News
WTO members took stock of progress in implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) at the 12-13 February meeting of the Committee on Trade Facilitation a week before the second anniversary of the Agreement’s entry into force. Members called for the timely fulfillment of commitments and discussed efforts to help each other carry out the Agreement.
Members considered a report from the WTO Secretariat, which found that 141 or 86% of WTO members have now ratified the TFA roughly two years since it entered into force on 22 February 2017 when the WTO crossed the required threshold of 110 member ratifications. Zimbabwe, Cameroon and Ecuador were the latest to ratify the TFA since the last Committee meeting in October 2018. Egypt at the meeting said it would soon ratify the Agreement.
Full implementation of the Agreement, which seeks to expedite the movement, release and clearance of goods across borders, is forecast to slash members' trade costs by an average of 14.3 percent, with developing and least-developed countries having the most to gain, according to a 2015 study carried out by WTO economists. The TFA is also likely to reduce the time needed to import goods by over a day and a half and to export goods by almost two days, representing a reduction of 47 percent and 91 percent respectively over the current average.
As of February 12, the current rate of implemented commitments under the TFA stood at 61.3 percent. Broken down by level of development, this equates to a 100 per cent rate of implementation by developed members, 60.3 percent among developing members and 22.8 percent among least-developed countries (LDCs). Developed countries committed to implement the Agreement in full upon its entry into force, while developing and least-developed members set their own timetables for implementing the TFA, taking into account their respective capacities. These commitments have been communicated to the WTO in a series of notifications.
The next Trade Facilitation Committee meeting will be in June.
