Aid for Trade at a Glance 2015
Reducing Trade Costs for Inclusive, Sustainable Growth
The Aid for Trade Initiative has allowed for the active engagement of a large number of organisations and agencies in helping developing countries and especially the least developed build the infrastructure and supply-side capacity they need to connect to regional and global markets and improve their trade performance. The new development paradigm under the post-2015 Development Agenda requires an integrated approach to ensure that the aid for trade achievement leads to inclusive and sustainable development outcomes. Embedding trade cost at the centre of the Aid for Trade Initiative provides an operational focal point for such action among a broad collation of stakeholders.
The 2015 joint OECD/WTO publication Aid for Trade at a Glance focusses on how reducing trade costs will help in achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The publication contains contributions from the Enhanced Integrated Framework, the International Trade Centre, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the World Bank.
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Implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement
Economic research and field evidence show that removing administrative and regulatory bottlenecks at borders can have powerful effects on reducing trade costs and increasing trade. The purpose of the new WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement is to expedite the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. Implementation should help developing and LDC members reduce border inefficiencies, and the resulting costs, so realizing these gains. One particular feature of the Agreement is the implementation flexibility that it accords to WTO members. First, many of the approximately 35 technical trade facilitation measures are written in language that does not mandate but rather requires “best efforts.” Second, the Agreement allows each developing or LDC member to determine when it will implement each trade facilitation measure, and to determine the support needed for its implementation
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