WTO | Trade topics - Trade facilitation - Overview of trade facilitation work from mid-1998 until end of 1999

Papers submitted until end of 1999 back to top

G/C/W/122	European Communities	22 September 1998	Assessment of Scope for WTO Rules in the Field of Import, Export, and Customs Procedures
G/C/W/123	Republic of Korea	25 September 1998	Reforming the Customs Clearance System in Korea (National Experience Paper)
G/C/W/125	Hong Kong, China	28 September 1998	Import and Export Procedures and Requirements (National Experience Paper)
G/C/W/126	Canada	30 September 1998	Trade Facilitation (Suggestions for a WTO role in trade facilitation)
G/C/W/80/Add.1	WTO Secretariat	2 December 1998	Update of background note G/C/W/80 (information on trade facilitation work carried out by other international organizations)
G/C/W/132	WTO Secretariat	2 December 1998	Background note (Inventory of delegations’ suggestions)
G/C/W/133	European Communities	3 December 1998	Issues Relating to the Physical Movement of Consignments (Transport and Transit) & Payment, Insurance and Other Financial Questions Affecting Cross-border Trade in Goods
G/C/W/134	Republic of Korea	22 December 1998	Matters Related to the Facilitation of Cargo Movement in Korea (National Experience Paper)
IP/C/W/123	WTO Secretariat	5 January 1999	The TRIPS Agreement and Trade Facilitation
WT/COMTD/W/57	WTO Secretariat	25 February 1999	Development Aspects of Trade Facilitation
G/C/W/137	Switzerland	4 March 1999	Trade Facilitation (Proposal for future WTO work)
G/C/W/138	European Communities	4 March 1999	Trade Facilitation and Electronic Commerce
G/C/W/136 G/L/299 S/C/W/101 IP/C/W/131	European Communities	10 March 1999	Trade Facilitation in relation to existing WTO Agreements
G/C/W/143 WT/COMTD/W/60	European Communities	10 March 1999	Trade Facilitation in relation to Development
G/VAL/W/32	WTO Secretariat	11 March 1999	Linkages between the Agreement on Customs Valuation and Trade Facilitation
G/C/W/132/Rev.1	WTO Secretariat	29 March 1999	Background note (Inventory of delegations’ suggestions)
G/C/W/146	Republic of Korea	6 April 1999	Revision of the Customs Act of Korea for Trade Facilitation (National Experience Paper)
G/C/W/148	UNCTAD	8 April 1999	Trade Facilitation (Overview of relevant UNCTAD activities)
G/C/W/149	WTO Secretariat	14 April 1999	Contributions received from other WTO bodies
G/C/W/150	Republic of Korea	15 April 1999	Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation (Proposal for future WTO work)
G/C/W/151	Japan	23 April 1999	Trade Facilitation — Proposal by Japan
G/C/W/152	Australia	4 May 1999	Role of Electronic Reporting in Trade Facilitation
G/C/W/153	WTO Secretariat	12 May 1999	Factual Summary of the informal meetings of the Council for Trade in Goods in September and December 1998 and April 1999
G/C/W/154	UN/ECE	8 June 1999	The UN/ECE CEFACT's Trade Facilitation Work

Trade Facilitation in the preparatory work for the Seattle Ministerial Conference back to top

In the preparatory work for the Seattle Ministerial Conference, a number of Members presented proposals on trade facilitation in the General Council.

EC (WT/GC/W/190) (download in Microsoft Word format, 2 pages, 35KB)

Japan (WT/GC/W/257) (download in Microsoft Word format, 3 pages, 41KB)
Switzerland (WT/GC/W/264) (download in Microsoft Word format, 1 page, 32KB)
United States (WT/GC/W/254) (download in Microsoft Word format, 3 pages, 39KB)

Some Members called for the launch of negotiations at Seattle to establish a framework of rules and disciplines, or to strengthen and elaborate on existing WTO rules (e.g. Articles VIII and X GATT 1994) with the objective of alleviating administrative and procedural burdens on traders. Such negotiations were to be built upon WTO principles and would be aimed at maximizing transparency, expediting the release of goods and reducing, simplifying, and as appropriate modernizing and harmonizing border-crossing requirements, procedures and formalities.
It was proposed to develop and implement a capacity building programme in conjunction with the design of WTO disciplines with the aim of ensuring that all members are able to implement the negotiated rules and disciplines.
Other Members preferred to continue with the exploratory and analytical work started at Singapore, and believed that there was no need for additional WTO obligations. In this context, it was argued that reform and improvement of customs and trade administration were not contingent upon new disciplines, and that technical co-operation efforts should be stepped up to help developing countries with the improvement of their infrastructure for trade transactions.