2008
Press Release
Wednesday 16 July 2008
Reduce Red Tape and Keep It Simple:
Secret of Increased Exports
“Ireland is now ranked as the 8th easiest country to trade with” said Mr Joe Lynch, President of the Irish Exporters Association, speaking at the Association’s Annual President’s Lunch in Dublin today (16.7.08), as he presented Mr Frank Daly with the Trade Facilitation Ireland Gold medal.
Mr Lynch was citing the World Bank’s Doing Business 2008 Survey, and went on the say much of this ease of business came from the foresight and leadership of Frank Daly during his four decades with the Revenue Commissioners.
The IEA estimates that in international trade. the average customs transaction involves 20 to 30 different parties, 40 documents, 200 data elements – many of which are repeated at least 30 times – and the re-keying of 60 - 70% of all data at least once.
According to Mr Lynch that represents a lot of effort, a lot of time and a lot of money expended by exporters without any additional sales. “In my experience it is not market or tariff barriers that are discouraging small and medium-sized businesses from getting into exporting, but the excessive red tape that makes foreign markets unattractive,” said Mr Lynch. “The future of Irish export growth will come from more indigenous Irish companies entering the rapidly emerging new BRIC markets’’ said Mr Lynch, referring to – Brazil, Russia, India and China. “Unfortunately, customs and border crossing procedures in these countries are among some of the most problematic,” he added. The World Economic Forum’s Global Enabling Trade Report 2008 ranks Brazil at 80 globally in terms of ease of cross border trade, Russia at 103, India at 71 and China at 48.
He went on to urge Revenue to push for acceptance at the World Customs Organisation of WTO Trade Facilitation proposals, to reduce cross border red tape.
The Irish Exporters Association has long been an advocate of making trade easier and less complicated. “We set up Trade Facilitation Ireland in 2006 with wide representation across the Irish industrial and semi state sectors, in order to drive the Irish initiatives on trade facilitation. I am happy to report that Trade Facilitation Ireland has received strong support from Revenue, the United Nations trade development body UNCTAD and the policy body Forfás,” said Mr Lynch. He noted that trade facilitation encompasses such elements as import licence elimination, excise duty reduction, more efficient transit procedures, less duplication of information requirements, simplification of the regulatory arrangements, reduction of unnecessary security procedures for bonafide traders and more predictable and faster movement of goods.
“There can be no doubt that the implementation of Trade Facilitation measures enhances competitiveness and reduces costs. It also follows that trade facilitation can increase trade and lead to additional foreign direct investment,” he said. A major focus of Trade Facilitation Ireland has been the Single Window concept – a one stop shop for efficiently gathering all international trade documentation. There has also been a strong focus at Trade Facilitation Ireland on the compelling need to efficiently handle the emerging and potentially costly new customs control systems for security of borders.
Mr Lynch was generous in his appreciation of the role of the Irish Revenue. “There is no doubt that the Irish Revenue Commissioners have been at the forefront of Trade Facilitation initiatives not only within the European Union, but also among OECD countries and at World Customs forums for many years,” said Mr Lynch. He added that the Irish Revenue-On-Line system is the envy of many customs and revenue departments internationally. To back up that statement he instanced the World Bank’s Doing Business 2008 Survey which ranks Ireland as the 8th easiest country with which to trade across borders. By comparison, the same survey puts the UK in 27th position.
The highlight of the President’s Lunch was the presentation of the Irish Exporters Association’s Trade Facilitation Ireland Gold medal to Mr Frank Daly, the recently retired Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. In presenting the Trade Facilitation Ireland Gold Medal to Frank Daly, Mr Lynch said: “we wish to honour your achievements in creating, with your colleagues in Revenue, an effective, modern organisation that is recognised worldwide as a benchmark for service, innovation, planning and delivery.”
In his wide-ranging speech Mr Lynch also addressed the current economic problems that most countries are now experiencing. He suggested that the national fixation on recessionary problems that we are currently facing here in Ireland might be deflecting exporters from what could be even more pressing problems – recession problems in our two major markets of Britain and the United States. “When you combine the recessionary situations in those two markets with the decline of the Dollar and Sterling vis-à-vis the Euro, rising inflation, soaring oil prices, accelerating commodity prices and higher interest rates, it becomes abundantly clear why Irish exporters are facing into difficult times.”
See Mr. Frank Daly's speech at www.taxcommission.ie
ENDS
For Further Information contact:
John F. Whelan, Chief Executive, Irish Exporters Association
Mobile: 087 927 1243
Email: jfwhelan@irishexporters.ie
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