Trade facilitation has a long history in UNCTAD, whose mandate in this area dates from the Final Act of its First Ministerial Conference in 1964.

The Final Act of the Conference recommended that UNCTAD

“should promote, within the United Nations family, arrangements for: ... (c) Inter-governmental action for research into improved marketing techniques, the organization of trade fairs, the dissemination of market intelligence and the simplification of formalities relating to Customs procedure, commercial travel, etc.”

With the beginning of the negotiations on a WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement in 2004, supporting the developing countries in these negotiations became another major focus of the UNCTAD trade facilitation activities. This support included preparing analytical and policy publications on trade facilitation issues, organizing training and awareness-raising events in the developing countries and in Geneva for Geneva-based delegates, as well as implementing technical assistance and capacity-building (TACB) activities tailored to the needs of developing countries.

Under the framework of the UNCTAD projects on the development of national trade facilitation implementation plans, 26 countries, comprising LDCs, middle income developing countries, landlocked countries and small island economies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, evaluated their current situation with respect to the considered trade facilitation measures being negotiated in the WTO. In doing so, they assessed the current level of implementation of each measure included in the WTO negotiating text, rating the implementation level as absent, partial or full.

The following report consolidates these results to help assess the progress thus far achieved in the implementation of the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) as negotiated at the WTO. The challenges remaining will be examined and addressed.

The report is intended to serve as a guidance tool for trade facilitation policy makers at the national, regional, and multilateral levels in both developed and developing countries.

These insights, summarized in the present report, concern:

1. Level of implementation of trade facilitation in the participating countries (chapter I)

2. Implementation priorities and time and financial requirements (chapter II)

3. Expressed needs for special and differential treatment (SDT) (chapter III)

4. Use of selected implementation tools: A special focus on customs automation systems and national trade facilitation committees (chapter IV).

The conclusions (chapter V) will present a number of policy implications that can be drawn in terms of implementing the trade facilitation reforms under the framework of the future WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

The analysis pays particular attention to the situation of LDCs and highlights their specificities in their situation and the expressed implementation needs.

It is hoped that the report will provide a guidance tool for trade facilitation policymakers at the national, regional and multilateral levels in both developed and developing countries, assisting them to plan and implement trade facilitation reforms and/or tailor TACB activities to the needs of the developing countries.