G/TFA/W/31/Rev.4  
 
19 March 2021  
(21-2327) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Trade Facilitation  Original: English  
 
  
SHARING EXPERIENCES RELATED TO THE COVID -19 CRISIS  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION  
Revision  
The following communication, dated 18 March 2021 , is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation the European Union.  
 
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1. We would like to share with the Membership the following proposal for consideration at the 
next formal Trade Facilitation Committee meeting.  
2. We have noted with interest the contributions made by Members and international 
organizations for the informal TFC meeting of 30 September 2020. These contributions have 
highlighted the nature of the challenges that WTO Members had and continue to face in fighting 
COVID -19. They also stress the impact of COVID -19 on the real economy, supply chains, and  
specifically, the adjustments to customs procedures that were deemed necessary.  
3. There seemed to be a growing acknowledgement at both the informal TFC meeting of 
30 September and the formal TFC meeting of 20 -21 October, that the crisis makes the Trade 
Facilitation Agreement even more relevant. The pandemic has accelerated Members' efforts to 
implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement in numerous areas, including transparency, 
simplification, automation, and cooperation at the borders, to mention only a few.  
4. We would like to seize this opportunity and propose the following:  
5. We believe that it is timely to identify within these contributions what key difficulties and 
challenges Members and businesses have encountered when importing, exporting, or transiting 
territories during the crisis. It would also be useful to share what particular  trade facilitation 
measures Members have taken  in response to unique and unprecedented  conditions under the 
pandemic . 
6. In order to facilitate the identification of such  measures  we propose the following:  
7. First, to invite the WTO Secretariat to prepare a compendium document of the contributions 
of COVID -19 responses that the TFC Members and Observers have provided the TF Committee so 
far. It should include the presentati ons made by Members and international organizations. The 
compendium report should be structured similarly to the TFA. For each provision, the report should 
present the  COVID -19 related trade facilitation measures taken  by the M embers  and reported by 
Member s to the Committee , including the  challenges and difficulties addressed, if mentioned in the 
contribution. The source of the information should be clearly indicated. If some issues or actions do 
not fit under an existing TFA provision, they should be group ed under " other TF-related COVID -19 
measures" (for example the protection of customs staff operating on the ground). The listing of 
measures under this proposed structure is without prejudice to the rights and obligations of the 
Members. The WTO Secretariat role is to list the notif ied or shared measures as they are voluntarily 
reported by the respective Members, observers and international organisations without making any 
judgment on their rationale or legal standings  vis-à-vis the WTO Agreements & provisions.  G/TFA/W/31/Rev.4  
 
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  8. Whenever pertinent, id entification of specific problems and solutions adopted could be done 
by different categories of Members (for example specific difficulties for landlocked WTO 
Members/LDCs) or for different categories of operators (for example SME operators).  
9. Such a consol idation of existing measures reported by International Organizations, Members 
and eventually business (within existing contributions already shared in the TFC) would avoid 
duplication of efforts among entities working on TF measures to cope with COVID -19 challenges.  
10. This compilation could serve the purpose of better structuring the discussions of the future 
TFC meetings under the agenda setting "sharing of experiences at times of COVID -19". 
11. We would also like to propose that a meeting of the TFC be organize d at the soonest possible 
in 2021 to allow for the WTO Secretariat to provide a preliminary compilation.  
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