WTO trade facilitation deal to reduce trade costs and boost trade

Director-General Pascal Lamy, in a speech at the World Customs Organization in Brussels on 24 June 2011, said that the implementation of the Trade Facilitation measures discussed in Geneva could reduce total trade costs by almost 10 per cent. “Every extra day required to ready goods for import or export decreases trade by around 4%”. This is why a trade facilitation deal in the Doha Round would be a “tremendous value for our trading communities and in particular for many of our small and medium enterprises”. He commended the close cooperation between the WTO and the WCO, particularly in technical assistance, and suggested further collaboration in using the “Made in the World” approach to measuring international trade flows.

The entire speech is available on the WTO website at:http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl197_e.htm