Enhancing Public Availability of Customs Information
In the Islamic Countries
20
performing countries globally reached this level of performance some time ago, in general, and
are now moving even further forward.
The TFA’s information availability provisions are the culmination of a long process of improving
trade-related transparency through the GATT, and now the WTO. It started with GATT Article X,
mentioned above, then received further impetus in the Uruguay Round where the SPS and TBT
Agreements, as well as other agreements, imposed notification requirements on members
taking new or amended measures in certain areas. Parallel developments are evidence in
regional trade agreements: see Lejarraga and Shepherd (2013).
WCO Instruments
The WCO has also dealt with public availability of certain trade-related information in some of
its international instruments. However, given the purview of the organization, the scope is
necessarily narrower than what is in the TFA, namely customs information, not trade-related
information in general.
The Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) in Chapter 9 article 9.1 provides for the publication of
customs information, and in article 9.2 for publication of new or amended rules prior to their
entry into force. Article 9.3 promotes the use of information technology to achieve these ends.
Although the RKC is the WCO’s most high profile instrument, there are other decisions and
recommendations that are relevant. For instance, the Revised Arusha Declaration in paragraph
3 emphasizes the importance of certainty and predictability in customs, and promotes the
publication of such information. The WCO has also developed Transparency and Predictability
Guidelines, based on existing international standards. There is a 1999 recommendation on the
use of online tools, and a 2001 recommendation on the publication of goods classification
decisions.
These WCO instruments are very much in line with what is in the TFA. They show that the TFA’s
disciplines are in fact the result of a long and continuing process of harmonization of customs
and border procedures. Nonetheless, the scope of the WCO instruments is generally limited to
customs and does not include other aspects of import, export, and transit transactions; the TFA
also includes those areas. In addition, the TFA is in some senses a stronger obligation, because
obligations once implemented according to the schedule set out above become part of the WTO
legal system, and can potentially be enforced through dispute settlement proceedings.
Nonetheless, the system as set out here is very much mutually reinforcing between what is in
WCO instruments and what is in the TFA.
Obligations in Regional Trade Agreements
The rise of regional and preferential trade agreements (RTAs) has been well documented. Few
countries stand completely apart from this process. From the perspective of information
availability, new generation RTAs can play an important role. Although historically the main role
of these agreements was to exchange market opening commitments, more recently, they have
also started to deal with rule making issues. Lejarraga and Shepherd (2013) examine a subset
of trade agreements involving OECD member countries and selected partners, more than 100
agreements in all, and find that there are frequent references to transparency. Many agreements
now contain standalone chapters on transparency issues, in which issues like publication of
laws, regulations, and procedures can be addressed, as well as questions like comment periods