Trade facilitation and customs valuation

Le commerce est fondamental pour la croissance économique des pays ce qui fait de la facilitation des échanges une question prioritaire pour les gouvernements. Les pays en développement sans littoral (PDSL) sont dépourvus d’accès direct à la mer par leur territoire de sorte que la facilité des échanges est pour eux une question de survie (voir tableau 1). Les difficultés spécifiques qui résultent de l’isolement par rapport aux grands marchés mondiaux et les coûts de transit élevés sont autant de contraintes supplémentaires pour le développement socioéconomique des PDSL – et les conséquences dévastatrices de la COVID-19 n’ont fait qu’accentuer cette situation.

El Acuerdo MSF de la OMC establece las normas básicas de inocuidad de los alimentos y sanidad animal y vegetal. Su objetivo es lograr un equilibrio entre los derechos de los Miembros de la OMC a proteger la salud y la vida de las personas y de los animales o la preservación de los vegetales y su obligación de no restringir el comercio más de lo necesario. Dado el carácter técnico y el elevado costo de algunas de esas medidas varias prescripciones sanitarias y fitosanitarias impuestas por los Miembros importadores podrían ser difíciles de cumplir por los PDSL para los que posiblemente los productos agropecuarios representen una parte importante de sus exportaciones.

Trade is critical to the economic growth of countries which means facilitating trade is a priority for governments. Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are without direct territorial access to a sea or ocean so ease of trade is linked to their survival.

Trade plays a critical role in achieving the development objectives of LLDCs and is key to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular target 17.11: significantly increase the exports of developing countries.

Among the outreach activities I have undertaken since becoming Director-General have been very detailed and substantive meetings with landlocked developing countries (LLDCs). They have told me how the particular barriers they face due to a lack of territorial access to the sea and isolation from the world’s largest markets restrict the free flow of trade and impose constraints on their socio-economic development. The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially damaging to their fragile economies which has brought new challenges such as container shortages high shipping costs and the closure of borders to stop the spread of COVID-19. In response I requested the WTO Secretariat to conduct this study on the logistical constraints impacting the trade performance of LLDCs and how trade bottlenecks could be reduced. I am very happy that the study has been produced in such a short time.

LLDCs are a very special group of countries which face very atypical constraints. To address these challenges will require special measures to more fully integrate LLDCs into the multilateral trading system. This report has identified some of the areas and issues where targeted steps need to be taken to ease trade bottlenecks – not only by the LLDCs themselves but also transit countries and organizations involved. The paucity of up-to-date data and the difficulties to collect it from some of the remotest areas of the world make it hard to capture all the factors comprehensively and accurately.

The WTO SPS Agreement sets out the basic rules for food safety and animal and plant health standards. It aims to strike a balance between WTO members’ rights to protect human animal or plant life or health and their obligation not to restrict trade more than necessary. Given the technical and costly nature of some of these measures certain sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements imposed by importing members could be difficult to meet for LLDCs for whom agricultural products might represent an important part of their exports.