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Contents
> Director-General’s letter to journalists
> The Doha Development Agenda
> Agriculture
> Cotton
> Services
> Market access, non-agricultural products
> Intellectual property (TRIPS)
> Trade facilitation
> Rules: ad, scm including fisheries subsidies
> Rules: regional agreements
> Dispute settlement
> Trade and environment
> Small economies
> Trade, debt and finance
> Trade and technology transfer
> Technical cooperation
> Least-developed countries
> Special and differential treatment
> Implementation issues
> Electronic commerce
> Members and accessions
> Members
> Bananas
> Statistics, Textiles and Clothing
> Statistics, Facts and Figures
> Jargon buster, Country groupings
> Jargon buster, An informal guide to ‘WTOspeak’
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The problem back to top
Traders from both developing and developed countries
have long pointed to the vast amount of red tape that still exists in moving
goods across borders. Documentation requirements often lack transparency and
are vastly duplicative in many places, a problem often compounded by a lack
of cooperation between traders and official agencies. Despite advances in information
technology, automatic data submission is still not commonplace.
UNCTAD estimates
that the average customs transaction involves 20–30 different parties, 40
documents, 200 data elements (30 of which are repeated at least 30 times)
and the re-keying
of 60–70% of all data at least once. With the lowering of tariffs across
the globe, the cost of complying with customs formalities has been reported
to
exceed in many instances the cost of duties to be paid. In the modern business
environment of just-in-time production and delivery, traders need fast and
predictable release of goods. An APEC study estimated that trade facilitation
programmes would generate gains of about 0.26% of real GDP to APEC, almost
double the expected gains from tariff liberalization, and that the savings
in import prices would be between 1–2% of import prices for developing countries
in the region.
Analysts point out that the reason why many small and
medium size enterprises — which as a whole account in many economies for up
to 60% of GDP creation — are not active players in international trade, has
more to do with red tape rather than tariff barriers. The administrative barriers
for
enterprises that do not regularly ship large quantities are often simply
too high to make foreign markets appear attractive.
For developing-country
economies,
inefficiencies in areas such as customs and transport can be roadblocks
to
the integration into the global economy and may severely impair export
competitiveness or inflow of foreign direct investment. This is one of the
reasons why developing-country
exporters are increasingly interested in removing administrative barriers,
particularly in other developing countries, which today account for 40%
of their trade in manufactured goods.
WTO provisions back to top
The WTO has always dealt with issues related to the
facilitation of trade, and WTO rules include a variety of provisions that aim
to enhance transparency and set minimum procedural standards. Among them are
GATT Articles 5, 8 and 10 — which deal with freedom of transit for goods, fees
and formalities connected with importation and exportation, and publication
and administration of trade regulations.
But the WTO legal framework lacks
specific provisions in some areas, particularly on customs procedures and
documentation, and transparency. The spectacular increase in the amount of
goods traded worldwide
in the last few years and the advances in technology and the computerization
of business transactions have added a sense of urgency to the need to make
the rules more uniform, user-friendly and efficient.
The mandate and the negotiations back to top
As a separate topic, trade facilitation is a relatively
new issue for the WTO. It was added to the organization’s agenda only about
seven years ago, when the Singapore Ministerial Conference in December 1996
directed the Goods Council “to undertake exploratory and analytical work … on
the simplification of trade procedures in order to assess the scope for WTO
rules in this area”. (Because the mandate came from the Singapore meeting,
trade facilitation is sometimes described as one of four “Singapore issues”.)
At
the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, in November 2001, Ministers agreed
that negotiations on trade facilitation would take place after the Fifth
Ministerial Conference in Cancún. This mandate was renewed on 1 August 2004
when the General Council decided by explicit consensus to commence negotiations
on the basis
of modalities agreed by Members. These modalities established the basis for
the work plan adopted at the first meeting of the Negotiating Group on 15
November 2004 under the chairmanship of ambassador Muhamad Noor Yacob, of Malaysia.
According
to paragraph 1 of the Modalities, the negotiations shall aim to clarify
and improve relevant aspects of Articles 5 (Freedom of Transit), Article
8 (Fees and Formalities connected with Importation and Exportation) and Article
10 (Publication and Administration of Trade Regulations) of the GATT 1994
with
a view to further expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods,
including goods in transit. Negotiations shall also aim at enhancing technical
assistance and support for capacity building in this area. The negotiations
shall further aim at provisions for effective cooperation between customs
or any other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance
issues.
The Negotiating Group, at its first meeting, agreed
to invite the IMF,
OECD, UNCTAD, World Customs Organization and the World Bank to attend
on an ad hoc basis.
Since 15 November 2004 to October 2005, the Negotiating
Group has met 7 times. Members have submitted around 50 contributions to
the
work
of the Group concerning many different aspects of the negotiations
such as Publication and Administration of Trade Regulations, Advance Rulings,
Express Shipments, Border Agency Cooperation, Release of Goods, Consular
Fees,
Cargo
in Transit, Technical Assistance and Capacity Building, Risk Assessment
and Management, Pre-Arrival Examination, Post-Clearance Audit, etc.
The
World Customs
Organization and the World Bank have also made written contributions
to
the
negotiations, and the WTO Secretariat has produced 7 technical or
compilation papers.
In Hong Kong, Ministers will assess progress in the
negotiations. |
Other material:
> Trade
facilitation
> Negotiations on trade facilitation
> Doha
declaration
> Doha declaration
explained
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