TRADE FACILITATION ENQUIRY POINT

The Ministry of Trade and Industry, with funding from the European Union, is implementing the Establishment of a Trade Facilitation Enquiry Point for Trinidad and Tobago (TFEP) Project. The activity, which is being supervised by the Caribbean Development Bank’s EPA & CSME Standby Facility, will create an online trade information portal and complementary governance arrangements across ministries and agencies involved in trade facilitation. A trade facilitation enquiry point is an identified point of contact for queries from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or members of the public. In this instance, the Enquiry point will be facilitated as part of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago’s Trade Information Portal.

The TFEP will provide information on technical requirements, procedures for importation and exportation, applicable duties and fees, and relevant forms to be completed. This is particularly beneficial to stakeholders as the easy access to trade information from a central location will reduce the incidences of conflicts and potential penalties for non-compliance in the trading environment.

The objectives of the Project are to enhance transparency and predictability in Trinidad and Tobago’s trading environment through the constant flows of information among governments, traders, and other interested parties and to provide easily accessible, precise and complete information in a convenient, timely and cost effective way. This will ultimately result in the enhanced capacity for seamless enquiries on Trinidad and Tobago’s trading system.

Trinidad and Tobago is party to several agreements aimed at improving trade facilitation in the import and export of goods and services. These agreements also seek to simplify and harmonise local and international practices with respect to data collection, presentation, communication, and processing related to trade. The ultimate objective is to reduce the costs and delays associated with such procedures to improve the ease of doing business and further result in more competitive exports. The overall scope of the commitments is set out in the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) which was ratified by Trinidad and Tobago on July 27, 2015.

Under the TFA, the country has committed to several facilitation measures, including pre-shipment inspection, temporary admission of goods for inward and outward processing, electronic payment for customs clearance and acceptance of copies for customs procedure.

The TFEP will be established in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and will cover all areas relating to Trade Facilitation and establish linkages with the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) enquiry points where necessary.