Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
4
3. Global Trends, Good Practices, and State of Play for the Public Availability
of Customs Information
3.1. Conceptual Framework and Methodology
Dr. Ben Shepherd, Principal of Developing Trade Consultants, delivered a presentation with
the topic of “Facilitating Trade: Enhancing Public Availability of Customs Information in the
OIC Countries”. The first part of the presentation was regarding the trends, good practices and
state of play for Customs Information.
At the beginning of the presentation, Dr. Shepherd gave some information regarding trade
costs. He stated that standard empirical models of international trade, based on widely
accepted theories, show that bilateral trade flows increase with economic size, but decrease
with higher trade costs. Trade costs cover the full range of factors that drive a wedge between
producer prices in the exporting country and consumer prices in the importing country. As
such, Dr. Shepherd continued, they include factors that are relevant at-the-border (such as
tariffs), between-the-borders (transport), and behind-the-border (regulatory measures). One
aspect of trade costs that is understood conceptually but relatively understudied empirically is
information costs. For a given set of policy restrictions, exporters must expend economic
resources—typically time and/or money—to obtain information on those policies in the
importing country. Greater difficulty in accessing information on trade-related policies and
procedures therefore increases trade costs, and thereby has the potential to decrease trade
flows.
Then Dr. Shepherd expressed that trade facilitation, in the broadest sense in which that term is
used, includes all measures, other than tariff reductions, designed to decrease trade costs. As
such, providing information on trade-related regulations and procedures is part of the trade
facilitation agenda, to the extent to which it serves to decrease trade costs stemming from the
difficulties that would otherwise be experienced in accessing detailed, accurate, and up-to-date
information.
He continued the presentation by emphasizing that customs information can be defined as the
set of rules and regulations governing interactions between the Customs authority and traders,
including duty schedules. He stressed that the broader concept of trade-related information
includes all types of information relevant to the actions undertaken by importers and
exporters, including the procedures related to health or safety requirements.
Against this background, Dr. Shepherd explained that the research report seeks to better
understand the ways in which public availability of information can help reduce trade costs,
within the broader context of global efforts to improve trade facilitation. The methodology
combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. The former includes a review of key data on
public information availability, and the presentation of summary measures as well as best
practices, with the aim of facilitating a comparison across regions and groups. He added that
the latter is focused on case studies, with three case studies based on desk-reviews of OIC