SITPRO, the UK’s trade facilitation agency, today welcomed the agreement reached yesterday by WTO Members at the Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong to begin drafting the text of an agreement on trade facilitation early next year.
Chief Executive Malcolm McKinnon, who was present in Hong Kong for the Ministerial, said: “This is a good, if unsung, outcome from Hong Kong. Trade facilitation was one of the least contentious issues on the Ministerial agenda, but also one of the most promising as far as developing countries are concerned. We are encouraged that WTO Members at all levels of development recognise the benefits to development that can accrue from efficient and simplified border procedures. We hope that next year’s negotiations will lead to an agreement that will enable such benefits to be achieved.
“Most of the attention in Hong Kong focused on agriculture, industrial goods, services and a package of measures to help the least developed countries. Yet trade facilitation has the potential to be good for developed and developing countries alike. A recent study by the OECD estimates potential annual worldwide gains of some $40 billion from just a 1% reduction in trade transaction costs for goods, with most of the gains benefiting developing countries – a classic win-win situation.”
Trade Facilitation is covered in Annex E to the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration. This notes that “Members should be mindful of the overall deadline [of 2006] for finishing the negotiations and the resulting need to move into focussed drafting mode early enough after the Sixth Ministerial Conference so as to allow for a timely conclusion of text-based negotiations on all aspects of the mandate.”
The full text of the Hong Kong Declaration can be found at http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min05_e/draft_text5_e.doc.
Trade Facilitation is covered in Annex E of this document (pages 37-41).
SITPRO News Release - 19 December 2005
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