Effective border management begins long before a shipment reaches the border and continues after it has crossed. This session will follow the end-to-end journey of a shipment, from the moment goods are ready for export, through pre-arrival processing, border crossing, transit, and final clearance. It will examine how border agencies cooperate at each stage of the supply chain to facilitate trade while ensuring compliance, security, and revenue collection.
The discussion will explore what happens before goods depart from their origin, what decisions and controls can be undertaken before arrival at the border, how agencies coordinate at the border itself, how cooperation supports the movement of goods during transit, and how post-clearance processes contribute to efficient and trusted supply chains.
Key message: the border is not a place; it is a process.
Effective BAC therefore requires agencies to work together across the entire supply chain, rather than only at the border crossing itself.
Celine Bacrot is an Economist in the Trade Facilitation Section, Division of Technology and Logistics, in UNCTAD. She has more than 25 years of work experience with a focus on trade and economic development, regional integration and political economy. From 2003 until 2008, she worked in UNCTAD as focal point of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (IF) for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on the formulation of trade development strategies. Afterwards, she spent more than 10 years based in East Africa working for several UN agencies (UN-Habitat and UNICEF) and set up a consultancy firm in Arusha, Tanzania, working on trade development projects, mainly regional integration, trade development strategies, and trade facilitation in the EAC region and Asia-Pacific. From 2014 until 2020, she was the regional coordinator for the UNCTAD Trade Facilitation project in East Africa. She is now based in Geneva and works as Officer in Charge of the Trade Facilitation Section in UNCTAD, working on trade facilitation, global supply chains and regional integration. She has a Master in Economics with a specialization in Economic Development as well as a Degree in Political Science, Development and Co-operation from the University of Paris-La Sorbonne.
Jady Valladares Gudiel es Centroamericana, nacida en Honduras y Magíster en Integración Centroamericana y Desarrollo. Cuenta con más de 20 años de experiencia en facilitación del comercio, acceso a mercados y aranceles en la región centroamericana, y desde 2021 es la primera Directora de Facilitación del Comercio de la SIECA. Ha liderado, junto con los países de la región, la implementación de la Estrategia Centroamericana de Facilitación del Comercio y Competitividad, con Énfasis en Gestión Coordinada de Fronteras (ECFCC-2023-2030), y ha negociado diversos acuerdos comerciales internacionales.
Desde su amplia experiencia, ha realizado aportes a la política pública regional en facilitación del comercio, transformación digital, armonización normativa, modernización aduanera, Gestión Coordinada de Fronteras, coordinación entre el sector público y privado e inclusión económica de género, así como en las relaciones con cooperantes y organismos intergubernamentales.
Es docente universitaria y, en 2026, fue reconocida como una de las 50 Mujeres Poderosas por Forbes Centroamérica.
