27 July 1990

37th Plenary Meeting

1990/74. Proposal for interregional co-operation in the area of trade facilitation, and in particular the phased application of the Rules for Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT), whenever appropriate

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling its resolution 1989/118 of 28 July 1989 on interregional co-operation for facilitation of international trade, in which it invited the regional commissions and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to prepare jointly a project proposal in this field,

Recognizing that African countries need to co-operate effectively with the rest of the world and to participate in international trade facilitation, including the use of electronic data interchange for the transmission of trade documentation,

Conscious of the urgent need in Africa to build up, strengthen and upgrade capacities to identify problems and requirements for the facilitation of international and intra-African trade, including the analysis of practices, procedures, laws, regulations, policies and documentation governing international trade, and that such capacity-building would benefit government ministries and departments concerned with planning, trade, transport, customs administration, statistics and data processing,

Recognizing further the desirability of interregional co-operation among the regional commissions jointly with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in promoting the global application of agreed measures for the facilitation of international trade,

1. Decides to fully support the implementation by participating African States of the project proposal on interregional co-operation for the facilitation of international trade, prepared jointly by the regional commissions and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development;

2. Recommends the proposal for funding by donors;

3. Invites all States Members of the United Nations to support the project proposal;

4. Requests the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the regional development banks and bilateral donors to provide adequate financing to ensure the full realization of the project;

5. Also requests the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa to report to the Commission at its twenty-sixth session on the implementation of the present resolution;

6. Further requests the Secretary-General to include in his annual report on regional co-operation, to be submitted to the Economic and Social Council at its second regular session of 1991, a report on the progress made in the implementation of the present resolution, as well as on the further consideration of Council resolution 1989/118 by the regional commissions for Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific and Western Asia.