and  manual  systems  tidied  up  before  information  technology  can,  with  safety  and  economic advantage be systematically applied. The   above   paragraphs   are   extracts   from   the   UNCTAD   publication,  “Compendium   of   Trade Facilitation  Recommendations.”  This  publication  is  essential  reading  for  any  Implementation Team.    It  is  recommended  that  at  an  early  stage  of  the  project  copies  be  freely  circulated  within country, to Customs staff and to trade bodies. Other UN publications that should be freely available to the project team are: - “Recommendations and Guidelines for Trade Efficiency” “Trade Facilitation - Trade Data Elements Directory” (UNTDED) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) One  major  attraction  for  a  country  in  choosing  to  introduce  a  modern  computerised  Customs processing  system  is  to  be  in  a  position  to  participate  in  the  worldwide  move  towards  direct electronic communications. EDI revolutionizes business communications by removing a complete layer of business practices— the use and processing of paper documents. This brings substantial benefits and savings, such as accuracy  (data  is  received  directly  form  computer  files  and  not  re-entered  manually),  speed  and cost (data is processed by computer and transmitted quicker and cheaper than paper documents by mail or courier). Up to now the major obstacles to wide spread use of EDI has been both technical and procedural. Technical issues included the communications infrastructure and the ability of computers to ‘talk’ to each other, and acceptance of an agreed format for the electronic messages. UN/EDIFACT UN/EDIFACT is an international standard for the transmission of EDI messages. It is the only EDI standard   that   has   received   official   approval   by   the   United   Nations.   UN/EDIFACT   permits organisations, both public and private, to transmit data in a common format - a common computer language.  Among  the  officially  approved  UN/EDIFACT  messages  there  are  four  so  far  which  are unique to Customs operations. These four Customs messages are: - ·     The Customs Declaration Message (CUSDEC) ·     The Customs Response Message (CUSRES) ·     The Customs Cargo Report Message (CUSCAR)