Trade facilitation

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Trade facilitation looks at how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved to reduce associated cost burdens and maximise efficiency while safeguarding legitimate regulatory objectives. Business costs may be a direct function of collecting information and submitting declarations or an indirect consequence of border checks in the form of delays and associated time penalties, forgone business opportunities and reduced competitiveness.

Understanding and use of the term “trade facilitation” varies in the literature and amongst practitioners. "Trade facilitation" is largely used by institutions which seek to improve the regulatory interface between government bodies and traders at national borders. The WTO, in an online training package, has defined trade facilitation as “the simplification and harmonisation of international trade procedures”, where trade procedures are the “activities, practices and formalities involved in collecting, presenting, communicating and processing data required for the movement of goods in international trade”.^[1]

In defining the term, many trade facilitation proponents will also make reference to trade finance and the procedures applicable for making payments (e.g. via a commercial banks). For example, UN/CEFACT defines trade facilitation as "the simplification, standardization and harmonisation of procedures and associated information flows required to move goods from seller to buyer and to make payment".^[2]

Occasionally, the term trade facilitation is extended to address a wider agenda in economic development and trade to include: the improvement of transport infrastructure, the removal of government corruption, the modernization of customs administration, the removal of other non-tariff trade barriers, as well as export marketing and promotion.

The World Trade Report 2015 provides an overview of the various trade facilitation definitions from academia as well as various international organizations, contrasting them with the scope of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) concluded in December 2013.^[3] The WTO TFA has become the new baseline for trade facilitation, with many countries striving to implement measures going beyond those included in this Agreement in order to maintain a competitive advantage in global markets.^[4] Notably, most countries have focused their trade facilitation efforts on establishing electronic single windows and other paperless trade systems to further reduce trade costs.^[5]