Government implements a single window system to ease cross-border trade

The government is to curtail bureaucratic red tape and cumbersome paper work in crossborder trade making import and export procedure easier for businesses, with the establishment of a Single Window (SW) for trade as a national priority, the Finance Ministry announced.

This new system will be implemented as a single entry point for submission of documents and data requirements by the traders on their cross border trade flows (Imports, Exports and transshipments) to the border trade regulatory agencies, a notification issued by Secretary to the ministry Mahinda Siriwardana stressed.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance has decided to establish a dedicated Project implementation Unit (PIU) to implement the proposed ‘Trade National Single Window System’, he added. Its implementation will reduce the time and costs of cross-border trade, and augment the country’s trade and competitiveness.

Moreover the establishment of the single window will be an important step towards meeting the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement, which Sri Lanka has already ratified.

The government had planned to establish this system by December 31, 2022, while calling for technical assistance towards its implementation. But it was delayed due to various constraints faced by the ministry during the economic crisis.

However, it is now ready to go ahead with the project providing assistance for traders to submit trade information in a virtual location that communicates with the relevant government agencies (GAs) and obtain certificates, permits, licenses (CPLs), and approvals electronically.

Importers, exporters or traders will be able to submit their documents and fulfill other requirements without visiting visit state offices, departments or pillar to post at different physical locations with the establishment of single window system.

SW is a trade portal which provides a single point of electronic entry to facilitate the lodging of standardised information once to fulfill all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements, the ministry concept report disclosed.

It gives an opportunity for cross-border trade to submit all necessary documents at a single location and to a single entity.

This application will ensure the basic principles of good governance such as transparency and accountability. Eighteen agencies have already being identified and they will be linked together through this system.