Background and Purpose

In today's dynamic world economy, 55% of global trade is taking place within the framework of regional trade agreements (RTAs). Yet the real role of trade facilitation in promoting regional trade in the context of RTAs is not fully recognized. Enhancing national capacities to enable nations to trade more efficiently is the main focus of the work undertaken by many international and regional organizations. Cross-border barriers to trade have been recently placed on the negotiations’ agenda under the Doha round. However, the slow pace of the multilateral negotiations and their degree of complexity leave the door open to enhance trade facilitation at the regional level. The challenging task laid on the international and regional organizations is how to assist in promoting the use of international standards in trade facilitation schemes under RTAs to advance trade facilitation globally and create synergies with the emerging multilateral agreement on trade facilitation. To this effect, the work should focus on identifying the value of incorporating trade facilitation into RTAs and best practices in this area.

Despite the caveats on the proliferation of RTAs in recent years and their potential impact on the progress of the multilateral trading system, RTAs continue to increase particularly after the launch of the Doha Round in 2001. This trend was further deepened by attracting large groupings and major developing countries to the scene driven by the expected immediate market access. However, this expectation hinges primarily on the assumption that trade facilitation measures are already advanced among the trading partners. Given their nature, costs created by poor trade facilitation at border crossings and inefficient transit procedures are linked to poor trade facilitation at the regional level.

Trade facilitation mechanisms adopted under RTAs may take multifaceted measures ranging from mutual recognition and certification to standardization of documentation requirements, simplification of trade procedures, border coordination and cooperation, enhanced connectivity and use of ICT, to policy coordination, among others. The value of basing these measures on international standards will facilitate moving from implementation within a region to multilateral implementation. The use of international standards will also facilitate implementing trade facilitation across country groupings and between countries that are signatories to different RTAs.

Expected Outcomes

The Inter-Regional Forum on "Trade Facilitation and Regional Trade Agreements" will focus on the creation of synergies and compatibility between regional and international trade facilitation patterns to promote trade. It is an attempt to go beyond the prevailing perspectives on RTAs, to provide a platform for discussion on the nature of trade facilitation processes and mechanisms under RTAs which promote regional trade and enhance their global compatibility. Through identifying these trade facilitation mechanisms, the Forum will form an ample opportunity for participants from regional and international organizations, governments and businesses to shape a consensus on how to carry them forward globally from their regional setup to create complementarities with the trade facilitation work ongoing on the multilateral level. By translating such consensus towards the adoption of international standards for trade facilitation within RTAs, regional signatories will be in a better position to embody identified trade facilitation measures and standards in their trade agreements.

It is hoped that participants will be able to arrive at recommendations on how to make the progress of trade facilitation at the regional level a building block for the advancement of the trade facilitation agenda on the multilateral level. Recommendations will also touch upon the potential roles of the relevant UN agencies on both the international and regional levels and other relevant organizations towards achieving convergence of regional and global perspectives on trade facilitation.