The issue of trade facilitation has been increasingly highlighted among business and trading communities as they would like to reduce the costs of international transactions of goods and services. Trade facilitation is a broad term: there are a number of international agreements relating to trade facilitation, and a number of international organizations involved in this area. Recognizing the importance of trade facilitation and after several years of exploratory work on government trade facilitation measures, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed, in July 2004, to include trade facilitation in the multilateral trade negotiations of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). This paper examines the issue of trade facilitation in a wider context, covering various articles in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and WTO instruments, the World Customs Organization and other international conventions, and the state of play of DDA negotiations. Based on these discussions, conclusions are drawn and recommendations made as to structure, modality, and substance of an agreement on trade facilitation.
