Introduction 

Streamlining formalities and documentary procedures allows governments, governmental agencies and business communities to take advantage of elimination of redundant data and duplication of information. This process entails a regular review of domestic and cross border trade documents. The review ensures that (i) the regulatory and official requirements and the business needs of the trading community are fully considered in an open, transparent and inclusive way; (ii) all the data requested is justified by a regulation or a specific business need – the legislative framework should also be reviewed regularly to correspond to actual business practices; (iii) the information requested is still pertinent and up-to-date; and (iv) the data requested cannot be inferred from any other sources. 

The review of all the documents used in domestic and international trade should be conducted on a regular basis. For ease of conducting this review, the documents should be divided into specific functional groups, for instance, Commercial, Transport, Financial (including international payments) and Official. 

<5 billion trade and transport documents are issued annually>

Application 

In recent years, trade has grown very rapidly due to decreased trade barriers, transportation costs and advancements in information and communication technology. These increased flows of trade put a lot of pressure on administrative and customs agencies managing this traffic and businesses trying to comply with numerous trade requirements. 

The manual on streamlining formalities and trade procedures aims to provide a set of strategies and tools to assist countries to identify the redundant and duplicative information and to apply data harmonization and standardization tools and techniques to simplify and eliminate these formalities. 

<Total US international trade documentation annually consumes more than one billion man hours, equal to 600 thousand work years>

Benefits 

Streamlining trade formalities and documentary procedures brings numerous benefits to governments, governmental agencies, and business communities. Elimination of redundant data and duplication of information enables the authorities to use more efficiently the scarce resources for combating illegal trade, enhance the risk management techniques and official controls and therefore induce traders’ compliance and secure governmental revenues. Likewise, simplified, consistent and predictable information requirements will benefit business communities and make it easier for them to meet legal, regulatory, and administrative requirements through a reduced time, effort and financial resources, therefore making them more competitive in international markets. Finally, reduced costs for producers will create benefits for consumer through lower prices. 

<Australia: 22 Agencies collect the name of the exporter on 118 different forms described in 61 different way>