Establishing Well Functioning National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFBs)
In the OIC Member States
6
Box 1: Various Definitions of Trade Facilitation
All international organizations recognize that
trade performance depends on many more factors
that trade policy alone. This set of additional
factors is often regrouped under the heading of
trade facilitation. The scope of trade facilitation
differs across organizations active in this field.
The EIT takes a more holistic approach by
considering all trade-enabling measures. For the
sake of comparison, the approach of various
international organizations to trade facilitation is
summarized.
 World Trade Organizations. The WTO defines
trade facilitations as “the simplification and
harmonization of international trade
procedures” covering the “activities, practices
and formalities involved in collecting,
presenting, communicating and processing
data required for the movement of goods in
international trade” in the Doha Development
Agenda, trade facilitation negotiations focus on
freedom of transit, feed and formalities related
to importing and exporting and transparency
of trade regulations –which essentially relates
to border procedures such as customs and port
procedures and transport formalities.1
 European Commission. The Commission
defines trade facilitation as the simplification
and harmonization of international trade
procedures including import and export
procedures, which largely refer to the activities
(practices and formalities) involved in
collecting, presenting, communicating and
processing the data required for the movement
of goods in international trade.2
 Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development. For the OECD, trade facilitation
is about streamlining and simplifying
international trade procedures in order to
allow for easier flow of goods and trade at both
national and international level. 3
 United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development. For UNCTAD, any measure that
eases a trade transaction and leads to time and
cost reductions in the transaction cycle fits into
the category of trade facilitation. The latter can
be effected through more efficient procedures
and operations or through removing any
deadweight economic loss and redundancies.
It may cover measures regarding: (a)
formalities, procedures and documents and
the use of standard and electronic messages
for trade transactions; (b) the physical
movement of goods through improvements in
services, the legal framework, and the
transport and communications infrastructure,
as well as the use of modern information
technology tools by services providers and
users; and (c) the timely discussion and
dissemination of trade-related information to
all concerned parties. 4
 World Customs Organization. For the WCO
trade facilitation amounts to the avoidance of
unnecessary trade restrictiveness. This can be
achieved by applying modern techniques and
technologies, while improving the quality of
controls in an international harmonized
manner.5
 World Bank. The term trade facilitation refers
to a series of complex, border and behind-
border measures. Broadly defined, these
measures include anything from institutional
and regulatory reform to customs and port
efficiency and are inherently far more
intricate and costly to implement. The Bank´s
areas of focus are: infrastructure investment;
customs modernization and border-crossing
environment; streamlining of documentary
requirements and information flows;
automation and electronic data interchange
(EDI); and competitiveness; transit and
multimode transport; and transport security.
6
Notes
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org/tad/facilitation/whatistra
defacilitation.htm.
/overview/customs-procedures-and-
facilitation.aspx.