Thursday –Monrovia, 16 June 2016, The Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Liberia Revenue Authority, in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), hosted a two-day National Single Window Assessment workshop in Monrovia from Wednesday to Thursday, 15 – 16 June 2016 for both private and public stakeholders. The workshop was aimed at bringing stakeholders together to review the legal and regulatory requirements for establishing a National Single Window for all trade processes within the commerce of Liberia.

Acting Commerce Minister Frantz Sawyer gave the opening remarks. There was a joint presentation by Honorable Steve Marvie, Deputy Minister for Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and Honorable William Buku, Assistant Commissioner for Technical Operations, Liberia Revenue Authority. Mr. Vaanii Baker, Operations Officer, Trade & Competitiveness, Luciano Paolo Pugliatti, and Lazar Ristic, Trade Logistics Specialist represented the IFC.

The participants of the workshop worked towards the development of a strategy for the planning and implementation of the National Single Window, as well as, the formulation of a roadmap for implementation.

The National Single Window (LNSW) is an information technological system that will provide service for handling the exchange of trade information between traders and government Ministries and Agencies (M&As); thereby reducing the time it takes to process trade transactions for the public. The NSW will be a paperless and non-personal interactive system that is required by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as part of the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

Liberia recently ratified the WTO Accession Package and has begun working towards the ratification of the TFA. The National Single Window will facilitate trade by offering numerous opportunities, such as; gather trade information, tariff search, vessel arrival schedule, and regulations. Traders will be able to submit trade documents, track their trade transactions status online, pay online through e-payment facilities using acceptable cards, access help-desk, trouble tickets, and other services online (for registered users), quickly reference important information on different government agencies involved in trade matters, as well as link to their websites through a convenient hub, etc.