G/TFA /TFAF /3 
 
10 March 2023 
(23-1673) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Trade Facilitation  Original: English  
 
REPORT BY THE TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT FACILITY TO THE  
TRADE FACILITATION COMMITTEE  
21-22 March 2023  
1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  This document provides information on the work of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement 
Facility (TFAF) since the last report circulated to the WTO Trade Facilitation Committee for the 
meeting held on  28-29 November and 1 December 2022.1 This reporting per iod covers 1 December 
to 28 February  2023. During this period , the focus of the TFAF's work was on conducting activities 
and planning future events, reviewing the recommendations in the independent evaluation , and an 
Annex D retreat . 
2  GRANT PROGRAM   
Stage of the application  Outcomes  No. of TFA 
Articles  Progressed to next 
stage of TFAF 
Grant process  
1 Expression of interest (E OI)  1 Expression of Interest  
matched . 5 - 
 
1 Project proposal grant (PPG) 
project to be launched   27 - 
 
2.1.  In this reporting period  follow up on one Expression of Interest (E OI) confirmed  a development 
partner offer assistance on all four of the measures included.  
2.2.  The successful matches mean that to date, nine of the 2 4 expressions of interest received have 
been successfully matched with development partners  that have p ropos ed implementation support 
for 99 provisions of the TFA.   
2.3.  One p roject proposal grant application has been  drafted with the applicant Member for a tota l 
of 29 provisions of the TFA. A consultant has been identified to carry out the work and the process 
to launch the project is under  way, due to be carried out April to June 2023 . 
2.4.  Follow up meetings with applicant Members and development partners covering two previous 
PPG project s (18 provisions of the TFA in total), confirmed that the process to launch implementation 
projects is on track .   
2.5.  To date , seven  of eight PPG reports have led to matches with development partners proposing 
implementation support fo r 40 provisions of the TFA.  
2.6.  Information on successfully matched expressions of interest and approved grants can be found 
at: https://www.tfafacility.org/assistance -grants/grants -tracker . 
2.7.  TFAF maintains  a list of potential consultants that can be contracted  to conduct the PPGs.  
 
1 Report by the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility to the Trade Facilitation Committee G/TFA/TFAF/1  
dated 18 November 2022 . G/TFA/TFAF/3  
 
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  3  TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING  
Activity and date  Desired outcome  No. of participants  
Australia  13-16 December 2022  Enhance the operation of the national trade 
facilitation committee  
Find assistance for implementation of the 
provisions of the TFA  70 (including 
facilitators)  
Maldives  22–25 January 2023  Preparation of TFA notifications  
Enhance the operation of the national trade 
facilitation committee  
Find assistance for implementation of the 
provisions of the TFA  40 
 
Australia  
3.1.  TFAF, the World Bank Group, and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) conducted a 
regional trade facilitation workshop  for Pacific Island countries  in Australia on 13-16 December 2022 . 
The workshop  was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed because of the pandemic .  
3.2.  The goal of t he workshop was to support full and effective implementation and ownership of 
the TFA  and trade facilitation  reforms, improve border agency cooperation, enhance private sector 
participation, exchange best practices and lessons learned in making border processes and 
procedures more inclusive for all traders, and assist policymakers in monit oring and evaluation of 
trade facilitation reforms through the adoption of regional and national action plans that will enhance 
the existing regional strategy.   
3.3.  Around 70 people participated in the event  from nine Pacific Island countries, including all 
six Pacific developing WTO Members. Other participants/speakers included experts from the 
Australian Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (DAFF) and the Department of Foreign 
Affairs and Trade (DFAT) , the World Customs Organization (WCO) , UNCTAD, th e Pacific Agreement 
on Closer Economic Relations (PACER Plus) Implementation Unit, the Melanesian Spearhead Group 
(MSG), the Oceanic Customs Organization (OCO), as well several private sector representatives.  
Maldives  
3.4.  At the request of the Maldives, a nati onal workshop was o rganized by TFAF in cooperation with 
UNCTAD, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the WCO  in Male on 22-25 January 2023 . The 
objective of the workshop was to enhance the functioning of the national trade facilitation committee, 
with a particular focus on the implementation and monitoring of the category C provisions. It laid 
the groundwork for the commencement  of the UNCTAD e-learning programme and implementati on 
of its Reform Tracker tool for the NTFC. A pproximately 4 0 participan ts included members of the 
NTFC, implementing agencies, and private sector. The four -day program me included a visit to the 
Customs training centre  and the Male Seaport.    
4  ENGAGEMENT WI TH ANNEX D AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS  
4.1.  TFAF organized a retreat with the Annex D partners that took place in Montreux, Switzerland 
on 27-28 February  2023. The goal of the retreat was to identify ways to enhance collaboration, 
including on activities in the TF A 2023  workplan , and to receive partners' suggestions on TFAF 
implementation  of the independent evaluation report, particularly where cooperation is needed . TFAF 
will provide information on the results in the next report to the TFC. TFAF and t he Annex D  partners 
will meet again d uring the March TFC meeting week to further develop areas of cooperation that 
were identified at the retreat.  
5  WEBSITE – WWW.TFAFACILITY.ORG   
5.1.  Pages and r esources on the website continued to be expanded. Trade facilitation -related 
resources listed under "General Resources"  and divided by topic  continued to be populated . The 
website provided a convenient mode to share  workshop materials for the Maldives National TFA 
workshop throug h a google drive landing page  that was accessible to the participants and speakers.  G/TFA/TFAF/3  
 
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  6  TFAF TRUST FUND   
6.1.  The trust fund currently contains just over USD 4.1 million. Expenditures  were made during 
this period for the in -person activities described under point 3 above.  
7  MONITORING AND EVALUATION  
7.1  Annual Report  
7.1.  The annual report for 2022 will be issued by the end of June, as required by the Operation al 
Guidelines .   
7.2  Evaluation  
7.2.  TFAF began working with the members of the Workplan Committee  (made up of interested 
Members)  to determine how the recommendations made in the KPMG independent evaluation report  
can be taken into account . The report was circulated  to the Workplan Committee members in 
January . A meeting was held on 22  February 2023 to review each recommendation to determine if 
it is appropriate, and if so, how TFAF can implement it. The results of this initial meeting have been 
circulated to the Workplan Committee for further consideration . A follow -up meeting will be 
organized in the  near future. The cooperation  of Members and partners  in this process is  greatly 
appreciated . 
7.3  Workplan  
7.3.  The TFAF workplan for 2023 is available on the TFAF website under "The Facility/Annual reports  
& and Workplans"2 This workplan was prepared in cooperati on with the Workplan Committee as 
required u nder the new Framework .  
8  UPCOMING EVENTS  
8.1.  The upcoming events have either been requested through an activity request and posted on 
the activity tracker or are listed in the 2023 workplan .  
8.2.  TFAF will fund the participation of a Spanish speaking trade facilitation expert i n the Market 
Access Divisio n to participate in a national workshop in El Salvador on  25-27 April 2023  that is being 
jointly organized with the WTO ITTC.  The goal of this workshop is to enhance the understanding  of 
the participants about El Salvador's commitments and obligations to t he WTO  and to build capacity 
to operationalize and correctly  implement provisions of the TFA, SPS and TBT Agreements . 
Participants will include NTFC members , officials from trade facilitation implementing agencies , and 
private sector .  
ALADI  
8.3.  The Latin Amer ican Integration Association (ALADI) has requested to coordinate with TFAF to 
deliver a regional workshop to provide training and capacity building on border agency cooperation 
and to strengthen the national trade facilitation committees  as well as regional implementation and 
integration . This will build on previous joint regional workshops.  It will be held in Montevideo, 
Uruguay, 23 -26 May 2023. Several donors and development partners will participate in this event.  
Transit Workshop  
8.4.  TFAF is working with the LLDC group to plan a transit workshop that will be held on 
14 June 2023 to assist LLDC Members to prepare for the Dedicated Session on Transit that will be 
held the same week. TFAF will fund capital -based officials from LLDC Members , and experts from 
several transit countries, to participate in the workshop and the Trade Facilitation Committee  
meeting  with dedicated transit session ( 15-16 June) . Invitation letters were sent out at the beginning  
of March .  
 
2 https://www.tfafacility.org/facility/annual -reports -workplans . G/TFA/TFAF/3  
 
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  Djibouti  
8.5.  Djibouti  has requested  a national needs assessment  to be organized in e arly 2023 to assist 
Djibouti's national trade facilitation committee to determine its TFA implementation needs and 
deadlines.  
9  REQUESTING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE OR ASSISTANCE IN FINDING 
DONORS/DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS  
Technical Assistance and Support for Capacity Building  
9.1.  To request a national, regional or subregional technical assistance activity a Member can 
complete an online activity request form on the TFAF website at: 
https://wto.formstack.com/forms/tfaf_ta_virtual .  
9.2.  The information required includes  contact information, update on the national trade facilitation 
committee, information needed to plan the reque sted activity (e.g. objectives and expected 
outcomes, brief description, participants (who, how many, expertise level), proposed dates , and 
risks). Members also have the option of providing information on their status with 
donors/development partners , whic h can be useful for the activity.  
Matchmaking  
9.3.  Members that need assistance finding donors/development partners can complete the TFAF 
grant program expression of interest (EOI) form:   
https://wto.formstack.com/forms/tfaf_expression_of_interest  
9.4.  The information provided on this form will be circulated to a list of donors/development partners 
with a request to inform TFAF if they can provide the assistance needed . If no partners offer support  
within a specified deadline (usually several weeks but can be longer if the request covers numerous 
TFA provisions) , then the Member has the option of requesting a TFAF project preparation grant.   
9.5.  To help development partners determine if they can  provide the assistance needed the 
following information is required to complete the  EOI form:   
i. The TFA provision or provisions for which assistance is requested;  
ii. The government agencies that require the assistance;  
iii. A description of the type of assistance  needed  (the TACB notified for the provision(s)) ; 
iv. The current state of implementation of the TFA provision (s); 
v. Partners that have been approached for assistance in implementing the TFA 
provision(s) at issue, their contact information, and response(s) to th e request;  
vi. Contact point and contact information for the person(s) responsible for the request ; 
vii. Attach r esults of national trade facilitation needs assessments and other relevant 
TFA-related diagnostic or analytical reports  (e.g. the DTIS for L DC Members ) that 
provide information on the current state of implementation and/or the type of support 
needed.  
9.6.  The TFAF team can assist with the completion of both the activity request and the EOI forms.  
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