In compliance with the Trade Facilitation Agreement and as part of its strategy to modernize foreign trade, Panama officially established the National Trade Facilitation Committee (CNFC). The announcement was made on Friday (December 12, 2025) by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI).
Remember that the Article 23.2 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) It states that each Member must create a National Trade Facilitation CommitteeIn order to facilitate internal coordination and ensure the proper application of the Agreement's provisions, the CNFC is established as a management platform and an area for inter-institutional coordination, aimed at strengthening trade facilitation mechanisms and improving the country's competitiveness in international trade flows.
Precisely during the event, the Panamanian minister Julio Moltó He emphasized that this space "allows us to work as a single government team, together with the private sector, to strengthen Panama's integration into international trade."
El CNFC brings together the public institutions that are involved in foreign trade operations—customs, ports, logistics, security, transport, agriculture, health, and finance—and incorporates the technical and strategic perspective of private sector. Your goal is promote coordinated solutionsefficient and results-oriented, with the support of a Technical Secretariat responsible for promoting interoperability and inter-institutional cooperation.
In that regard, the official statement reported that the installation of the Committee included the participation of national authorities, including the Director General of Customs, Soraya Valdivieso; the Deputy Director, Carmen Tapia; the Logistics Deputy Director, Reynaldo Bello; as well as representatives of the private sector and officials from organizations linked to foreign trade and Panamanian security.
Also participating were International organizations , among them the Inter-American Development Bank (BID), the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) and the European Union (UE), within the framework of the presentation of National Trade Facilitation Plan 2025–2030, which establishes a roadmap to move towards more agile, digitized processes aligned with international standards.
At closing time, the Director General of Customs, Soraya Valdivieso, he emphasized - as he stated on his social media -: “We continue to work together to ensure that trade translates into opportunities and well-being for Panama.”.
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