Capacity building to improve trade facilitation

Capacity building to improve trade facilitation in cross-border transactions is currently commanding a higher priority in response to a number of reinforcing developments:

• the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Agenda commits WTO members to “ensuring adequate technical assistance and support for capacity building in this area,” which is part of the broader commitment to technical assistance and capacity building for trade-related purposes in this negotiation;
• the World Bank has recognized that trade facilitation is important to achieve trade benefits that address the Bank’s objective of reducing world poverty;
• the World Customs Organization (WCO) has identified capacity building as an important component to improve the security and facilitation of the goods supply chain;
• capacity building will be needed to implement the WCO’s revised Kyoto Convention to simplify customs procedures;
• WTO is already coordinating technical assistance to improve implementation of the WTO Valuation Agreement.