Overview of trade facilitation work from mid-1998 until end of 1999

It was agreed to hold four dedicated meetings on trade facilitation as informal meetings of the Goods Council. The meetings should address the following issues:

• import and export procedures and requirements, including customs and border-crossing problems; overview of the Kyoto Convention and its current revision process — September 1998;

• physical movement of consignments (transport and transit); payments, insurance and other financial requirements which affect the cross-border movement of goods in international trade — December 1998;

• electronic facilities and their importance for facilitating international trade; technical cooperation and development issues relating to simplification of trade procedures; consideration of WTO Agreements relating to, or including provisions on, trade facilitation — March 1999;

• evaluation of the exploratory and analytical work to assess the scope for WTO rules in the area of trade facilitation — June 1999.

The “Chairman’s proposal” further foresaw that “the results of the exploratory and analytical work mandated by the Singapore Ministerial Declaration should be reported by the CTG to the General Council”.

The first three meetings were held between September 1998 and April 1999, as set out in the “Chairman’s proposal”. Several papers by Members were circulated at these meetings (for a complete overview, see below). At the third meeting, input from other WTO bodies on those aspects of trade facilitation related to the respective agreements under their purview was circulated.

At the fourth meeting on 21 June 1999, Members carried out an evaluation of the exploratory and analytical work to assess the scope for WTO rules in the area of trade facilitation.At this informal meeting, it was agreed to submit a status report to the General Council on work undertaken since Singapore. (G/L/333) (download in Microsoft Word format, 12 pages, 86KB)

Papers submitted until end of 1999  

Trade Facilitation in the preparatory work for the Seattle Ministerial Conference  

In the preparatory work for the Seattle Ministerial Conference, a number of Members presented proposals on trade facilitation in the General Council.

• EC (WT/GC/W/190) (download in Microsoft Word format, 2 pages, 35KB)

• Japan (WT/GC/W/257) (download in Microsoft Word format, 3 pages, 41KB)

• Switzerland (WT/GC/W/264) (download in Microsoft Word format, 1 page, 32KB)

• United States (WT/GC/W/254) (download in Microsoft Word format, 3 pages, 39KB)

Some Members called for the launch of negotiations at Seattle to establish a framework of rules and disciplines, or to strengthen and elaborate on existing WTO rules (e.g. Articles VIII and X GATT 1994) with the objective of alleviating administrative and procedural burdens on traders. Such negotiations were to be built upon WTO principles and would be aimed at maximizing transparency, expediting the release of goods and reducing, simplifying, and as appropriate modernizing and harmonizing border-crossing requirements, procedures and formalities.
It was proposed to develop and implement a capacity building programme in conjunction with the design of WTO disciplines with the aim of ensuring that all members are able to implement the negotiated rules and disciplines.
Other Members preferred to continue with the exploratory and analytical work started at Singapore, and believed that there was no need for additional WTO obligations. In this context, it was argued that reform and improvement of customs and trade administration were not contingent upon new disciplines, and that technical co-operation efforts should be stepped up to help developing countries with the improvement of their infrastructure for trade transactions.