Implementing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) could reduce worldwide trade costs by anywhere from 12.5% to 17.5%, according to new OECD analysis, with the greatest benefits accruing in developing countries.
The 2015 OECD Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFIs) find that countries which implement the TFA in full will reduce their trade costs by anywhere from 1.4 to 3.9 percentage points more than those that only implement the minimum requirements. The greatest opportunities for reductions in trade costs are in low and lower middle income countries.
Trade costs include all tariff and non-tariff costs including transport, border-related and local distribution costs from foreign producer to final user in the domestic country.
This has been excerpted from a 4 June 2015 release by the OECD and is available in its entirety at:
http://www.oecd.org/trade/global-trade-costs-could-drop-dramatically-if-countries-implement-wto-trade-facilitation-agreement.htm