Establishing Well Functioning National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFBs)
In the OIC Member States
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The main objectives are to regular consultations on proposals to be submitted to the Government; to
define all the negotiating positions of Togo on special and differential treatment granted to Least
Developed Countries and Customs matters and participate, to the extent possible, in the WTO
negotiation meetings held in Geneva.
The source of funding comes from the directorate general of foreign trade.
Analysis
The main obstacles are the lack of financial resources and the mobilization of the group members.
3.5.10. Turkey
Description
The official name of the current NTFB is the National Working Group of Trade Facilitation (NWTF). It
was established in 2006 as a sub-committee of WTO Coordination Council.
The sub-committee is composed of relevant public and private stakeholders. The public participants
of the NWTF are the Ministry of Customs and Trade, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of
Transport, Maritime Affairs, and Communication; the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, and
the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock. On the other hand, the private sector participants of
the NWTF are the Turkish Union of Chambers (TOBB), International Transporters Union (UND), and
Turkish Exporters Unions (TİM). The coordination of the NWTF is held by the Ministry of Customs
and Trade.
The objective of the NWTF is the effective conduct of the WTO trade facilitation negotiations.
NWTF has no fixed budget.
Analysis
The NWTF was effective in enabling Turkey to actively participate in the trade facilitation
negotiations and to sponsor textual proposals. As a result, four of the textual proposals took place in
the final text of the Agreement. Turkey was also appointed as the facilitator member on freedom of
transit by the Chairman of the Negotiation Group.
As mentioned above, the NWTF was primarily established as a coordination body for the
negotiations of WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. Now that the negotiations ended and the
implementation of the Agreement is expected, the NWTF is no more functional. Instead of the NWTF,
in accordance with the related clause of the WTO TF Agreement, a National Committee will be
established after the ratification of the Agreement. After the establishment of this body the UNCTAD
criteria on NWTF may be better assessed.