Trade Facilitation Synergies between WTO and ASEAN Initiatives
Yean, Tham Siew | July 2017
Abstract
Trade facilitation seeks to simplify and streamline procedures to allow for an easier flow of trade across borders. Within this broad understanding, it can in turn be defined according to different sets of policies affecting trade processes and the cost of trade. It can be narrowly defined as the improving of cross-border administrative measures or more broadly to include behind-the-border measures such as infrastructure, institutional transparency, good governance, and domestic regulations. All these measures affect trade costs and with it the trade performance of a country.
The World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) was concluded at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference and entered into force on 22 February 2017. It is a landmark for being the first multilateral trade agreement to be reached since the Uruguay Round.3 Besides, it has the potential to improve trade facilitation measures in all the 164 signatories. Meanwhile, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Trade Facilitation Framework (ATFF) focuses on existing ASEAN commitments and instruments relating to trade facilitation.
This paper compares the trade facilitation measures of the WTO and of ASEAN, whose member states are all also WTO members.
Citation
Yean, Tham Siew. 2017. Trade Facilitation Synergies between WTO and ASEAN Initiatives. © ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/7214.Keywords
Development assistance
ADB
Curriculum development
Development assistance
Development aid
Development indicators
Development potential
Development models
Project appraisal
Performance appraisal
Regional development bank
Trade development
Import volume
Export volume
Asian Development Bank
Development
Trade
Development Goals
Skills Development
Sustainable Development
Trade Flows
Trade And Development
Food Security And Trade
Trade Volume
Trade Potential
Trade Flows
External Trade
Industrial policy
New technology
Innovations
Industry
Export policy
Import policy
Capital
Business
Communication in rural development
Social participation
Occupational training
Partnership
Joint venture
System analysis
Labor and globalization
Labor policy
Regional trading blocs
Foreign trade and employment
Developing countries
Industrial priorities
Technological innovation
Technology transfer
Foreign trade regulation
Industrial relations
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