“Single Window is defined as a facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements”
UN/CEFACT RECOMMENDATION No. 33
On May 31 the VIth UNECE International Seminar on trade facilitation and transport was held in Odessa. The participants focused on issues of implementation of WTO 
TFA provisions by Ukraine from the point of view of the development of transport corridors and the introduction of advanced information technologies for trade facilitation in Ukraine.
The seminar was organized by the European United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) under support 0f Interagency Working Group on International Trade Facilitation Group and Logistics in Ukraine and the Government of Ukraine.
The main topics of the seminar - the impact of further implementation of provisions of the WTO TFA and other international conventions and agreements on the development of transport corridors in Ukraine and prospects of using Information port community system (Single Window) implemented in the Odessa port as a "hub" for international trade and transport corridors in the country.
This workshop builds on the years of work in support of trade facilitation projects and the Interagency Project Working Group on Trade Facilitation and Logistics in Ukraine and the results of the UNCTAD-UNECE supported study of the readiness of Ukraine to implement the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. It aims at assisting Ukraine in developing a National Trade Facilitation Committee (NTFC), which is already drafting its Terms of Reference, mandate, and programme of work; and in implementing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA): notably the measures notified as category A, and deciding on timing for categories B and C. The seminar will assist the ongoing efforts of Ukraine to develop a trade facilitation strategy, on the platform of the NTFC. Speakers from the relevant regulatory bodies and the business community of Ukraine, as well as UNECE, UNCTAD, UK Customs, WCO and other development partners will speak about the benefits and challenges of trade facilitation for Ukraine. The training sessions will address the organizational issues of the establishment and functioning of a NTFC (ToR, programme of work, setting up a secretariat, financing the activities, etc.), the contents of the work, scope of activities of the NTFC.
The seminar was held on November 19, 2015 on the platform of the Interagency Working Group on International Trade Facilitation and Logistics in Ukraine (IWG). The seminar is the final, as it consolidates and summarizes a series of parallel studies evaluating the readiness of Ukraine for implementation of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA). This seminar ends with the process of preparing a study of Ukraine's readiness to implement the TFA.under the United Nations methodology.
A concluding seminar on the readiness of Ukraine to implement the provisions of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (ATF) was held in Kiev from 09.30.2015 till 2.10.2015. The seminar was held in order to achieve a more favorable business climate for trade in Ukraine. A wide range of industry specialists of state bodies (Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Agrarian Policy, State Fiscal Sevice), as well as representatives of private sector and business were invited for participation. The seminar was held thanks to funding from the US State Department. It is organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP), Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and ICC Ukraine, which acts as the Secretariat of the Interagency Working Group on international trade facilitation and logistics in Ukraine.
The Fifth International Seminar on Trade Facilitation organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in cooperation with the Government of Ukraine with support of the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Ukraine), the Association of the Transport-Forwarding and Logistic Organizations of Ukraine UKRZOVNISHTRANS and PLASKE JSC was held on 2 June 2015, in Odessa, Ukraine.
The Fourth International Trade Facilitation Seminar entitled “Building an enabling environment for trade facilitation in Ukraine by implementing the Single Window concept” was organized in Odessa on 27 May, 2014 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Government of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Ukraine) and the Association of Transport Forwarding and Logistic Organizations of Ukraine (UKRZOVNISHTRANS).
On 30 May 2013, in Odessa, the Third International Seminar on trade facilitation issues on the following topic: “Trade facilitation in Ukraine. The “Single Window – Local Solution” project in Odessa. Achievements and New Challenges” was held. The Seminar was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), in cooperation with the Government of Ukraine, with the support of the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Ukraine) and the - Association of Transport Forwarding and Logistic Organizations of Ukraine (UKRZOVNISHTRANS), at the initiative of PLASKE JSC.
The second International Seminar on Trade Facilitation “A Local Single Window (Port Community System) for the Ports in the Odessa Region in the Perspective of the European Integration of Ukraine” was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, National Institute for Strategic Studies, Ukrainian National Committee of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Ukraine) and under support of Association of freight-forwarding organizations of Ukraine “UKRZOVNISHTRANS” in Odessa, on 30 May 2012.
An International Seminar on Trade Facilitation: "The Single Window Concept and Integrated Railway Transportation to Facilitate Trade in the Pan-European Space" took place on June 1, 2011 in Odessa.
The seminar was attended by representatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), OSJD, CIT, the EUBAM Mission, the Ukrainian government, the business community, and representatives of Moldova, Lithuania, Russia, Singapore and the Czech Republic.
