Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
5
member countries and non-member countries, as well as three additional studies based on
field visits to the selected OIC member countries.
Moreover, Dr. Shepherd informed participants regarding the quantitative part of the study. He
expressed that two global databases are available. The first is the OECD Trade Facilitation
Indicators (TFIs), which map to the various obligations of the WTO Trade Facilitation
Agreement (TFA). Indicators are scored as zero (not implemented), one (partially
implemented), or two (fully implemented). The TFIs cover 163 countries for 2012, 2015, and
2017. The second data source is the UN Global Survey on Paperless Trade (UNGS), which
covers selected TFA dimensions but also includes data on the use of IT solutions in contexts
relevant to paperless trade. Indicators are scored as zero (not implemented), one (pilot stage),
two (partially implemented), and three (fully implemented). The data cover 120 countries for
the years 2015 and 2017. These two databases represent the most comprehensive information
on information availability that is comparable across a large number of countries, and
therefore useful for performance comparisons and identification of best practice.
3.2. Global Trends and Good Practice
Dr. Shepherd elucidated that the first four articles of the TFA deal with public information
availability, namely the publication of relevant information, use of online resources, enquiry
points, opportunity to comment on measures prior to their entry into force, consultations with
the trade community, advance rulings, and appeal and review. The TFA entered into force on
February 2017, but its unique structure, incorporating a new approach to special and
differential treatment for developing and least developed countries (LDCs), means that not all
provisions take place at the same time for all countries. Specifically, developing countries have
the ability to notify individual provisions in Category A for immediate application (deferred for
one year for LDCs), Category B for application after a specified implementation period, and
Category C for application only after technical assistance is received. As such, each developing
country can, with considerable flexibility, determine its own schedule for implementing the
Agreement.
Next, Dr. Shepherd stated that the TFA is the culmination of a long process of dissemination of
global norms on trade facilitation. WCO legal instruments have also played an important role
in this process, as have regional agreements containing provisions specifically on trade
facilitation, or more generally on transparency. He added, countries that are globally
recognized as strong performers in the area of information availability have typically
implemented the TFA’s disciplines for years or even decades now. Moreover, Dr. Shepherd
indicated that a review of data from the TFIs and UNGS shows that performance in the area of
public information availability is increasing in per capita income: in other words, countries at
higher per capita income levels tend to have stronger performance, as measured by
implementation of more provisions in the first four articles of the TFA on average. Looking at
the data dynamically, however, over the 2012-2017 period suggests that a process of catch up
may be taking place: although sources differ, there is some evidence that improvement in