The Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) has formalized this Monday (27.11.2023/XNUMX/XNUMX) the implementation of the Central American Digital Trade Platform (PDCC), carried out by Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. It is a web catalog of services and processes related to intra and extra-regional trade operations, the objective of which is to simplify and streamline trade exchanges in the region.
The Salvadoran and head of SIECA, Francisco Lima Mena, explained at the opening of the event that Customs News attended virtually, that this effort began in the region in 2017, but found its form of implementation and launch six years later, in 2023. He recalled that Central America signed the Trade Facilitation and Competitiveness Strategy with an emphasis on Coordinated Border Management, in line with the trade facilitation commitments of the WTO.
“This is the framework on which we base the development of this unique platform,” Lima Mena said. He clarified that “the PDCC responds to the efforts of Central American governments and countries to apply technology to simplify and streamline the procedures related to regional trade.”
Information interoperability
Thus, the regional infrastructure evolves as it also allows for the interoperability between the regional node that manages SIECA and the national systems of thes Single Windows for Foreign Trade, Customs, Immigration and the Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock. The PDCC is made up of 71 functionalities, which have been adopted by the countries of the region according to their needs and national reality, since with this the following are possible:
- Exchange of information between national systems and at regional level through the PDCC.
- Simplification of processes.
- Creation of statistical databases.
- It allows for real-time processing.
The PDCC is conceptualized as a “historical milestone” at the regional level due to its characteristics and its contribution to improving competitiveness in a globalized world.
This digital tool allows you to contribute with the following: ratings:
- Cutting-edge technology at the service of regional trade, benefiting more than 52 million Central Americans who live in the region.
- Real-time information for trade policy decision-making.
- Competitiveness indices for each of the countries and for the Central American Economic Integration Subsystem.
- Compliance with international and regional agreements on trade facilitation.
- Simplification and systematization of processes, as well as the adoption of international best practices in foreign trade processes that open the regional market to the world.
In this way, Central America modernizes foreign trade processes and "facilitates the way of doing business."
To this end, the development of the PDCC has been financed by the European Union (EU), the funds were administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and it has been executed by the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA).
According to SIECA estimates, this far-reaching tool could lead to a 1.2%-1.4% increase in Central America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP); in absolute terms, this represents a potential increase of between USD 234 and USD 460 in intraregional terms. Likewise, regional export growth would be 1,67%-3.2% and imports would increase by 1.4%-3%. Data considered under a "minimal success" result.
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
