Definition. A Single Window is a facility that allows parties involved in international trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements. If information is electronic, then individual data elements should only be submitted once.

Overview. Governments and trade have established an extensive range of agency-specific and country specific regulatory and operational requirements for international trade with little coordination amongst each other, either at the national or international level.  As a result, traders are faced with a confusing set of duplicative and redundant reporting requirements, forms, systems, data sets, data models, and messages. Governments and trade have to develop and maintain different systems to meet these redundant and duplicative requirements.  This adds enormous costs to all parties, both in terms of fiscal resources and timeliness and accuracy of data. This problem has become more acute in recent years with the requirements for faster information delivery, often in advance of shipping, for security and other purposes, and the expanding requirements of data harmonization in international supply chains. The ability to handle data efficiently and swiftly has, in fact, become a key element in international competitiveness, especially in international supply chains.

Where to Start. United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, developed a Recommendation and Guidelines on establishing a Single Window and maintains a Repository of case studies of Single Window implementations around the world. The Centre also provides standards for paper and electronic trade documents (UNeDocs) for data exchange within and among Single Windows.

In cooperation with other international organizations, Single Window operators and relevant regional initiatives, UN/CEFACT organized a three day Symposium on Single Window Standards and Interoperability(May 3-5 2006, Geneva), which focused on the tools and standards required to exchange of information and interoperability between Single Window facilities. Presentations and conclusions of the Symposium are available at: http://www.unece.org/trade/workshop/sw_2006/welcome.htm

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