G/TFA/M/24  
 
28 August 2023  
(23-7947) Page: 1/92 
Committee on Trade Facilitation  Original: English  
 
 
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE ON TRADE FACILITATION  
28-29 NOVEMBER AND 1 DECEMBER 2022  
CHAIRPERSON: H.E. MR ADAMU MOHAMMED ABDULHAMID (NIGERIA)  
Contents  
 
 
Introduction  ................................ ................................ ................................ .......................  3 
1   MATTERS RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT (TFA)  ................................ ................................ ........  3 
1.1   Notifications from Members  ................................ ................................ ..........................  3 
A. Notifications under Article 16 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement  ................................ ..... 3 
B. Notifications under Article 17 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement  ................................ ..... 6 
C. Notifications under Article 19 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement  ................................ ....12 
D. Notifications under Article 1.4, 10.4.3, 10:6:2 12.2.2 of the Trade Facilitation  
Agreement  ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 15 
E. Notifications under Article 22 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement  ................................ ....18 
1.2   Status of Ratification and Notification Process  ................................ ................................ 19 
1.3   Status of Definitive Implementation Dates  ................................ ................................ .....21 
2   EXPERIENCE SHARING/THEMATIC DISCUSSIONS  ................................ .....................  22 
3   GOOD PRACTICES AND BUILDING BLOCKS OF SUCCESSFUL NTFCS  
(G/TFA/2, PARA  9.3(V))  ................................ ................................ ................................  23 
4   FOLLOW -UP ON THE SECRETARIAT STUDY "EASING TRADE BOTTLENECKS  
IN LANDLOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES" – REQUEST FROM BOTSWANA  
(G/TFA/W/82)  ................................ ................................ ................................ ..............  23 
5   PROMOTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WTO TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT 
THROUGH DI GITAL REVOLUTION AND INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGIES – CHINA  ...........  24 
6   REQUEST FROM THE CHAIR OF THE COUNC IL FOR TRADE IN GOODS FOR A  
REPORT ON ACTIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON TRADE FACILITATION  
TO IMPROVE ITS WORK  ................................ ................................ ................................ . 26 
7   THE TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT FACILITY – ITEMS RELATED TO THE 
FRAMEWORK (G/TFA/3)  ................................ ................................ ................................  28 
8   DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT (2022) OF THE TRADE FACILITATION COMMITTEE  
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS (G/TFA/W/87)  ................................ ...............  29 
9   OTHER BUSINESS  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 29 
10   DEDICATED SESSION ON ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING  ..........................  30 
Address by WTO Director -General, Dr Ngozi Okonjo -Iweala  ................................ ..................... 30 
Introduction  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... 33 G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.1   Review of progress in the provision of assistance and support for capacity building to 
support implementation including the top five provisions in category C, identified by notified 
definitive dates, to be implemented in  the two -year period 2023 to 2024  ................................ ..33 
10.1.1    Status of top five provisions in category C  ................................ ................................ .33 
10.1.2    Experience -sharing by Members with top five Category C implementation dates  
within the 20 23 to 2024 period on their technical assistance arrangements and progress  ............ 34 
10.1.3    Experience -sharing by international and regional organizations supporting the 
implementation of the top five category C provisions  ................................ .............................. 39 
10.1.4    Experience -sharing by donor members supporting the implementation of the  
category C provisions in the 2023 to 2024 period.  ................................ ................................ ..47 
10.2   Sharing of experiences and information on ongoing assistance and support for  
capacity building and implementation programmes, includi ng challenges and successes  ............. 50 
10.3   Agenda item 2.2: Experience sharing by Members and organizations on how such  
synergies have supported implementation of the TFA  ................................ ............................. 56 
10.4   Agenda item 2.3: Consideration of where further collaboration and co -operation,  
including on a regional level might best support a future implementation of specific articles  ........ 69 
10.5   Agenda item 3: Report by international and regional organizations and other agencies 
supporting the implementation of the TFA in the activities that they have delivered in the  
period October 2021 to October 2022 as contained in the document G/TFA/W/85  ...................... 72 
10.6   Agenda item 4: Draft workplan of the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility for 2023  
which was circulated in document G/TFA/TFAF/W/1  ................................ ............................... 73 
10.7   OTHER BUSINESS  ................................ ................................ ................................ .....76 
ANNEX 1  ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  78 
 
_______________  
 
 
  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  Introduction  
1. The Chair welcomed delegations and recalled that the agenda for the meeting had been 
circulated in documents  WTO/AIR/TFA/24/Rev.1  and WTO/AIR/TFA/24/Rev.1/Corr.1 . 
2. The Committee agreed  to continue the practice of ho lding Item 2 of the agenda "Experience 
sharing/thematic discussions" in informal mode, to allow for frank and interactive exchanges. 
The Committee also agreed  that observers to the meeting could remain throughout the informal 
session.  
3. The Chair added three  points under the agenda item Other Business, as follows: 
(1) A reminder about the dedicated session on transit that will take place at the Committee's spring 
meeting in 2023; (2) the dates for the Committee's 2023 meetings; (3) the invitation to the Annex  D 
partners and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation to the next  Committee meeting.  
4. The agenda was adopted  with the proposed changes.  
1  MATTERS RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE TRADE 
FACILITATION AGREEMENT (TFA)  
1.1  Notifications fr om Members  
1.1.  The Chair informed the Committee that notifications  had been received from the European 
Union and Nigeria within the last few days and that they would be taken up at the next meeting.  
A. Notifications under Article 16 of the Trade Facilitation Agr eement  
1.2.  The Chair  drew the Committee's attention to the first group of notifications, namely those under 
Article 16 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA, the Agreement). Since the last meeting of the 
Committee, 13 notifications had been circulated under this article.  
1.3.  The first notification was from Bangladesh, ci rculated in document G/TFA/N/BGD/1/Add.5 .   
1.4.  The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.5.  We thank Bangladesh for its notification of category C definitive implementation dates and look 
forward to continuing to work with Bangladesh on technical assistance projects including pre -arrival 
processing; risk management; post -clearance audit; AEOs; and expedited shipments.  
1.6.  The delegate of Bangladesh  indicated the following:  
1.7.  Bangladesh thanks the US for the  statement and for its technical cooperation and assistance. 
There are still some areas where Bangladesh needs technical assistance from donors and Members. 
Bangladesh is specially looking for donors for Article 11.16 and it welcomes assistance from Member s 
and donors. Hopefully, with their cooperation, Bangladesh can complete its Article C commitment in 
accordance with its target date of 30 June 2030.  
1.8.  The next notification was from Burkina Faso, circulated in document G/TFA/N/BFA/1/Add.4 .  
1.9.  The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.10.   We thank Burkina Faso for its notification of category C definitive implementation dates and 
request Burkina Faso to notify arrangements on the provision of technical assistance support . We are 
interested in understanding if any of Burkina Faso's technical assistance requests were met.  
1.11.   The Committee took up the notification from Cambodia, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/KH M/1/Add.3 .  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.12.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.13.   We thank Cambodia for its notification of category C definitive implementation dates and 
encourage Cambodia to consider sharing its experience in imp lementing pre -arrival processing.  
1.14.   The following notification was from Costa Rica, circulated in document G/TFA/N/CRI/3 .  
1.15.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.16.   We thank Costa Rica for its notification on arrangements and prog ress in the provision of 
technical assistance and capacity building related to streamlining formalities and acceptance of 
copies.  
1.17.   We commend Costa Rica on its improvements to trade procedures resulting from the World 
Bank report and encourage Costa Rica to  share more regarding how the National Trade Facilitation 
Committee managed the studies conducted to identify which physical documents are collected at 
land border posts, main ports, and airports.  
1.18.   The next notification was from The Gambia and circulated i n document 
G/TFA/N/GMB/1/Add.3 .  
1.19.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.20.   We thank The Gambia for its notification of category C definitive implementation dates and 
request that The Gambia notifies arrangements on the provision of technical assistance support. We 
are interested in understanding if any of The Gambia's technical assistance requests were met.  
1.21.   The notification from Kazakhstan, circulated  in document G/TFA/N/KAZ/2/A dd.2, was taken 
up.  
1.22.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.23.   Japan welcomes Kazakhstan's efforts to implement the category B provisions ahead of its 
notified definitive dates, and its notification to the Committee of i ts actual implementation dates.    
1.24.   We consider it important for Members to manage their own implementation schedules based 
on their own notifications, in order to meet the deadline for implementing the relevant provisions.  
1.25.   We highly value the notification  as it enhances the transparency of the actual implementation 
status, and we would like to encourage other Members to follow suit.  
1.26.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.27.   We congratulate Kazakhstan for implementing TFA Articles on Advanc e Rulings, Authorized 
Operators, and Single Window ahead of its initially notified deadlines.  
1.28.   The following notification was from Lesotho, circulated in document G/TFA/N/LSO/1/Add.4 . 
1.29.   The delegate of the United States  indicated t he following:  
1.30.   We thank Lesotho for its notification of category C definitive implementation dates.  
1.31.   The notification from Madagascar, circulated in document G/TFA/N/MDG/1/Add.3 , was taken 
up.  
1.32.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.33.    We thank Madagascar for its notification of category C definitive implementation dates and 
look forward to continuing to work with Madagascar on technical assistance projects including on 
advance rulings.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.34.   The delegate of Madagascar  indicated the following:  
1.35.   We would like to thank the United States for their goodwill and for supporting Madagascar in 
implementing category C obligations. Generally speaking, the criteria for identifying definitive 
imple mentation dates were mainly based on the availability or not of technical and financial support 
from partners. As such, of the 29 provisions in category C, only one article is to be implemented 
towards the end of 2025 as this is a provision for which we al ready have financing. There are 
six provisions to be implemented by the end of 2026, which already have approved financing, but 
the programmes have been delayed because of the health situation. Of the 75 % of commitments in 
category C, the definitive implementation dates are foreseen for 2035 because they will require 
significant support and involvement from stakeholders. In the context of this situation, in April  this 
year, with the support of the TFAF tea m, Madagascar issued a call for assistance from development 
partners. Unfortunately, however, nobody has come forward so far. We encourage our development 
partners to work hand in hand in order to make trade facilitation a reality around the world.  
1.36.   The fo llowing notification was from Niger, circulated in documents G/TFA/N/NER/2/Add.2  and 
G/TFA/N/NER/2/Add.2/Corr.1 .  
1.37.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.38.   We thank Niger for its notifi cation of category C definitive implementation dates.  
1.39.   The notification from Saint Kitts and Nevis in document G/TFA/N/KNA/1/Add.3  was taken up.  
1.40.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.41.   We congratulate Saint Ki tts and Nevis for its early implementation of the TFA article on 
electronic payment.  
1.42.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.43.   Japan welcomes Saint Kitts and Nevis' efforts to implement the category C provision on 
electronic payment, ahead of its noti fied definitive dates, and updating the Committee with its 
notification of actual implementation dates.  
1.44.   We highly value the notification as it enhanced the transparency of the actual implementation 
status, and again we would like to encourage other Members  to follow suit.  
1.45.   A notification from Senegal was circulated in document G/TFA/N/SEN/1/Add.3 .  
1.46.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.47.   We thank Senegal for its notification of category C definitive implementati on dates and look 
forward to continuing to work with Senegal on technical assistance projects including on publication, 
information available through the internet, enquiry points, transparency notifications, fees and 
charges, penalties, post clearance audi t, and authorized operators.  
1.48.   The delegate of Senegal  indicated the following:  
1.49.   I would like to thank the United States for their availability in working with Senegal to 
implement those provisions still to be implemented.  
1.50.   The Committee took up the notification from Sierra Leone, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/SLE/1/Add.3 .  
1.51.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.52.   We thank Sierra Leone for its notification of category C definitive implementation dates.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.53.   The delegate of Congo, speaking on behalf of the ACP Group,  indicated the following:  
1.54.   I am making this general statement on Item 1 on behalf of the ACP Group. The ACP Group 
takes note of the number of notifications from the ACP group at this meeting. We would like to 
support the efforts made to implement the Agreement on Trade Facilitation. Fu rthermore, as regards 
requests from Members for an extension of the implementation period we would urge Members to 
show flexibility and support these requests.  
1.55.   The next notification was from the Solomon Islands and was circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/SLB/1/Add.2 .  
1.56.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.57.   We thank the Solomon Islands for its notification of category C definitive implementation 
dates and encourage Solomon Islands to reach out to donors to condense TFA implementation in 
order to gain the most benefit for traders and the Solomon Islands' Government.  
1.58.   The delegate of Nepal, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group,  indicated the following:  
1.59.   The LDC Group extends sincere appreciation to all Members for their notifications, especially 
the LCD Members.  
1.60.   The notification of definitive dates of category C measures by LDCs indicates their high level 
of commitment to implementing the TFA. Three LDCs  are still working on finalizing their notification 
of category C definitive dates. We ask all Members to provide further support while these Members 
are finalizing their definitive date notifications.  
1.61.   The LDC Group thanks all donor country Members and ot her international organizations for 
their continued support. The Group thanks all donors for further extending support and cooperation 
while implementing category C measures in LDCs in a timely manner.  
1.62.   Implementation of category C measures is more challen ging for LDCs, therefore, we need 
further partnership and collaboration among all stakeholders and Members.  
1.63.   The delegate of the United Kingdom  indicated the following:  
1.64.   The United Kingdom would like to thank all Members for submitting their definitive date s 
under Article 16. We appreciate that Members worked tirelessly over the summer under challenging 
circumstances to ensure they met the deadlines providing updated information on their 
implementation of the TFA to the Committee. We would encourage Members to continue to work 
with donors and delivery partners in implementing the obligations and work towards a full 
implementation of TFA in a timely manner in order to ensure all Members can realize the proven 
benefit of full implementation of the Trade Facilit ation Agreement.  
1.65.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.66.   The European Union would like to thank the Members for all the notifications under Article 16. 
We would particularly like to thank the LDCs for the final dates for their category  C commitments by 
the deadline of 22 August set by the Agreement. The Chair convened an exceptional meeting on 
15 August to address these notifications and this was followed by silent procedure. The EU would 
like to thank the Chair and the Secretariat for all your efforts in addressing this difficult situation in 
August.  
1.67.   The Committee took note  of the notifications and of the statements made.  
B. Notifications under Article 17 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement  
1.68.   The Chair drew the Committee's attention to two notifications submitted under Article 17 of 
the TFA which covers the Early Warning Mechanism and the extension of implementation dates for 
provisions in categories B and C.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.69.   The first notification was from Argentina, circulated in document G/TFA/N/ARG/ 1/Add.2.  
1.70.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.71.   We thank Argentina for its timely notification. The United States supports Argentina's 
extension request for Article  10.4 on Single Window.  
1.72.   However, we only support the extension request for Article 3.9(a) on Origin Advance Rulings 
for the 18 months provided for developing country Members in Article 17.2 without further action 
by the Committee.   
1.73.   If Argentina cannot complete its  work on implementing Origin Advance Rulings, for which 
there is already a commitment in force under the Rules  of Origin Agreement, then we welcome 
Argentina to submit a second extension request in a timely manner.  
1.74.   The delegate of Argentina  indicated the f ollowing:  
1.75.   We take note of the statement made and we will take the necessary measures.  
1.76.   The Committee took up the notification from Botswana circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/BWA/1/Add.3 , which notifies extensions to the definitive dates for implementation of a 
number of provisions.  
1.77.   The Chair  indicated the following:  
1.78.   Botswana submitted its notification to the WTO Secretariat on 25 July 2022 but unfortunately 
it did not come to the attent ion of the Trade Facilitation Secretariat until October. It was 
subsequently circulated on 17 October.  
1.79.   The notification is a request for an extension of the implementation date for Article 1.4, for 
which the original implementation date for this provision , as notified by Botswana in document 
G/TFA/N/BWA/1/Add.2 , is 31 December 2022. I would like to underline that Botswana submitted its 
request on 25 July which was 157  days ahead of its original date for implementation. I would a lso 
like to apologize to Botswana for the inconvenience caused.  
1.80.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.81.   We thank Botswana for its timely notification. The United States only supports Botswana's 
extension request for Article 1.4 notificat ions for the 18 months provided for in Article 17.2.  
1.82.   If Botswana cannot complete its notifications under Article 1.4 within 18 months, a second 
extension request should be submitted in a timely manner.   
1.83.   The next notification taken up was from Ecuador, cir culated in document 
G/TFA/N/ECU/1/Add.4 .  
1.84.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.85.   We thank Ecuador for its timely notification. The United States supports Ecuador's extension 
request to delay implementation of Article 10.4 on Single Window by 18 months.  
1.86.   The Committee took up the notification from Grenada in document G/TFA/N/GRD/1/Add.2 .  
1.87.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.88.   We thank Grenada for its timely notification. The United States only supports Grenada's 
extension requests for the 18 months provided for in Article 17.2.  
1.89.   We recognize that Grenada is trying to coordinate with donors, and they are working to 
identify donors for Single Window a nd its 1.4 notifications.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.90.   However, we also note that some of the provisions that Grenada is seeking to extend are not 
due for implementation until 2028.  
1.91.   If implementation cannot be completed within the timeframes of the automatic extensions, 
we welcome G renada to submit a second extension request in a timely manner.  
1.92.   The notification from Mongolia, circulated in document G/TFA/N/MN G/1/Add.2 , was taken up.  
1.93.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.94.   We thank Mongolia for its timely notification. The United States only supports Mongolia's 
extension requests for the 18 months provided for in Article 17.2.  
1.95.   If Mongolia finds it cannot declare Post -Clearance Audit, Border -Agency Cooperation, or 
International Standards implemented by the end of its 18 months automatic extensions, a second 
extension request may be submitted in a timely manne r.   
1.96.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.97.   Japan appreciates Mongolia's commitment to the implementation of the Agreement and 
welcomes its timely notification. We appreciate all the notifications that have been submitted to the 
Committee in a time ly manner, which is very important for ensuring transparency.  
1.98.   We would also appreciate the explanations from Members requesting the extension of 
deadlines about the needs for extension, and Members' plans for the implementation of relevant 
provisions.  
1.99.   Japan has been supporting Mongolia in collaboration with the World Customs Organization 
towards Mongolia's full implementation of Article 7.5 of the TFA: Post -clearance Audit.  
1.100.   We hope Mongolia will implement Article 7.5 as soon as possible and  we are commit ted to 
continuing our support to Mongolia.  
1.101.   The Committee took up the notification from Nicaragua circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/NIC/1/ Add.3.  
1.102.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.103.   The United States supports Nicaragua's extension request for Article 6.2 on Specific 
Disciplines on Fees even though the request is untimely by over 30 days . 
1.104.   However, the United States is disappointed that it cannot support Nicaragua's  extension 
request for Article 10.4 on Single Window as it does not comport to the requirements of Article 17.  
1.105.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.106.   Japan appreciates Nicaragua's efforts to implement Article 6.2 and Article 10.4 of the 
TFA. We wel come Nicaragua's notification of its need to extend the deadlines, as such a notification 
enhances transparency of the implementation status.   
1.107.   While we consider this notification to have been submitted in an untimely manner, and which 
missed the deadline s tipulated by Article 17.1, we would like to encourage Nicaragua's continuing 
efforts to implement the relevant provisions.  
1.108.   In order to avoid untimely notifications, we would like to remind all Members to use the 
document G/TFA/INF/1/Rev.1 , which has been prepared by the  Secretariat, in order to assist 
Members to keep track of their deadlines.   G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.109.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.110.   The European Union would like to thank Nicaragua for its notification. Nicaragua has 
requested an extension for the implementation of its single window. This was done after the deadline 
that had been announced as definitive. The EU notes that Nicaragua also suggests that financial 
support is needed, and this could  be discussed during the ded icated session on aid.  
1.111.   The delegate of Nicaragua  indicated the following:  
1.112.   Nicaragua submitted the notification under Article 17, requesting an extension for  the 
implementation dates of  article  6.2 (Specific disciplines on Fees and Charges for Customs Processing 
Imposed on or in Connection with Importation and Exportation) and article 10.4 (Single Window). 
In connection with article 6.2, as mentioned in our notification, the Customs Gene ral Directorate still 
requires time to carry out the necessary legal amendments to ensure successful compliance with 
the obligations. As to article 10.4, the export processing centre still requires supplementary 
assistance to implement different measures l ike e-signature. We wish to state that we are fully 
committed to making all necessary efforts for the implementation of pending measures to comply 
100% with the measures required under the TFA. Proof of our commitment is that in 2015, we 
submitted our rati fication to this Agreement, and we were the first country in Latin America to do 
so. Today we have managed to implement 89% of the Agreement. We are grateful for the comments 
from the United States, Japan, and the EU, and we appreciate that our request for  financial 
assistance will be dealt with at the dedicated session to be held shortly.  
1.113.   The notification from Peru circulated in document G/TFA/N/PER/1/Add.2  was taken up.  
1.114.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.115.   The United States only supports Peru's extension requests for the 18 months provided for in 
Article 17.2.  
1.116.   If Peru finds it cannot complete its work to implement Article 5.1 on Enhanced Controls and 
5.3 on Test Procedures within the timeframes of the automatic extensions, we welcome a second 
extension request in a timely manner.  
1.117.   The delegate of Peru indicated the following:  
1.118.   We are grateful for the opportunity to inform the Committee of progress made to comply 
with articles 5.1 and 5.3 of the TFA and the time it will take to carry out the technica l work necessary 
to fully implement these commitments. Implementation efforts are already being carried out within 
the initiative "Improvement of Efficiency of Health Management for the Implementation of the Trade 
Facilitation Agreement " with the support o f Swiss cooperation. This initiative was implemented in 
2019 but its execution was affected by the pandemic due to the cancellation of in -person meetings, 
and the difficulty of identifying national and international health experts. Despite those difficulti es, 
the initiative has sought to develop a technical and regulatory diagnosis of the food safety 
management system in border posts, under the responsibility of domestic health authorities. It has 
also developed a modern, risk -based, management system to st rategically expedite inspection 
procedures and facilitate trade.  
1.119.   Two of the components of this initiative, the closure date of which was postponed to 
February  2023, contribute to the implementation of two measures in accordance with the Trade 
Facilitation Agreement. These concern test procedures and enhanced controls and inspections . In 
connection with the test procedures, the expected results are improved implementation processes 
by the authorities and programmes to raise awareness about test procedures fo r the public and 
private sectors. To date, we have carried out a national diagnosis of the implementation of test 
procedures, an evaluation of international best practices, a gap analysis based on these best 
practices, a project to include second test proc edures in the relevant regulation, and the creation of 
a procedure for its inclusion in the national food safety management system. The implementation of 
this measure involves identifying the procedures and goods that may be subject to a second test, 
which  in turn requires a technical, legal, and budgetary evaluation. Also, it is necessary to sensitise 
the participation of laboratories that could be commissioned to carry out these second tests. For this 
purpose, laboratories must be accredited if they compl y with the requirements of the health G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  authorities. It is expected that these actions, both from the public and private sectors, will be carried 
out in the medium term. Therefore, we must change the date of implementation to February 2025, 
as notified.  
1.120.   In relation to the of notification of enhanced controls or inspections, the objective of the 
initiative is to develop a national system for the management of health notifications. For this 
purpose, we carried out a diagnosis and a gap analysis, and surveyed t he health authorities. There 
was an evaluation of domestic legal instruments and procedures of each health authority. Based on 
the gap analysis, a system was designed that allowed real -time tracking of notifications so that each 
agent is aware of its role and responsibilities. This is how notifications systems were developed for 
imported and exported food. The domestic health authorities will manage the notifications, based 
on food health risks. It was determined that the single window was the ideal IT plat form to operate 
this coordination, and it could be a real -time repository of notifications. At the end of the project, 
we expect to have a regulatory proposal to develop a national system for the management of health 
notifications and start its implementat ion on the single window. However, the required regulatory 
developments as well as the technical development of the platform, will be concluded in the medium 
term, which is why we need the requested extensions.  
1.121.   Peru is undertaking every effort to best imp lement these measures and contribute to the 
improvement of trade facilitation. This job includes several activities we will carry out in the next 
years to obtain the desired results. Consequently, we have requested an extension of the definitive 
implementa tion deadline until February 2025.  
1.122.   The notification by Saint Kitts and Nevis in document G/TFA/N/KNA/1/Add.2  was taken up 
by the Committee.  
1.123.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.124.   We are disappointed to have  to report that we cannot support the request for an extension 
on Article 3 related to Advance Rulings as it did not comport with the requirements of Article 17.   
1.125.   However, the  United States can support the request for an extension for 12 months for 
Articles 10.4 and 7.7 which have been made in a timely manner.  
1.126.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.127.   Japan appreciates Saint Kitts and Nevis' efforts to implement Article 3, Article 10.4, and 
Article 7.7 of the TFA.  We welcome Saint Kitts and Nevis' not ification of its need to extend the 
deadlines, as such a notification enhances transparency of the implementation status.   
1.128.    While we consider this notification on Article 3 Advance Ruling to have been submitted in 
an untimely manner, and which missed the d eadline stipulated by Article 17.1, we would like to 
encourage Saint Kitts and Nevis' continuing efforts to implement the relevant provisions.   
1.129.   In order  to avoid untimely notifications, we would like to  again  remind all Members to use 
the document G/TFA/INF/1/Rev.1 , which has been prepared by the Secretariat, to assist Members 
to keep track of their deadlines.  
1.130.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.131.   The European Union would like to thank Saint Kitts and Nevis for its notification. 
St. Kitts and Nevis appears to have notified in July 2022, of a three -year extension request to 
implement a provision whose final date for implementation was 20 December 2021. This is not in 
compliance with Article 17 which is the Early Warning Mechanism. In our view, the notification should 
have been made four months before December 2021, rather than in July 2022, but explanations 
would be welcome.  
1.132.   The delegate of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, speaking on behalf of WTO Members of 
the OECS ( Organization of Eastern Caribbean States) , indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.133.   I am speaking on behalf of the WTO Members of the OECS which includes S t. Kitts and Nevis 
as well as Grenada and Saint Lucia, which all have items on the agenda. Just to thank Membe rs for 
their comments on this issue. We will certainly relay the feedback to S t. Kitts and Nevis but I feel 
the need to also indicate that this is a demonstration of the seriousness with which S t. Kitts and  Nevis 
takes its responsibilities under the TFA. A s you have seen in the previous agenda item, 
St. Kitts and Nevis was able to notify ahead of schedule one of its commitments under the TFA and 
that is a clear demonstration of where the country stands with respect to its commitment to fulfilling 
its obliga tions under this Agreement. Nonetheless, we will take back the comments received to 
capital,  and we hope that we will be able to resubmit the notification request which would meet the 
approval of Members.  
1.134.   The next notification was from Saint Lucia and circ ulated in document G/TFA/N/LCA/1/Add.3 .  
1.135.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.136.   We thank Saint Lucia for its timely notification  for an 18 -month extension. The United States 
supports this extension request.  
1.137.   The Committee took up the notification from Sierra Leone, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/SLE/1/Add.4 .  
1.138.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.139.   We thank Sierra Leone for its timely notification . The United States supports this extension 
request.  
1.140.   The next notification was from Sri Lanka and was circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/LK A/1/Add.3 .  
1.141.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.142.   We thank Sri Lanka for its timely notification . The United States supports this 18 -month 
extension request.  
1.143.   The delegate of Sri Lanka  indicated the following:  
1.144.   Sri Lanka would like to thank the delegation of the United  States for its support to extend 
Sri Lanka's definitive implementation date for the two TFA provisions under Article 6.1 and 6.2 from 
31 December 2022 to 30 June 2024. My delegation woul d like to provide an update on the progress 
made with regard to these two provisions so far and for the assistance required to implement them 
completely.  
1.145.   Sri Lanka was planning to implement these two provisions as per the previously notified 
definitive da te of 31 December 2022. For this purpose,  Sri Lanka has requested technical assistance 
for these two provisions. Accordingly, some technical assistance has been received by Sri  Lanka 
from the World Bank Group and Australian Aid. However, Sri Lanka could no t implement the two 
provisions as per the deadline due to the complexity of these two provisions which was identified 
after a preliminary assessment under technical assistance from the World Bank Group. As for a 
needs assessment analysis conducted by the W orld Bank recently, there is no consistent approach 
on policy in determining, reviewing or consulting with stakeholders on fees and charges of the 
agencies . 
1.146.   Therefore, it is observed that further technical assistance is required, especially in the areas 
of simplification of current structure of fees and charges, automatism of fees and charges, training 
support for developing policies, plus review of existing regulatory framework and institutional 
procedures. When notifying its original definitive dates, Sri  Lanka was planning to use Government 
funds for implementation of these two provisions, therefore, Sri Lanka did not request financial 
assistance from donors. However, now it is observed that financial support initiated from the 
Government consolidated fun ds to implement these two provisions has become a remote possibility 
due to the economic situation prevailing in the country. Accordingly, many institutions are not in a 
position to find funds from the government sources to implement these provisions, requ iring them G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  to look for external  financial assistance from donors. Sri Lanka would like to thank the World Bank 
Group and Australian Aid for the technical assistance extended to Sri Lanka.  
1.147.   The following notification taken up was from Zambia, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/ZMB/1/Add.2 .  
1.148.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.149.   We thank Zambia for its timely notification. The United States supports Zambia's extension 
requests for Article 1.4 Notifications , Penaltie s, Pre -arrival Processing, Separation of Release from 
Clearance, Expedited Shipments, and Customs Brokers.  
1.150.   However, the United States only supports Zambia's extension request regarding General 
Disciplines on Fees for the three  years provided for in Article  17.2. 
1.151.   If the legislative process has not allowed Zambia to complete its work on Article  6.1 on fees 
by the end of 2025,  a second extension  request should be submitted in a timely manner.  
1.152.   The delegate of Nepal, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group,  indicated the following:  
1.153.   The LDC Group thanks all Members for their notifications for requesting the extension of 
implementation time. The LDC Group supports all the requests made by Members under this agenda 
item.  
1.154.   The Chair  indicated the following:  
1.155.   I have noticed that a number of Members requesting extensions under Article 17 have 
provided information on their need for technical assistance. It will be helpful to return to this issue 
during the Dedicated Session.  
1.156.   The delegate of the United Kingdom  indica ted the following:  
1.157.   The United Kingdom would like to thank Members for their notifications and updating the 
Committee. We encourage Members to liaise with their development partners to ensure that they 
are able to implement their obligations and of course t o submit notifications in a timely manner.  
1.158.   The Committee took note  of the notifications under Article  17 and the statements made.  
C. Notifications under Article 19 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement  
1.159.   The Chair  drew the Committee's attention to notifications under Article 19 of the TFA which 
covers the shifting of provisions between category B and category C.  
1.160.   The first notification was from the Central African Republic, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/CAF/1/Add.3 .  
1.161.   The delegate of Japan indicated the following:  
1.162.   Japan appreciates the Central African Republic's efforts to implement  Article  1.1, Article 5.3, 
Article 6.1, and Article 6.2 of the TFA. We welcome the Central African Republic's notification of 
shifting categories as well as i ts notification of category C definitive dates, as such notifications 
enhance the transparency of the implementation status.  
1.163.   We would also appreciate explanations in Committee meetings of its needs for shifting 
categories from B to C, its challenges, and its plans for the implementation of the relevant provisions.  
1.164.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.165.   The European Union would like to thank the Central African Republic for its notification. The 
Central African Republic has shifted some provisions from category B to C. We would be interested 
in hearing more details about the request.  
1.166.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.167.   We thank the Central African Republic for its timely notification of its category  C definitive 
dates.  
1.168.   The next notification taken up was from Lao PDR, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/LA O/1/Add.5 .  
1.169.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.170.   We thank Lao PDR for its timely notification of its category C definitive implementation dates.  
We commend Lao PDR for also shifting 5 provisions fro m category C to category  B. We look forward 
to their implementation of Section I provisions by the end of 2024.  
1.171.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.172.   Japan welcomes Lao PDR's notification of shifting categories from C to B. We also appreciate  
the notification of category C definitive dates. We consider that such a notification enhances 
transparency of the implementation status.  
1.173.   The Committee took up the notification from Liberia, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/LBR/1/Add.1 .  
1.174.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.175.    Japan welcomes Liberia's notification. We especially appreciate the notification of shifting 
the category of Article 7.1 from C to B and its status of the actual implementation. We consider that 
such a no tification enhances transparency of the implementation  status.  
1.176.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.177.   We thank Liberia for its timely notification of its category C definitive implementation dates . 
We commend Liberia for also shifting Article  7.1 on pre -arrival processing from category C to 
category B, as well as issuing its first Time Release Study.   
1.178.   The Committee turned to the notification from Mauritania, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/MRT/1/Add.2 . The flo or is open for comments.  
1.179.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.180.   We thank Mauritania for its category C definitive  implementation dates and can consider the 
shift of Article 1.2 from B to C the timely final category C notification. We strongly urge Mauritania 
to present its instrument of ratification of the Agreement as soon as possible.  
1.181.   The delegate of Japan  indicat ed the following:  
1.182.   Japan appreciates Mauritania's efforts for the implementation  of the TFA, and its notification 
of current status and its plan to implement provisions of the TFA. We would like to encourage its 
continuing efforts to ratify the TFA and to i mplement the relevant provisions of the TFA.  
1.183.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.184.   The European Union would like to thank Mauritania for its notification. Mauritania, with its 
notification in August , requested a shift from category B to category C and also notified the final 
date for the remaining category B provision. Because Mauritania failed to notify the final 
implementation dates of these category B commitments by the requested extension date of G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  21 February 2021, the final impleme ntation dates would be 21 February 2022. It does not seem 
possible to shift categories after the final date for implementation has passed. We also recognize 
that the Agreement has not yet been ratified. We understand that Mauritania, being an LDC, and 
additionally due to COVID, may not have had the necessary resources. We would therefore welcome 
Mauritania's explanations.  
1.185.   The Committee turned to the notification from Myanmar, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/MMR/1/Add.2 . 
1.186.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.187.   We thank Myanmar for its timely notification of its category C definitive implementation 
dates . We commend  Myanmar for also shifting six provisions from category C to category B.  
1.188.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.189.   The European Unio n would like to thank Myanmar for its notification. Myanmar has shifted 
some provisions from category B to category C. We would welcome receiving more information about 
this request.  
1.190.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.191.   Japan welcomes Myanmar's notification of shifting of categories, and the notification of 
category C commitments. We especially appreciate the notification on Article 1.4 of its status of the 
actual implementation. We consider that such a notification enhan ces the transparency  of the 
implementation status.  
1.192.   The delegate of Myanmar  indicated the following:  
1.193.   Thank you to the US ; EU; and Japan for their comments. I also agree with the statement 
made by Nepal on behalf of the LDC group. Myanmar has more than 20 ti mely category C provisions 
and we are looking forward to any developments in securing technical assistance, ready for their 
coordination and cooperation.  
1.194.   The next notification was from Rwanda, circulated in document G/TFA/N/RW A/1/Add.4 .  
1.195.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.196.   We thank Rwanda for its timely notification of its category C definitive implementation dates.  
We commend Rwanda for also shifting Article 3 on Advan ce Rulings from category C to category B.  
1.197.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.198.   Japan welcomes Rwanda's notification. We especially appreciate the notification of shifting 
the category of Article 3 from C to B and its status of the actual implemen tation. We consider that 
such a notification enhances transparency of the implementation status.  
1.199.   The delegate of Nepal, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group,  indicated the following:  
1.200.   The LDC Group thanks all Members for the notifications under this agenda i tem. The current 
context of notifications indicates that LDCs are highly committed to implementing the TFA. We thank 
all development partners and also encourage their further engagement  so that we can shift from 
category C to category B and implement in a timely manner.  
1.201.   The Committee took note  of the notifications and of the statements made.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  D. Notifications under Article 1.4, 10.4.3, 10:6:2 12.2.2 of the Trade Facilitation 
Agreement  
1.202.   The Chair drew the Committee's attention to transparency notifications unde r Articles 1:4, 
10:4:3, 10:6:2 and 12:2:2 of the TFA. They have the objective of providing transparency, either in 
a broader context – providing information on publication sources – or providing information on the 
specific items, such as a single window op eration, the use of customs brokers, and customs 
cooperation.  
1.203.   The first notification was from Angola and circulated in document G/TFA/N/AGO/3 .  
1.204.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.205.    We thank Angola for providing information on import, export , and transit procedures as well 
as contact points for their National Transit Coordinator, customs enquiries, and customs cooperation 
which will be beneficial to traders.  
1.206.   The delegate of the Angola  indicated the following:  
1.207.   We still have a long way to go for definitive implementation of the TFA and we are taking 
steps to do so. We are in permanent contact with international partners for the provision of technical 
assistance, particularly with regard to the implementation of the single window, which will provide 
a faster and a more transparent process in the import, export and transit of foods. I also take note 
of the notifications provided by other WTO Members and we thank them for these notifications .  
1.208.   The Committee turned to the notification from Bahrain, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/BHR/3/Rev.1 .  
1.209.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.210.   We thank Bahrain for providing updated information critical to trad ers. 
1.211.   The next notification was from Congo, circulated in document G/TFA/N/COG/2 .  
1.212.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.213.   We thank Congo for providing information on import, export, and transit procedures, use of 
single windo w, use of customs brokers, and contact points for enquiries and customs cooperation.  
1.214.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.215.   The European Union would welcome a further explanation of the situation regarding customs 
brokers and a link to the CEMAC Custom code. For a trader, it does not seem easy to understand 
from the notification if brokers are a requirement to the trader or if they are not mandatory.  
1.216.   The Committee turned to the notification from Cuba, circulated in document G/TFA/N/CUB/4 .  
1.217.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.218.   We thank Cuba for providing useful information on import, export, and  transit procedures, 
use of single window, use of customs brokers, and contact points for enquiries and customs 
cooperation which will be beneficial to traders.  
1.219.   The following notification was from El Salvador, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/SLV/2/Rev.1 .  
1.220.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.221.   We thank El Salvador for updating information on import, export, and transit procedures, 
use of customs brokers, and contact points for enquiries and customs cooperation which will be 
beneficial to traders.  
1.222.   The delegate of El Salvador  indicated the following:  
1.223.   I thank you Chair for convening this meeting and for sharing our notification with Members. 
I am part of a delegation of representatives of Central Americ a who are taking part in this week's 
meetings. I would like to highlight work that we have carried out in El Salvador to draft this new 
notification, as well as the scope of information that we are making available to all WTO Members 
through it. First, I w ould like to highlight that under the coordination efforts of the Ministry of 
Economy, we reviewed our previous notification which, although in compliance with the Trade 
Facilitation Agreement, had limited scope. Consequently, and with the support of the C ommercial 
Law Development Programme of the US Department of Commerce, we held multiple meetings with 
each domestic authority that implement controls at the border, to share the scope and objectives of 
the TFA and emphasize the importance of our new notific ation so that the notification would have 
complete, useful, and easily accessible information for exporters, importers, investors, and other 
traders. As a result of this diagnosis, we identified the need to: i) include nine new agencies that 
were not conte mplated in the previous notification; ii) upload information to websites; and iii) update 
information that had been presented in our previous notification. In this new notification we are 
sharing much more exhaustive information. We also have information o n processes, on forms, 
documents, as well as laws and contact points for the 16 domestic agencies involved in trade.   
1.224.   The process that we started a few years ago finishes today with the new notification and 
with the invitation that we are extending to all  Members of this organization to analyse the 
information and contents in greater detail. We remain attentive to any feedback or questions that 
Members may have on this notification.  
1.225.   The Committee took up the next notification which was from Ghana and circ ulated in 
document G/TFA /N/GHA/2 .  
1.226.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.227.   We thank Ghana for providing a contact point for customs enquiries, use of customs brokers, 
and national single window. We urge Ghana to complete the A rticle 1.4 notification by providing 
detailed information on import, export, and transit procedures as soon as possible.  
1.228.   The following notification was from Kazakhstan, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/KAZ/1/Rev.1 .  
1.229.   The delegate o f the United States  indicated the following:  
1.230.   We thank Kazakhstan for providing information on import, export, and transit procedures, 
use of single window, use of customs brokers, and contact points for enquiries and customs co -
operation which will be bene ficial for traders.  
1.231.   The Committee turned to the notification from New Zealand, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/NZL/1/Rev.1 .  
1.232.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.233.   We thank New Zealand for providing updated in formation on import, export, and transit 
procedures, use of single window, use of customs brokers, and contact points for enquiries and 
customs co -operation. This is very beneficial and useful for traders.  
1.234.   The next notification was from Pakistan and circul ated in document G/TFA/N/PAK/2/Rev.2 .  
1.235.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.236.   We thank Pakistan for providing information on import export, and transit procedures, use 
of single window, use of customs brokers,  and contact points for enquiries for each government 
ministry which will be very beneficial for traders.  
1.237.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.238.   The European Union would like to thank Pakistan for the notification. We are interested in 
learning if the single window which has been in place since last June is in fact the trade portal notified 
under Article 1.1(a) of the transparency notifications.  
1.239.   The next notification was from the United Arab Emirates, circulated in document 
G/TFA/N/ARE/2 .  
1.240.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.241.   We thank the United Arab Emirates for providing information on import export, and transit 
procedures, use of single window, use of customs brokers, and contact points for enquiries and for 
customs cooperation.  
1.242.   The delegate of the United Arab Emirates  indicated the following:  
1.243.   We would like to express our thanks to the Secretariat for their helpful suggestions and 
technical assistance all along the process of preparing the notification.  
1.244.   The Committee took up the notification from the United Kingdom in document 
G/TFA/N/GBR/2/Rev.1 .  
1.245.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.246.   We thank the United Kingdom for providing updated information on import, export, and 
transit procedures, use of single window, use of customs brokers, and contact points for enquiries 
and for customs cooperation. We appreciate that  it is important to keep this information updated to 
remain beneficial for traders.  
1.247.   The delegate of the United Kingdom  indicated the following:  
1.248.   Transparency is a crucial component of facilitating trade and therefore is important that as 
Members we ensure t hat information contained within our transparency notifications remain up to 
date and accurate. We would like to thank all of the Members who have submitted their transparency 
notifications this year and today within the Committee. We encourage Members to submit these at 
the earliest possible time to ensure that the traders can access the right information easily and help 
facilitate trade.  
1.249.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.250.   The European Union would like to thank all the Members who  updated their initial 
notifications. The EU recently sent updates at EU level and Member State level to the 
WTO Secretariat. We understand that they will be made available to the Membership soon.  
1.251.   Finally, we regret to note that there are still several Me mbers that committed to such 
notifications as category A or B where final dates for implementation have already passed and that 
have not yet provided information to the WTO Secretariat. This situation has only slightly improved 
since our last meeting so we  would ask them to follow through.  
1.252.   The Chair  indicated the following:  
1.253.   As Members stated, notification is one of the key pillars of this Agreement and therefore we 
need to urge Members to keep on with the tempo of making regular notifications. It will real ly help 
the Membership with the implementation of the TFA.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.254.   The Committee took note  of the notifications and of the statements made.  
E. Notifications under Article 22 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement  
1.255.   The Chair drew the Committee's attention to the notific ations under Article 22 of the TFA. 
There were three separate notification obligations identified under Article 22 – Article 22.1, 
notifications by donor Members on their recent capacity building activities; and Articles 22.2 and 
22.3, information on conta ct points.  
1.256.   The first notification was from Ghana, circulated in document G/TFA/N/GHA/3 .  
1.257.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.258.   We thank Ghana for providing contact information for the offices responsible for coordinating 
trade facilitation related assistance and support for capacity building.  
1.259.   The Committee took up the notification from Honduras, in document G/TFA/N/HND/2/Rev.2 .  
1.260.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the follow ing: 
1.261.   We thank Honduras for providing updated contact information for the offices responsible for 
coordinating trade facilitation related assistance and support for capacity building.  
1.262.   The next notification was from Lao PDR, circulated in document G/TFA/N/LAO/4/Rev .1.  
1.263.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.264.   We thank Lao PDR for providing updated contact information for the offices responsible for 
coordinating trade facilitation related assistance and support for  capacity building.  
1.265.   The Committee turned to the notification from the Central African Republic, circulated in 
document G/TFA/N/CAF/3 .  
1.266.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.267.   We thank Central African Republic for providing updated contact information for the offices 
responsible for coordinating trade facilitation related assistance and support for capacity building.  
1.268.   The notification from Botswana, circulated in document G/TFA/N/BWA/3 , was taken up by 
the Committee.  
1.269.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.270.   We thank Botswana for providing this notification of contact information for the offices 
responsible for coordinating trade facilitation related assistance and support for capacity bui lding.   
1.271.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.272.   The European Union welcomes the notification on contact points for aid made by Ghana, 
Honduras, Lao PDR, the Central African Republic and Botswana. The EU has also sent its notification 
of assistance for category C commitments to the WTO Secretariat updating information notified in 
December 2021. We understand it should soon be published and made available to the Members.  
1.273.   The Committee took note  of the notifications and of the statements made.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.2  Status of Ratification and Notification Process  
i. Update by the WTO Secretariat  
1.274.   The representative of the WTO Secretariat  presented an update since the Committee 
meeting held on 30 June to 1 July, includ ing an  overview of the new functionalities in the database 
which had recently been updated.  The presentation is attached as Annex 1 to this document and is 
also available at https://www.tfadatabase.org .  
1.275.   The Chair  indicated the following:  
1.276.   I believe that the presentation by the Secretariat has brought out the collaboration between 
Members and donors as far as tec hnical assistance is concerned. It is important that we note that 
notifications, particularly on transparency, will be the only one to show Members how those who 
made the notifications are transparent in implementing the Agreement and where they have 
weakn esses, and they need some assistance. I urge Members that we take it with all seriousness to 
ensure that we always meet our notification obligations. Trade facilitation, as all of us have 
understood, is really one of the most important agreements in the re cent times and we have seen 
the possibilities in it. Because of the simplicity of the TFA and the encouragement by Members to 
implement, we can see the provision of the early warning mechanism where if you have made 
notifications of implementation dates an d you will not be able to comply with that date then you 
adjust and notify so that Members can take note and can grant approval for you to do that. With all 
these things that we have taken note of today in view of Articles 16, 17 and 22.3, we get a clear 
picture of what Members are doing. So those who have not done so, I urge you to notify. I also want 
to urge those who have not yet ratified the TFA to do so expeditiously. The TFA has come to stay 
and many Members who were not comfortable from the beginning  with the TFA are now aligning 
and are happy with it.  
1.277.   The delegate of Guatemala  indicated the following:  
1.278.   I thank the Secretariat for the information they have shared with us, and the presentation 
made. I also thank the Secretariat for the work to identify  broken links on the notifications from 
Members.  
1.279.   We have received information of a number of broken links in our notifications, and thanks 
to this information, we have reviewed such links and we are doing the necessary work to get them 
working again. We h ope to finish that work soon and be able to present the notification with the new 
or repaired links. We again thank the Secretariat for this work, and urge other delegations to carry 
out this same work.  
1.280.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.281.   Japan  appreciates the Secretariat's work to compile and visualize the notifications and it is 
a very useful and informative presentation.  
1.282.   We welcome Guinea -Bissau's ratification of the TFA on 20 September 2022. We hope to see 
other Members, who are yet to rati fy the TFA, follow suit and ratify the Agreement as soon as 
possible.  
1.283.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.284.   We really appreciate your comments today, Chair, on the encouragement of notification and 
ratification and also, we very much appreciate your work and the Secretariat's work for their 
outreach efforts to LDC Members approaching the August 2022 category C definitive date notification 
deadline. We were very pleased with the results. We also want to commend Guinea -Bissau on their 
ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement.  
1.285.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.286.   The European Union would also like to thank the Secretariat for this comprehensive report. 
It was as always interesting and very useful. We would a lso like to echo the Chair's message on the G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  importance of notifications to ensure transparency and the fact that it enables Members to get 
technical assistance. We would also support the Chair's and Japan's call for Members to ratify the 
Agreement.  
1.287.   The de legate of Nepal, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group,  indicated the following:  
1.288.   The LDC Group extends sincere appreciation to the Secretariat for updating us in detail. 
We can see from the presentation that LDCs are yet to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement, 
especially their category C measures. The LDC Group would like to mention that implementation of 
category C measures in LDCs is in the interest of, and is the re sponsibility of, all LDCs and donor 
country Members. We thank all donor country Members for their continued support and for further 
extending cooperation, especially in implementation of category C provisions, not only to implement 
in a timely manner but a lso to make this implementation before the deadline. Our enhanced 
cooperation would provide us with an opportunity to hear from Members, especially the LDC 
Members, regarding their notification of shifting measures from C to B and then the next notificatio n 
of implementing those measures.  
1.289.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.290.   I just want to take a moment to express our sincere appreciation to the WTO Secretariat. 
It takes a lot of work to make the TFA database run, and we very much appreciate it. We look 
forward to continuing to discuss the functionality of the different updates with you in the future, but 
I just wanted to note that the TFA database is a resource that I use daily. It is the first website that 
I go to, to look at a co untry and their customs system. It is something that we share globally with 
our posts, with our embassies, and it is also the first discussion point for our private sector. This is 
an incredibly useful tool, especially to ensure that the notifications this  Committee has worked so 
hard to get from Members are actually used on a daily basis. We appreciate you.  
1.291.   The delegate of India indicated the following:  
1.292.   This is an excellent initiative and India would like to compliment the Secretariat for the 
excellent eff ort done - a lot of hard work was put in revamping the TFA database website. We have 
gone through this version, and this is not only comprehensive information but also is presented in a 
manner which is very user -friendly and extremely useful for Members fo r retrieving relevant 
information, as well as keeping track of fulfilling commitments in a timely manner. We are going 
through it, and we will be providing feedback but would like to appreciate the Secretariat for their 
excellent effort.  
1.293.   The delegate of t he European Union  indicated the following:  
1.294.   The European Union would like to echo the words expressed by the US and India. We think 
that the initial version was already comprehensive and user -friendly, and we can see that this one 
is even better, so we real ly do appreciate all the hard work that went into it.  
1.295.   The delegate of Ecuador  indicated the following:  
1.296.   We would like to highlight the great work behind this webpage. We greatly appreciate the 
work carried out. We have received great comments from our coll eagues in capital as well. We 
continue to make certain revisions, but we are on the right path. This work is very important because 
the website is the main source of information. We express our gratitude and recognition to the whole 
team.  
1.297.   The delegate of Guatemala  indicated the following:  
1.298.   We wanted to join other Members in thanking the Secretariat for the excellent work that has 
been presented today. We have always been admirers of this webpage and we really thank the team 
for the constant improvement of t he webpage. We are very thankful for that and in fact we are going 
to check out the new elements that you have presented today and we will be happy to give you 
feedback , if necessary. In fact,  now that we will have SIECA here  today , we would definitely lik e to 
see our region also reflected in that regional communities section of the database.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.299.   The Committee took note  of the information and the statements made.   
ii. Updates by Members on Overdue Section I and Section II notifications 
(G/TFA/2, para. 9.3 (II )) 
1.300.   The Chair recalled that according to the update provided by the Secretariat, there were 
82 overdue transparency notifications and 21 overdue implementation notifications.  
1.301.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.302.   I would like to echo th e comments of Japan, the UK, the EU and also your earlier comments 
Chair about the importance of the transparency notifications. They are used by Governments and 
traders from the TFA database every day. Transparency is critical to all traders for understan ding 
what customs formalities are required and providing certainty at the border.  
1.303.   Thirty -three Members self -identified a definitive implementation deadline prior to this 
meeting for one of the TFA transparency provisions yet have not submitted the necessary notification 
to the WTO Secretariat. Each of these Members identified one or mor e of TFA Articles 1.4, 10.4.3, 
10.6.2, and 12.2 as category A, category B, or category C with a definitive date that has already 
passed.  
1.304.   Definitive date deadlines are binding, and the United States urges the following Members to 
submit the required inform ation as soon as possible to fulfill these TFA commitments: Afghanistan; 
Armenia; Benin; Bolivia; Brunei Darussalam; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cabo Verde; Cameroon; 
Central African Republic; Chad; Cuba; Djibouti; Fiji; Ghana; Grenada; Guatemala; Jamaica; Jord an; 
Kuwait; Mozambique; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Paraguay; Qatar; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; 
Solomon Islands; South Africa; Tunisia; Uganda; Vanuatu; and Zimbabwe.  
1.305.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.306.   We think it is useful and important to know t he reasons behind the overdue notifications. 
We encourage Members with notification delays to explain in the coming meetings the reasons for 
the delay. We are particularly interested to hear any challenges they are facing in providing 
notifications in acco rdance with the Agreement, as well as their plans to submit the delayed 
notifications.   
1.307.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
1.308.   I would like to echo the statements just made by others and invite Members to explain the 
reasons for any de lays and inform of us of any challenges that Members might be facing.  
1.309.   The Committee took note  of the information and the statements made.  
1.3  Status of Definitive Implementation Dates  
i. Review of the effectiveness of G/TFA/INF/1/Rev.1 (G/TFA/2, Para. 9.2(iv)  
1.310.   The Chair  recalled that G/TFA/INF/1 was created as a useful tool to help Members keep track 
of their implementation dates falling due over the next two years. It is revised on a rolling basis at 
the start of every year.   
1.311.   As part of its four -year r eview, the Committee decided that it would review the effectiveness 
of G/TFA/INF/1 and, "as appropriate, improve the list and the methods for circulating it by reflecting 
feedback from Members, in order to promote better self -management by Members of their  own 
implementation status and allow adequate monitoring by the Committee".  
1.312.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  1.313.   Japan appreciates the Secretariat's work to compile the information on definitive 
implementation dates that were notified by Members.  We consider it important for Members to keep 
track of their deadlines and for the Committee to follow up on the implementation dates.  
1.314.   We think the document helps Members to manage their own implementation dates and 
reminds Members of the deadlines. We wel come the fact that many Members have submitted timely 
requests for an extension of the deadlines, but we find that some Members have still missed the 
deadlines.   
1.315.   We encourage Members whose implementation dates are approaching, and therefore appear 
on the l ist, to use the document in their Capitals to appropriately manage their schedules, and if 
they find difficulties in meeting the deadlines, to notify their request for extension in a timely manner 
in accordance with Article 17.   
1.316.   The Committee took note  of the information and of the statement made.  
ii. Voluntary  Update by Members of Status of Definitive Date Implementation 
(G/TFA/2, para 9.2(vi))  
1.317.   The Committee's first written update of the status of definitive implementation dates was 
from Colombia and was circu lated in document G/TFA/2/COL/INF/1 .  
1.318.   The delegate of Colombia  indicated the following:  
1.319.   Colombia submits this notification in relation to articles it had previously notified in category 
B, demonstrating our commitment to fully imple ment this important Agreement.  
1.320.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
1.321.   We thank Colombia for this voluntary explanation of how it implemented its last two TFA 
provisions – Articles 5.3 on Test Procedures and 7.9 on Perishable Goods.  We congratulate Colombia 
on its accomplishment this year.   
1.322.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
1.323.   Japan thanks Colombia for providing the Committee with a very useful update on its 
implementation status. We highly value this update from Col ombia as it enhances transparency in 
the terms of implementation status.  
1.324.   We would like to encourage other Members to follow suit and also to share any experiences 
that they think would be valuable for other Members.  
1.325.   The Committee took note  of the communica tion and of the statements made.  
1.326.   This concluded  agenda item 1.  
2  EXPERIENCE SHARING/THEMATIC DISCUSSIONS  
2.1.  This agenda item took place in informal mode.  
2.2.  Members addressed the following issues:  
a) India's Time Release Study for 2022 – Presentation ; India Time Release Study 2022 ; 
b) Kazakhstan' s Trade Portal ; 
c) Senegal: Project on the ePhyto solution  and project to digitalize import processes for 
agriculture products ; 
d) Establishment of Enquiry Points: Ghana  and Côte d'Ivoire ; 
e) Advancements in Trade Facilitation by the Central American Region: Secretariat of Central 
American Economic Integration (SIECA) ; and  
f) Regional Trade Facilitation Committees (CARICOM, ECOWAS AND PIFS) . G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  3  GOOD PRACTICES AND BUILDING BLOCKS OF SUCCESSFUL NTFCS (G/TFA/2, 
PARA  9.3(V))  
3.1.  The Chair recalled that the drafting of a document containing good practices and building blocks 
of successful National Trade Facilitation Committees (NTFCs) was another decision arising from the 
TFA Review (G/TFA/2, para 9.3 (v)).  
3.2.  The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
3.3.  We have conveyed consistently that the success of National Trade Facilitation Committees rests 
on several factors, including: a clear government mandate for the Committee that supports 
consistent engagement; the active participation of all agencies with re sponsibility for clearance of 
goods at the border; robust private sector involvement and avenues for input; and a 
role/responsibility in coordinating technical assistance and capacity building.  
3.4.  We are working on a draft Committee Decision document in Capi tal and hope to be able to 
deliver an updated document before the Spring.  
3.5.  The Committee took note  of the information and the statement made.  
3.6.  That concluded  agenda item 3.  
4  FOLLOW -UP ON THE SECRETARIAT STUDY "EASING TRADE BOTTLENECKS IN 
LANDLOCKED DEVELOPI NG COUNTRIES" – REQUEST FROM BOTSWANA (G/TFA/W/82)  
4.1.  The Chair indicated the following:  
4.2.  The Committee will recall that at the meeting of June 2022, the LLDC Group Coordinator, with 
the support of the wider LLDC Group, raised a request that the WTO Developmen t Division conduct 
a study of trade corridors operating between LLDCs and transit countries, with outside partnership 
where necessary, and report on the results to the Trade Facilitation Committee at its Dedicated 
Session On Transit in Spring of 2023.  
4.3.  The LLDC Coordinator explained that the study was to build on the Secretariat study, "Easing 
Trade Bottlenecks in Landlocked Developing Countries", and with a view toward further 
operationalizing the Trade Facilitation Agreement in Landlocked Developing Count ries and Transit 
Developing Countries.  
4.4.  Following a discussion at the meeting, Botswana, on behalf of the LLDC Group, had circulated 
a revised request in document G/TFA/W/82 . 
4.5.  The Ambassador of the Mongolia  indicated the following:  
4.6.  I am honoured to deliver this proposal on behalf of Botswana in their capacity as Coordinator 
of the LLDC Group. As a follow -up to the conclusion of the Trade Facilitation Committee meeting 
held on 30 June 2022, the land -locked developing countries wish to submit their revised req uest for 
a proposal to undertake a study on transit corridors operating between LLDCs and transit countries. 
The study on Easing Trade Bottlenecks in LLDCs carried out in 2021 found that promoting transit 
corridors and establishing efficient transit corrid or transport systems are important for LLDCs as 
they can reduce time spent in borders as well as transport costs for LLDCs. Unfortunately, while the 
transit corridor approaches currently used by many existing trade corridors are not well understood, 
more i nformation is needed in the implementation of agreed legal framework, transit rules and 
policies in transport and trade facilitation measures. The proposed study would focus on transit 
corridors. The study should map corridors in regions with LLDCs with a view to identify the key 
corridors that serve the LLDCs and analyse key barriers facing LLDCs in time and cost efficient 
transportation and transit. The study should analyse the extent to which TFA provisions have been 
implemented on existing corridors and  the extent to which they have enhanced trade facilitation for 
LLDCs, with a view to understanding that further reforms or changes in access to transportation, 
logistics and transit would be most beneficial to enhance the competitiveness of LLDCs. The LLDC s 
request the Trade Facilitation Committee to instruct the Secretariat to undertake the Membership G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  and LLDC -led study. Partnering with relevant organizations is required to conduct a follow -up study 
on trade corridors operating between LLDCs and transit co untries.  
4.7.  The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
4.8.  We support the Landlocked Developing Countries in their request for a report on transit 
corridors. We appreciate Botswana's willingness to take account of our suggestions and 
recommendati ons in the drafting of this request.  
4.9.  The delegate of Congo, speaking on behalf of the ACP Group,  indicated the following:  
4.10.   The ACP Group would like to support the proposal circulated by Botswana on behalf of the 
LLDCs with an aim to consider transit corrido rs between LLDCs and transit countries. If the proposal 
is accepted, our Group would request participation in the consultations on the terms of reference of 
this proposal.  
4.11.   The Committee agree d to instruct the Secretariat to undertake a Membership and LLDC led 
study, partnering with relevant organizations as required, to conduct a follow -up study on trade 
corridors operating between LLDCs and transit countries.  
4.12.   That concluded  agenda Item 4 . 
5  PROMOTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WTO TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT 
THROUGH DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGIES – CHINA  
5.1.  The delegate of China  indicated the following:  
5.2.  China would like to take this opportunity to share our views and a suggestion o n promoting the 
implementation of the WTO TFA through innovation driven by digitalization and new technology.  
5.3.  After five years implementation of the TFA, especially after the shock of COVID -19 on global 
supply chains, more and more WTO Members have realiz ed that the implementation of the TFA is 
crucial in dealing with major emergencies, promoting economic recovery and enhancing the 
resilience and safety of supply chains.  
5.4.  It is regarded that Disruptive Technologies such as digitalization, big data, smart a lgorithms, 
block-chain and Internet of Things are profoundly changing the pattern and way of international 
trade, bringing out new opportunities and challenges to the implementation of the TFA.  
5.5.  Therefore, China encourages WTO Members to embrace the new opp ortunities of trade 
facilitation brought about by intelligent technology. Through the new generation of intelligence 
technology, we can actively carry out institutional innovation, improve the intelligence level of 
control and administration of customs and  other border agencies, promote the joint efforts to build 
smart borders and enhance the connectivity among WTO Members. We can improve the 
implementation of the TFA through "Smart Customs, Smart Border, Smart Connectivity", so as to 
increase the transpare ncy and predictability, as well as to enhance the stability, resilience, facilitation 
and security of the international supply chain.  
5.6.  In light of the opportunities and challenges of digital revolutions, in order to facilitate the 
implementation of the TFA,  to narrow the digital divide, and also maybe we would accumulate some 
elements for the future of TFA+, China suggests that the Committee stimulate discussions and 
experience sharing on the following issues:  
5.7.  Article 1 Publication and accessibility of info rmation  
• Regarding this article, Members maybe could discuss and share experience on how to 
accelerate digitalization of trade information, promoting border agencies to publish further 
trade -related information besides Article 2.1 of the TFA through the in ternet in electronic 
format. We may also discuss on how to set up and maintain "online" and "offline" enquiry 
points and explore to provide the Internet mobile "fingertip” services.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  5.8.  Article 7 Release of goods and customs clearance  
• Regarding Article 7, mayb e we can share experiences on how to allow traders to declare goods 
in advance through electronic data interchange to pay customs duties and other taxes or fees 
by e-payment and minimize the requirements for the submission of paper documents.  
• Secondly, ma ybe we can also discuss and share experience on how to adopt AR (Augmented 
Reality), AI (Artificial Intelligence), Big Data and other advanced technologies to optimize 
customs risk management and customs control such as automatic collection, identification , 
and comparison of information and documents, as well as remote contactless monitoring and 
inspection.  
• Thirdly, maybe we can discuss and share experience on how to promote customs and other 
border agencies to connect with the private sector, such as the c onnectivity of customs 
information system with enterprises ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, which 
enables automatic data comparison between customs and enterprises and to conduct online 
validation and consultation during the process of mutual re cognition of authorized operators 
(AOs).  
5.9.  Article 8 Border Agency Cooperation  
• Regarding this article, we can also discuss and share experience on how to coordinate and 
optimize border supervision functions, with a view to establishing a governance system wi th 
online and offline collaboration between customs and other border agencies. We can also share 
experience on how to explore the possibility of setting up a public service platform supported 
by the block chain technology to facilitate supervision data -sharing across different regulatory 
authorities.  
• For example , for Members who are sharing common borders we can share experience on how 
to strengthen cooperation by means of information technology, including but not limited to 
such areas of information exchan ge on goods and conveyances entering and leaving the 
common border, so as to facilitate the border clearance.  
5.10.   Article 10 Formalities Connected with Importation, Exportation and Transit  
• We can discuss how to harmonize data elements and processing as far as possible among 
members by adopting international standards, and promote the electronization of documents  
required for import, export and transit especially in the establishment and maintaining of a 
"single window".  
• We can also discuss how to expand the sin gle window used in customs clearance processes 
besides declaration of goods and conveyances and explore the possibility to promote the 
interconnection of single windows across WTO Members.  
5.11.   Article 11 Freedom of Transit  
• It could  be useful to discuss the use  electronic systems for transit procedure to support the 
early submission and processing of transit electronic documents and data prior to the arrival 
of transit goods.  
• We can also discuss on how to exchange information on transit goods and conveyances at the 
place of departure, destination and transit, as well as simplify and coordinate procedures and 
documentation requirements in the transit process.  
5.12.   Article 12 Customs Cooperation  
• We also encourage Members to discuss and share experience on how to strengthen the 
intelligent interconnection and cooperation among customs through electronic means, and 
even further  maybe we can discuss on how to connect border agencies, private sectors, other 
international organizations and stakeholders to share more information.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  5.13.   So far, we already know that not only the WTO is working on trade facilitation but many 
different stake holders like UNCTAD, WCO, ITC, etc. are also working in this area. Based on this 
Committee, WTO can play a leading role to share the information to become an information centre 
to connect all the information together, to facilitate other stakeholders and M embers' private sector 
to access the relevant information. Yesterday, we heard an excellent report from the Secretariat 
about the database. It could in the future become something like an information hub for all of the 
trade facilitation experts around the  world.  
5.14.   As we already have seen in this Committee, discussions on experience sharing on digitalization 
and new technology are already taking place. Yesterday we heard excellent presentations by India, 
Senegal, Ghana and Guatemala. They shared very good ex periences on how they digitalized their 
customs procedures and how they implemented the TFA. The innovation driven by digitalization and 
new technology is so important for implementing the TFA, for narrowing the digital divide and even 
in the future for ac cumulating some elements for the TFA+. We have already implemented the TFA 
for five years, but maybe we can think about the future, after five or ten more years. We now know 
many Members are already implementing 100% of the TFA but this is not a final dest ination. Based 
on our current agreements we will continue our efforts to facilitate trade. So, in our Committee 
maybe we share some best practice from many developed Members to show what they are doing in 
this area. But it is also very important for develo ping Members because if they cannot catch up, they 
cannot have the awareness and the knowledge about digitalization. So, this could be a good platform 
for us to discuss and share experience for the developing Members to quickly catch up.  
5.15.   China encourages the CTF to discuss and exchange experiences, best practices as well as 
challenges on this topic in a systematic way. Also, regarding the different challenges of Members, 
we encourage Members and stakeholders to offer technical assistance and capacity build ing support 
to the developing Members, especially to the LDCs.  
5.16.   We would like to take this opportunity to share our tentative views and suggestions. Any 
suggestions or comments on this topic are very welcome and regarding next steps we can work 
together wi th like -minded Members to prepare a communication for the coming Committee meeting.  
5.17.   The delegate of Guatemala  indicated the following:  
5.18.   We would like to thank the delegation of China for this interesting presentation. In fact, we 
are aware of the improveme nts that technology can facilitate at customs agencies. We are looking 
into certain risk analysis technology in order to make the procedures quicker, but we wanted to 
thank China for also bringing to our attention many other possibilities and many other te chnological 
improvements that can also apply for trade facilitation efforts. Of course, these always come with 
financing difficulties but it is important to point them out so that developing countries know that 
these technologies exist and that these techn ologies are being used for trade facilitation purposes 
and we are happy to continue this conversation further. So thank you very much and looking forward 
to our exchanges.  
5.19.   The Committee took note  of the information and of the statements made.  
6  REQUEST FROM THE CHAIR OF THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS FOR A REPORT ON 
ACTIONS ADOPTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON TRADE FACILITATION TO IMPROVE ITS WORK  
6.1.  The Chair indicated the following:  
6.2.  The Chair of the Council for Trade in Goods has been engaging in bilateral consultatio ns with 
the aim of addressing certain implementation matters flowing out of MC12, including those relating 
to improving the functioning of WTO Committees . As part of that process, the CTG Chair has 
requested the various Chairs of the  CTG's subsidiary bodie s to prepare a report, under each Chair's 
own responsibility, describing the concrete actions their Committees have adopted over the past 
years to improve their work, as well as any proposals for improvements that have been submitted.  
6.3.  Accordingly, I have b een working on a draft report, describing the practices of the Committee 
over the past number of years, which I intend to circulate to Members tomorrow. I invite Members 
to review the report and to provide their comments by 6 December.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  6.4.  The delegate of Canada indicated the following:  
6.5.  Thank you Chair and the Secretariat for the work you are doing on preparing this report. I look 
forward to receiving it. I know there is a number of other committees that have circulated their 
reports as well. I hope delegates here get a chance in the coming weeks to take a look at it. What I 
wanted to do today was to share with the Committee some of the comments Canada made in the 
CTG meeting last Friday on this topic. We had a discussion in the Council about the plan and what 
the Council Chair has been doing himself along with the Secretariat.  
6.6.  So, as I mentioned at an informal meeting of the Council on 14 October, Canada continues to 
participate in these discussions very much with a delegate -centred approach in mind and how to 
improve the practical aspect of our work. What are the challenges faced by delegates here in Geneva 
and in capital, especially those from smaller delegations or with several responsibilities in their work 
to effectively engage in the regular work of the WT O? We are also interested in the challenges faced 
by the Secretariat staff in supporting the work of delegates and responding to their requests, and 
then finding ways to enhance the organization and conduct of work in those WTO bodies in order to 
address t hose challenges. Just to be specific here and respond to a comment from last week, this is 
not about telling delegates how to do their job but actually to finding ways to empower delegates to 
their job.  
6.7.  For Canada, this is about creating an environment th at does empower those delegates all 
through their work processes as they prepare for meetings, as they engage in discussions during 
meetings, and then as they follow up on the results of those meetings. I think this is a good 
Committee for demonstrating th at there has been a lot of progress on this front, including in respect 
to the electronic tools that the Secretariat has produced and put in place for us, including the TFA 
database.  
6.8.  However, we are convinced that more can be done that will create a win -win for delegates and 
for the Secretariat staff, and as I also said on the 14 October during the Council's informal meeting, 
this is a great opportunity to engage in coherent and horizontal discussion regarding what has been 
done and can be done to enhance this Organization and empower delegates' awareness and 
engagement. I think that we see great value in having this horizontal view in comparing what the 
14 subsidiary bodies have been doing over the years to improve their work and then having a focused 
discussion here in this Committee to see what of those lessons learned and those experiences of the 
other committees may be useful for us in terms of proceeding forward with our work.  
6.9.  I look forward to receiving your report and if we have any comments, we cer tainly will provide 
them, but we also appreciate the contribution that it makes to the Council's discussion which will 
happen in early 2023 and which hopefully will also take place this Committee later on in the year.  
6.10.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
6.11.   We thank  the Chair for providing information to the Committee on the request from the Chair 
of the Council on Trade in Goods.  We appreciate the Chair's effort to assemble the requested factual 
report and we will review it carefully w hen it is circulated to Members for comment. We see a great 
deal of value in this discussion and believe the CTF has a lot to contribute.  
6.12.   The delegate  of Guatemala  indicated the following:  
6.13.   We would like to thank you for preparing this report. We fully agre e with our colleague from 
Canada. We believe that this is an effort that is taking place, not only in this Committee but in the 
WTO as a whole and we are very happy to contribute to that. I think that this Committee, even 
though it is rather young compared  to other committees, has a lot of good lessons and good 
experiences that we can actually share with others. We fully agree that it is a great opportunity for 
delegates here to better contribute to their work within each committee. We are very thankful tha t 
you are participating in this effort, and we look forward to the future discussions on this issue.  
6.14.   The delegate  of Norway  indicated the following:  
6.15.   I also thank you for this important report and we look forward very much to reviewing it. 
We would also like to echo what was just said by Canada and others that the horizontal approach G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  that is being done in the subcommittees of the CTG is really useful and we think that this Committee 
has a lot to offer in that perspective.  
6.16.   The delegate  of the European Union  indicated the following:  
6.17.   WTO reform is an important priority for the European Union. Much can be done with the 
deliberative function. We consider that this Committee, which is still relatively new, works well and 
has innovative features such as experience -sharing. In our view, the  Committee has proven to be 
very much appreciated and we therefore look forward to reviewing your report.  
6.18.   The Chair  indicated the following:  
6.19.   I would like to thank delegations for your reaction. I look forward to receiving comments over 
the next few days w hich I will consider as I finalize my report next week. I will then proceed to 
submit the report to the Chair of the CTG on my own responsibility.  
6.20.   That concluded  agenda item  6. 
7  THE TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT FACILITY – ITEMS RELATED TO THE 
FRAMEWORK (G/T FA/3)  
7.1.  The Chair recalled that the regular TFAF update had been circulated in document  
G/TFA/TFAF/1. The TFA/TFAF symbol had been created with a view to making it easier for the 
Committee to identify G/TFA documents that are related to TFAF.   
7.2.  The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
7.3.  We thank the TFAF for its report to this Committee. It is clear that TFAF training and support 
helped Members achieve their Section II notifications by the 22 August deadline.   
7.4.  We also thank the TFAF and the W orkplan Committee for producing the first draft of the TFAF 
Workplan for 2023. This is a significant time for the Committee and the TFAF because we are finally 
at a point where most Section II notifications have been submitted and we have a much clearer 
understanding of the global timeline for TFA implementation. That information will be critical for the 
work going forward. We look forward to further discussions on the TFAF Workplan at the upcoming 
Dedicated Session.  
7.5.  The delegate of Congo, speaking on behal f of the ACP Group,  indicated the following on behalf 
of the ACP Group:  
7.6.  The ACP Group is pleased for the detailed report on the update of the activities of the TFAF. 
Our Group would like to endorse the Facility.  
7.7.  The delegate of Nepal, speaking on behalf o f the LDC Group,  indicated the following:  
7.8.  The LDC Group extends sincere appreciation to the Secretariat for this draft of the TFAF 
Workplan. The LDC Group appreciates TFAF for its continued support and contribution in the process 
of implementation of the T FA. LDCs are fully committed to effective implementation of the TFA and 
are making maximum efforts to fulfil their commitments and also benefitting from the Agreement. 
The deadline for notification of definitive dates of category C measures has just passed  and most of 
the LDCs have already notified while a few are working to finalize the notifications.  
7.9.  The contribution of TFAF in facilitating the notification process was significant and we were 
engaged with finalizing the workplan for 2023. We appreciate t his framework, and we are now in a 
critical situation because we are in the implementation process of category B and C measures. LDCs 
need to engage with the implementation process, and we appreciate TFAF's contribution. LDCs 
expect further enhanced contri bution from TFAF while implementing and delivering the real outcome 
of the TFA.  
7.10.   I would like to thank all Members and colleagues from the Secretariat. This is my last meeting, 
as I will be returning after completion of my three years, so I would like to t ake this opportunity to G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  extend my sincere appreciation to all delegations and colleagues from the Secretariat for their 
contribution and efforts.  
7.11.   The delegate of Guatemala  indicated the following:  
7.12.   We are very glad of the continuous work that the Secretari at has been carrying out with 
different Members. It was a great success and was a part of the delivery of the implementation of 
the TFA. We are very glad to have participated in, and contributed to, the drafting of the next 
workplan. We believe that the pr iorities that have been included here are specific enough to deliver 
certain activities but broad enough to accommodate further necessities throughout the next year. 
We are also happy to have a further discussion later during the dedicated session. We want  to 
highlight and thank the Secretariat for their work, and we look forward to continuing this work on 
the implementation of the Agreement.  
7.13.   The Committee took note  of the update and of the statements made.  
7.14.   That concluded  agenda item 7.  
8  DRAFT ANNUAL REPO RT (2022) OF THE TRADE FACILITATION COMMITTEE TO THE 
COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS (G/TFA/W/87)  
8.1.  The Chair recalled that according to the "Procedures for an annual overview of WTO  Activities 
and for reporting under the WTO" (WT/L/105), which were adopted by th e General Council on 
15 November  1995, all bodies constituted under Agreements in Annex  1A of the WTO  Agreement 
are required to submit an annual factual report to the Council for Trade in Goods, which is then to 
take note of these reports.  
8.2.   In line with th is requirement, a draft annual report of the Trade Facilitation Committee to the 
Council for Trade in Goods was circulated in document G/TFA/W/87.  
8.3.  The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
8.4.  We are excited by several points in the draft rep ort that this Committee can be proud of: 18 
transparency notifications were received under Section I; more Members shifted provisions from 
category C to B than shifted from B to C; with passage of the 22 August date, we have collectively 
amassed a global t imeline for implementation of the Agreement; we launched an annual TFAF 
workplan; we held dedicated sessions on transit and assistance; we completed our first four -year 
review with 17 recommendations; and we celebrated the 5th Anniversary of the TFA;  
8.5.  We lo ok forward to continuing this productive pace in the future.  
8.6.  The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
8.7.  We have noticed an unequal treatment of Members in some sense in that Members who notify, 
for example, requests for extensions of categ ory B or C are mentioned by name in the document 
while Members who have long overdue notifications regardless of the category are not always 
named. In our view, this approach could be reconsidered.  
8.8.  The Committee agreed  that the Secretariat would update the report in light of the meeting and 
it would be circulated with a deadline for receiving comments before the Annual Report would be 
issued.  
8.9.  That concluded  agenda item 8.  
9  OTHER BUSINESS  
9.1.  The Chair indicated the following : 
9.2.  I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the dedicated session to discuss 
transit issues of landlocked country Members that is due to take place at our Spring meeting next G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  year. You will recall that under the review of the TFA carried out in 2021, the Committee 
recommended to amend the Committee's spring meeting agenda until the next review of the TFA is 
completed (2026), to include a dedicated session to discuss transit issues of landlocked country 
members. The dedicated space was inte nded to highlight the importance of transit and to reserve 
time for the Committee to discuss best practices, as well as the constraints and challenges, facing 
landlocked developing countries, with a view to proposing possible solutions to these challenges.    
9.3.  The Committee held its first transit session at its April meeting this year which gave rise to a 
very rich and informative discussion. At that session, Ambassador Dr Molokomme of Botswana, as 
Coordinator of the LLDC Group, identified very clearly the ob jectives for the series of four transit 
sessions. She described them as follows: "Over the next four years we hope that these sessions 
would have increased awareness on the transit challenges confronting LLDCs, and intensified 
partnerships. We hope that so lutions that are identified in these sessions will be implemented, and 
in particular the technical assistance and capacity building support needs towards LLDCs and transit 
countries will be enhanced. We also hope that through follow -up actions to these ses sions we would 
be able to achieve a higher implementation rate of the TFA by both LLDCs and transit countries, 
which can result in a meaningful decrease in trade costs that we face."  
9.4.  In order to work towards advancing these objectives, I encourage delegat ions to already start 
to think about the session next Spring and to give some thought to the shape and content of the 
session. As the Committee agreed previously in the meeting, the LLDC Group will report on the 
results of their follow -up study of trade co rridors operating between LLDCs and transit countries.  
9.5.  I would like to assure delegations that I am available for discussions as you prepare the 
programme. Do not hesitate to reach out to me if I can be of assistance.   
9.6.  The delegate of Canada indicated th e following:  
9.7.  I am looking forward to the session next Spring on transit as the first one was very eye -opening 
to me in terms of some of the challenges that the LLDCs face, so I would encourage those who have 
some more information and experiences to share i t with us. I think it would be a great thing to start 
planning for it now and ensure that we have a robust session in the Spring.  
9.8.  The Chair  confirmed that the 2023 meetings of the Committee would take place on 
21-22 March; 15 -16 June; and 3 -5 October. The  Dedicated Session on Technical Assistance and 
Capacity Building Support will take place on 5 October.  
9.9.  The Committee agreed  to invite the Annex D organizations, as well as the Global Alliance on 
Trade Facilitation  to the next meeting.  
9.10.   The Chair thanked th e Committee for their participation and the interpreters for their hard 
work.  
9.11.   The meeting was adjourned .  
10  DEDICATED SESSION ON ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING  
Address by WTO Director -General, Dr Ngozi Okonjo -Iweala   
10.1.   I think Trade Facilitation is probably  one of the most successful objectives that this 
organization is helping the world to deliver, and so it is good to congratulate all of you on this work.  
We must continue to push to achieve implementation of the TFA, something that we are doing 
successful ly. I understand you had a productive regular meeting earlier this week ahead of this 
session on technical assistance and capacity building support.  
10.2.   The Trade Facilitation Committee provides a valuable feedback mechanism for the 
implementation of the TFA. It allows for experience sharing – what has worked for implementation, 
what can be done better, and how and where resources can be mobilized.  
10.3.   Trade facilitation work at the WTO has always been a ground -up, Member -led effort to deliver 
results. That approac h was vital to steering the negotiations to a successful conclusion, and it G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  continues to drive this Committee today as we work to ensure that all Members can reap the benefits 
of the TFA.   
10.4.   Trade facilitation is a global public good as it helps to improve trade efficiency. Reducing fixed 
costs is particularly important for the small businesses that account for the lion's share of businesses 
and jobs globally, because they have thin margins and fewer resources than their larger competitors 
to devote to meeting border requirements.    
10.5.   We know how the COVID -19 pandemic has hindered growth and disrupted trade and supply 
chains. But we also know that trade facilitation enabled complex supply chains to connect, and bring 
together from many different countri es the specialized inputs and capital goods needed for large -
scale vaccine production.  
10.6.   We saw that the pandemic accelerated Members' efforts to implement the TFA in numerous 
areas, including transparency, simplification, automation, and border cooperation.  Amid the current 
slowdown in global economic activity and trade, smooth and efficient import, export and transit 
procedures are key to keep supply chains working so that delays and costs do not become an 
unnecessary weight on economic recovery. Implementi ng the WTO TFA is an important tool in our 
kit to rebuild damaged economies and boost resilience in the face of future emergencies.  
10.7.   I always say that the future of trade is digital, and the TFA is a powerful instrument to help 
seize the opportunities of di gital trade. It promotes closer consultation among supply chain 
participants and greater border agency cooperation. And it supports the use of risk management, 
post-clearance audit and authorized operator programmes, which can help border agencies strike 
an optimal balance between facilitating trade and ensuring security.  
10.8.   E-commerce has provided access to global trade for millions of small businesses, including 
businesses owned by women. And I've met several of these groups now as I've travelled around 
various countries. Trade facilitation can help expand these benefits. For example, micro, small and 
medium enterprises can be better integrated into global trade through pre -arrival processing, 
expedited shipments, and e -commerce.  
10.9.   We must also pay greater attention to how new technologies are creating new possibilities for 
trade facilitation. Border agencies in many parts of the world are already experimenting with 
blockchain, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and more. In time, with t he necessary support 
and enabling environment, these developments can help border agencies cope better with expanding 
responsibilities and bring about improvements in various trade facilitation areas, for example single 
window interconnectivity and risk ma nagement. We should make time to explore how the trade 
facilitation toolkit is expanding.  
10.10.   Five years into implementation of the Agreement, the global implementation rate for TFA 
commitments stands at 74%. This is positive. However, a breakdown of that figu re shows that the 
rate for developing members and LDCs is about 66% and LDCs lag behind significantly at 37%. 
So this is quite a lag. Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) also have a lower rate of 
implementing commitments, at 54%.  
10.11.   According to current n otifications, we are on track to meet approximately 90% of 
implementation commitments by 2030.   
10.12.   But the large gaps separating LDCs and LLDCs from that number make it clear that much 
important work remains to be done to provide support to these groups in pa rticular, if they are to 
achieve the benefits of full implementation of the Agreement. Failing to come through will hurt the 
competitiveness of commercial operators in LDCs - something we should seek to avoid at all costs.  
10.13.   LDCs are most disadvantaged by gl obal shocks resulting from the pandemic and the war in 
Ukraine, and they vitally need access to increased investments in tools that improve the flow of 
trade across borders. These investments should reach beyond aid for trade to investments the 
support sup ply side capacity enhancements.   
10.14.   I want to recognize the important contributions of development partners, many of you here 
in the room, which have been providing valued and significant financial and technical support, as G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  well as capacity -building since the  entry into force of the agreement. But I also want to urge you to 
step up your efforts so we can achieve full implementation. We also need to better understand the 
opportunities for developing countries and LDCs, how they can benefit from the technologica l 
changes I mentioned earlier – and above all how they can digitize trade and trade transactions.  
10.15.   This meeting to review progress on technical assistance provision and capacity building 
support is an important space for Members and development partners to engage in open and frank 
discussions on how to operationalize Section 2 of the TFA and meet Members' on -going needs for 
implementation support. Discussions and subsequent action must be led by the clear identification 
of existing technical assistance needs  matched by willingness on the part of Members and 
development partners to bridge these gaps.  
10.16.   Let me just make suggestions for areas you might want to build on regarding the 
Committee's accomplishments.  
10.17.   Firstly, I support the focus on reviewing technical a ssistance progress for Members that have 
category C provisions coming up in the next two years. This is necessary to avoid the loss of 
momentum and slippage in implementation dates. With Members now well into implementation, the 
need for support to build c apacity, improve connectivity and strengthen trade -related infrastructure 
is becoming more urgent.  
10.18.   I encourage donors and development partners to show maximum flexibility in their efforts 
to provide targetted maximum support for the needs of Members.  
10.19.   Secon dly, in addition to the specific focus on LDC needs, we also need to address the lagging 
rate of implementation of LLDCs. Last year the Secretariat produced a mapping exercise of the 
bottlenecks experienced by LLDCs and I believe that LLDCs are now carryin g out a follow -up study 
on transit corridors. Donors and development partners have an important role to play in providing 
all necessary implementation support to this group.  
10.20.   A number of regional communities have spoken about regional trade facilitation str ategies 
and regional trade facilitation committees. This approach is welcome, since working together can 
support mutual implementation and enhance the impacts both for regional trade and trade with the 
rest of the world. Again, I encourage donors and devel opment partners to work with regional 
communities to leverage available technical and financial assistance.  
10.21.   Experience -sharing in dedicated sessions like this since 2018 has become a valuable 
repository of information that could be better utilized by Membe rs. The Committee could consider 
compiling the information shared regarding how TACB and financial assistance has been secured, 
and how challenges have been successfully overcome.  
10.22.   In conclusion, let me say that our work on TFA implementation has yielded ma ny dividends, 
but that it is far from done. This annual dedicated session remains an important opportunity for 
those needing aid to connect and build relationships with donors and partners. Working together 
effectively requires effective communication both  in capital and in Geneva. Donor Members and 
development partners must work alongside developing Members and particularly least -developed 
and the LLDCs. I urge you to take this work forward, since it is an important part of our wider efforts 
to bring peopl e and countries from the margins to the mainstream of the global economy. So thank 
you very much, I'm very proud of what you are doing and I wish you the best of luck.  
10.23.   The Chair indicated the following:  
10.24.   Thank you Director -General for your excellent opening  remarks. It is absolutely clear that 
Members have acknowledged the importance of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. Prior to 2013 most 
of the developing Memers and LDCs had some kind of concerns as to whether they would be able to 
comply with their TFA obl igations but, luckily enough, in 2013 the TFA was concluded with the 
agreement that the donors and the development partners will continue to assist the developing 
Members and LDCs to acquire the capacity to be able to comply with their obligations. Over th e last 
two days we have seen a great level of compliance by some Members making their notifications and 
we urge all other Members to do likewise. We have heard presentations by Members on their National 
Trade Facilitation Committees. We also heard presenta tions by Regional Trade Facilitation G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  Committees. They were well -appreciated and we urge Members to also replicate what other regions 
have been doing. The importance of trade facilitation can never be over -emphasized as we have 
seen tremendous reductions in  time release at our ports and many other places. Therefore, we urge 
Members to identify their techinical assistance needs so that the donors will be able to help address 
them and eventually we will have 100% implementation of the TFA.  
Introduction  
10.25.   The ag enda for the dedicated session was also contained in WTO/AIR/TFA/24/Rev.1  and 
WTO/AIR/TFA/24/Rev.1/Corr.1 . 
10.26.   The Chair indicated the following:  
10.27.   Members will recall that the topics for discussion in the dedi cated session are outlined in 
Article 21.4 of the TFA. They are as follows: (i) discuss implementation problems; (ii) review 
progress in the provision of assistance and capacity building support; and (iii) share experiences and 
information on ongoing assis tance and support, including challenges and successes. The Committee 
is also to review donor notifications submitted under Article 22 and review the operation of 
paragraph  2 which references that targeted assistance and support should be provided to the le ast-
developed country Members, given their special needs, so as to help them build sustainable capacity 
to implement their commitments.  
10.28.   You will have seen that today's agenda has a different look to previous years which is a 
result of the TFA review last y ear. There was agreement in the Committee to revisit the agenda for 
the Dedicated Session and identify a number of specific items that would be addressed each year. 
This aim, I believe, was to help the Committee to keep focus and momentum on both short -term 
priorities and a number of important areas.  
10.29.   As you see, we start the session by focusing on the next two years and the top category C 
provisions that are due for implementation during this period.  
10.30.   We will then expand the discussion to cover the wider, ongoing assistance and support for 
implementation of the TFA. And building on that, we will round off the discussion by looking at the 
avenues for further collaboration and cooperation, including from a regional perspective.  
10.31.   The Secretariat circulated a consolidated version of today's agenda earlier this morning.  
Members have been engaging on the development of the program right up to the last days which is 
why we are circulating it this morning. I wo uld like to thank those Members that have indicated their 
areas of intervention. I would also like to thank in advance all of you delegations who I know will 
also engage throughout the session.  
10.32.   As the DG has said, the more extensive the conversations and t he information shared today, 
the greater is the opportunity for Members seeking assistance, donors and development partners to 
strengthen their collaboration.  
10.1  Review of progress in the provision of assistance and support for capacity building 
to support im plementation including the top five provisions in category C, identified by 
notified definitive dates, to be implemented in the two -year period 2023 to 2024  
10.1.1   Status of top five provisions in category C  
10.1.   The Secretariat made a short introduction by the Secretariat outlining the current status of 
the top five provisions in category C.  
10.2.   The delegate of the European Union indicated the following:  
10.3.   The database shows 54 countries with category C commitments due  in 2023 and 2024, but 
then only 23 reporting progress on assistance, which seems a bit of a gap.  
10.4.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.5.   I would acknowledge what the Chair explained about category C deadlines due within the next 
two y ears. And part of the thinking and approach to Article 17 and the extensions is precisely that 
we would like to have the notifications of technical assistance and progress being made as soon as 
possible and let us see what we can do within those timeframes  within Article 17.2. Obviously, there 
are further opportunities for extensions beyond that, but I think it is important to try to come 
together and do our work as soon as possible.  
10.1.2   Experience -sharing by Members with top five Category C implementation dat es 
within the 2023 to 2024 period on their technical assistance arrangements and progress  
10.6.   The Ambassador of Botswana  indicated the following, on behalf of the Landlocked Developing 
Countries (LLDC) Group:  
10.7.   Chair, we thank you for convening this  first dedica ted session as agreed during the 2021 
Review of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. The need for accelerated implementation of the WTO 
Trade Facilitation Agreement cannot be over -emphasized. We witnessed during the current 
COVID -19 pandemic both logistics an d supply chain disruptions and a rise in additional border 
controls and documentation requirements. These challenges further exacerbated high costs for 
LLDCs. According to WTO estimates for 2017, trade costs faced by LLDCs on manufactures were on 
average t he equivalent of a 540% tariff and are about 1.4 times higher than the trade costs for 
coastal developing countries.  
10.8.   High costs reduce competitiveness, diminish export profits, inflate the prices of imported 
inputs for manufacturing and the costs of impor ted capital goods, therefore discouraging investment 
and undermining the efforts of LLDCs to fully gain benefits from global trade. This situation translates 
to low levels of development and undiversified economies. Addressing LLDCs ' high trade costs is 
fundamental for their integration into global trade and achieving sustainable development.  
10.9.   LLDCs are making important advances on trade facilitation implementation and most of the 
improvements made have been in Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) measures bu t more remains 
to be done to achieve the full implementation of the TFA. Currently, LLDCs have notified about 
34.7% of TFA measures under category A, about 18% under category B, and 6.2% under category  C.   
10.10.   The compliance rate of about 54.2 % is relatively  low and this signifies the need for enhanced 
technical and capacity building towards the LLDCs and we thank the Director -General for taking note 
of this in her statement earlier. Since LLDCs fully rely on their neighbouring transit countries to 
access sea ports, the implementation of the TFA by transit countries is also key.  
10.11.   Achieving efficient transit is of great importance to LLDCs and therefore, LLDCs attaches 
great importance to the relevant articles aimed at facilitating transit including Article 11 o f the TFA. 
The adoption of the decision to convene an annual dedicated session on transit by this Committee 
and subsequently by the Ministerial Conference are a welcome development and very significant to 
LLDCs.  
10.12.   These dedicated sessions will highlight the importance of transit, discuss best practices, as 
well as the constraints and challenges faced by all landlocked countries. As we plan ahead, the 
sessions can borrow from the experience -sharing sessions of the Committee on Market Access, so 
that capital ba sed officials (especially from border regulatory agencies) can voluntarily share specific 
challenges of LLDCs, including key issues and elements of studies such as Time Release Studies.   
10.13.   Building the capacity of both landlocked countries and transit count ries to achieve efficient 
transit should form an important part of the outcome of the dedicated session.  
10.14.   We thank TFAF for considering in the 2023 workplan the LLDC Group's request for a capacity 
building workshop focusing on transit. The full participati on of all key stakeholders including the 
transit countries, development partners and the relevant organizations is fundamental, especially in 
finding lasting solutions to achieving efficient transit.   
10.15.   In closing my remarks, let me recall the WTO Secretari at report titled "Easing Trade 
Bottlenecks in Landlocked Developing Countries" published in 2021. The report makes important 
recommendation towards addressing the high trade costs faced by LLDCs amongst others. The report G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  emphasized that implementation of the TFA is critical to guarantee transparent and predictable 
trade, and will play a major role in supporting recovery and resilience in LLDC economies.  
10.16.   It also stated that LLDCs need support to tackle the challenges of a lack of human and 
financial resour ces, such as insufficient capacity or shortages of skilled and professional staff, to 
promote better understanding of the TFA and to increase its implementation.   
10.17.   The report also recognizes the importance of ICT in facilitating trade. Whilst the use of IC T 
is growing, and it is becoming indispensable, LLDCs are facing challenges with only 34% of the 
LLDCs ' population having access to the internet in 2021. The limited access is mainly due to relatively 
high costs and, in some cases, lack of awareness and di gital skills. It is therefore important that 
support towards enhancing the use of ICT to support trade facilitation is also prioritized.  
10.18.   The LLDC Group also notes the importance of having available the average trade cost of 
LLDCs in the discussions to be held in the transit session. The LLDC Group would like to ask the 
Secretariat for support in availing of this information.  
10.19.   The delegate of Ecuador  indicated the following:  
10.20.   Following the invitation to share our experience on the implementation of category C 
measures with deadlines in 2023 and 2024, my delegation would like to refer to Articles 7.7 and 
10.4 of the Agreement. UNCTAD's assistance since 2021, financed by the Government of Germany, 
has allowed us to strenghten relations among members of our Nati onal Trade Facilitation Committee 
through trade facilitation e -learning courses and the Reform Tracker platform. This tool has helped 
determine the tasks assigned to each domestic agency, monitor commitments, and identify the 
number of domestic agencies an d civil servants asigned to the implementation of TFA measures.  
10.21.   In 2021 and in 2022, Ecuador had more than 25 technical -level meetings with members of 
the NTFC. These meetings allowed us to compile information on the implementation of the TFA in 
our count ry, and such data shows an 80% rate of implementation. The Reform Tracker has also 
allowed us to understand in greater detail the cooperation needs that we have for various provisions. 
Amongst them is the list of category  C commitments which must be implem ented by 
31 December  2024. As an example, Article 7.7 on authorized economic operators required the 
completion of eight tasks from customs, given its responsibility to manage the AEO programme. We 
determined that international cooperation was necessary to complete these tasks, and strengthen 
this p rogramme in Ecuador.  
10.22.   Furthermore, in monitoring Article 10.4 on single window, we assigned tasks in the Reform 
Tracker to more than ten domestic agencies responsible for uploading the relevant documents in the 
system. This has allowed the technical secret ariat of the NTFC to identify the budgetary needs of 
each institution. Ecuador sees the transparency with which information is published as a fundamental 
element of the Reform Tracker. It allows institutions to know across the board what is under the 
purview of each agency for the implementation of the TFA. With the support of UNCTAD, Ecuador 
has moved into a second phase of implementing the Reform Tracker, with assistance that will allow 
us to sterngthen the capacity of NTFC members. This new phase is bein g financed by the United 
Kingdom.  
10.23.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
10.24.   The United States would like to thank Ambassador Molokomme for your comments on LLDCs, 
with which we agree. We support your efforts to accelerate the implementat ion of TFA and we remain 
available to collaborate with you on that.  
10.25.   The delegate of Côte d'Ivoire  indicated the following:  
10.26.   My delegation would like to welcome this dedicated session on technical assistance. 
We would like to also thank both the WTO and our technical partners for their support in the national 
implementation of the TFA, and notably those who have worked with Côte  d'Ivoire on its 
implementation of the Agreement. Thanks to the various technical assis tance programmes, we have 
been able to progress with the implementation of the TFA since 2017, particularly in relation to the G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  provisions on publication, advance rulings, single window, customs cooperation, and border agency 
cooperation including with impo rt and export authorities.  
10.27.   Côte d'Ivoire has 15 provisions in category A, three in category B, and 18 in category C. 
This categorization clearly shows Côte d'Ivoire's need for technical assistance and capacity building. 
We have had help from the European D evelopment Bank, USAID, German Cooperation Authorities 
(GIZ), as well as the German Cooperation Foundation to implement Article 1.1 on publication which 
has led to the creation of a web portal. We are very grateful for this assistance which has helped us 
implement these measures. We have also had GIZ's help for the implementation of advance rulings 
and the implementation of the annex on trade facilitation of the African Continental Free Trade 
Agreement (AfCTFA).  
10.28.   However, our needs have yet to be fully fulfi lled and I am looking particularly at what can 
be done to ensure outreach among medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs), cooperatives, 
women, anyone working in a cross -border setting which operate sometimes in the informal economy. 
In this regard, I wo uld like to seize what is an excellent opportunity to launch a call to all donors 
and partners to maintain its support to Côte  d'Ivoire in these efforts to implement the TFA.  
10.29.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.30.   The Europan Union we lcomes the statements made by the four previous speakers. The EU 
continues to insist that reports on gaps in assistance are crucial because without such information it 
is impossible to know at the donors ' level what remains to be done.  
10.31.   We noted that among  the countries that have the top five measures listed for implementation 
by next year or 2024, only two of them have reported to the Committee progress in assistance to 
implement those commitments. It is only with such information in hand, in particular in formation on 
gaps, that donors can target efforts to close those gaps. For example, Eswatini has notified that it 
has received aid from SACU and the UK to implement authorized economic operators (AEO) 
programme but that further assistance is needed. Regard ing its commitments on border agency 
cooperation, it has reported that it gets assistance from the World Bank but that more is still needed. 
This sort of information is very precise and should help donors to coordinate their efforts. The same 
is true with Lao PDR's notification of progress in assistance received for the category C commitments 
identified under this agenda item. We note that for Article 7.6  on time release, Article 7.4 on risk 
management, Article 7.7 on AEO and Article 8 on border cooperation , Lao PDR has received support 
from the World Bank but would need more. The EU seizes this opportunity to recall that Lao PDR 
may check with our EU delegation to see if under the programme ARISE PLUS assistance could be 
granted to help close the gaps ident ified and notified.  
10.32.   The Chair  indicated the following  
10.33.   Thank you EU for raising this issue. It is important that developing Members and LDCs 
comply with their notification obligations because it is through the notifications that their technical 
assistance needs will be clearly noted which will help donors to i dentify them and give them that 
assistance. It was on that basis that I previously urged Members to continue to make their 
notifications, clearly stating also their technical assistance needs.   
10.34.   The Ambassador of Botswana  indicated the following:  
10.35.   I would like to acknowledge both in my national capacity and on behalf of all LLDCs all the 
support that we receive from countries both by way of funding and technical assistance. In the case 
of the United States, just to also acknowledge the constuctive inputs th at we have received from 
them and from other delegations, in particular, with regard to our revised proposal to undertake a 
study on mapping transit corridors. We appreciate very much the assistance received from countries 
and institutions, and we look for ward to further assistance and cooperation.  
10.36.   The delegate of Nepal, on behalf of the LDC Group,  indicated the following on behalf of the 
LDC Group:  
10.37.   This is an important opportunity where all Members and international organizations can 
review the current o bstacles and build a common understanding on how we can contribute to G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  implementation of the TFA in a timely manner. How we can implement the Agreement and expedite 
the implementation of category C measures, especially in LDCs, is not only the responsibilit y of LDCs 
themselves but it is a joint responsibility of a particular Member with donor country Members and 
this dedicated session will support us to that end.  
10.38.   As has been pointed out, LDCs are lagging far behind in implementation of TFA. However, 
this is  not because of LDCs ignorance but because of their capacity constraints. The LDCs are fully 
committed to a swift implementation of the TFA and are making maximum efforts to achieve this. 
Most of the LDCs have notified category B and C definitive dates, an d a few are finalizing the 
definitive implementation dates of category C measures. Every LDC has been facing different 
problems in relation to the provisions and corresponding implementation period. For example, one 
provision may be a top challenge for one  LDC and another provision may be a top challenge for 
another LDC. And they face different problems. Technical assistance provided by various donor 
Members and international organizations contributed to familarizing, categorization and notification. 
As a r esult, most of the LDCs have now completed their notification obligations.  
10.39.   The LDCs have been fully engaged with TFA implementation and as a result some of us have 
been able to shift provisions from category from C to B. For example, my country, Nepal, shi fted 11 
provisions from category C to B last year, and other Members are also shifting in that direction. That 
is a good indication of how LDCs are engaged and committed to implementation of the Agreement. 
A few LDCs, however, facing unique challenges may have shifted a few provisions from category 
from B to C but mostly they are trying to shift from C to B.  
10.40.   Effective implementation of the category C measures has a strong connection with significant 
additional support from our development partners in terms  of ressources, technological, institutional 
and human capacity building, as indicated in Articles 21.2 and 21.3, without compromising existing 
development priorities. LDCs experienced challenges even in preparing their notifications and they 
will definiti vely face more challenges while implementing their category C provisions. Therefore, we 
expect a reasonable support from development partners in this regard.  
10.41.   Capacity constraints, technological constraints and limited awareness, among others, are 
hinderin g implementation of the TFA in most LDCs. Additionally, landlocked developing country 
Members have additional difficulties within their territories to develop and maintain suffficient 
international trading. Trade facilitation for LDC members requires bridg ing a huge digital gap in 
connecting domestic businesss to ICT and e -commerce and then link to cross -border trade because 
if we focus on ICT and e -commerce only at border customs points we cannot link our business people 
to the border. That may not facilit ate trade as a whole within a country and it may not facilitate 
exports but only imports to some extent.  
10.42.   LDCs have also notified their technical assistance requirements which can be a good basis 
to proceed. Furthermore, the periodic reiew of the TFA has fi gured out measures and challenges 
faced and some way out in the dedicated section on LDCs in the review. This can be taken into 
account while mobilizing resources for implementation of category C measures.  
10.43.   We appreciate the work of the Trade Facilitation A greement Facility and Annex D 
organizations which provide support to us and collaborate with the WTO on several activities for 
LDCs. Finally, the LDCs extend sincere appreciation to all donor country Members for their continued 
support and cooperation in i mplementation of the TFA.  
10.44.   The representative of OECS in Geneva , on behalf of the CARICOM Group , indicated the 
following:  
10.45.   I make the statement on behalf of the CARICOM group and we certainly welcome this 
dedicated session on technical assistance and capac ity building. The utility of this session lies in its 
ability to help Members and Annex D partners to learn from each other and to enhance the delivery 
of TACB to developing and least developed countries.  
10.46.   The Trade Facilitation Agreement represents a majo r innovation in terms of how technical 
assistance and capacity building can be made more appropriate and effective for developing 
countries and LDCs. TFAF is a key plank of this innovation and it has been beneficial for our Members G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  and we certainly look fo rward to the support of the Facility in advancing our priorities over the next 
year.   
10.47.   For context, just to indicate that of the CARICOM  countries that have to date ratified the 
TFA, there are 39 category C dates for definitive implementation between 31 De cember this year 
and 31 December next year. Five extentions have been requested and our members are also at 
varying stages of discussions with development partners.  
10.48.   As for Article 21.3(b) of the TFA, which speaks to regional and sub -regional activities an d 
integration, CARICOM trade ministers agreed to adopt a coordinated regional approach to 
implementation of the Agreement including the mobilization of technical and financial assistance to 
support implementation of the TFA as far back as 2015.  
10.49.   Our trade m inisters followed up on this in 2017 by approving the CARICOM Strategy for 
Regional Implementation of the TFA as the main tool for mobilizing technical and financial support 
for implementation of the 18 priority measures which Member States commonly identi fied as 
requiring external technical assistance.  
10.50.   Since 2016, at the national, regional and sub -regional levels CARICOM has benefited from 
support by several donors namely through the TFAF, UNCTAD, the ITC, the World Bank Group, 
Commonwealth Secretariat, Is lamic Development Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, WTO 
Secretariat and the European Union.  
10.51.   In 2019, the CARICOM Regional Committee on Trade Facilitation (RCFT) was inaugurated to 
provide the institutional framework to oversee and guide regional coord ination efforts. The RCTF 
supports regional coordination by ensuring coherence and consistency between national and regional 
trade facilitation priorities; it facilitates public -private sector dialogue and it provides a regional 
platform for sharing of nat ional experiences and best practices.  
10.52.   In the aftermath of the COVID -19 pandemic, several CARICOM countries have taken action 
to expedite implementation of certain trade facilitation measures, in particular enhanced use of 
ASYCUDA for paperless transaction s; automation and increased use of e -payment facilities, and 
electronic issuance of import and export licences. However, sustained roll -out of trade facilitation 
reforms requires substantial capital layout and investments in institutional and legislative r eforms. 
In this connection, in November 2020, CARICOM Trade Ministers, inter alia , agreed that the region 
should make a strong coordinated push to mobilize donor resources to support implementation of 
CARICOM priority category C measures.  
10.53.   It is important to note that regional coordination has impacted positively national 
implementation efforts of individual CARICOM countries. To date, 11 of the 13 CARICOM WTO 
Members have ratified the TFA and are implementing the Agreement in keeping with their n otified 
implementation schedules. The CARICOM Secretariat actively monitors Member States' 
implementation and transparency obligations and sends timely alerts regarding upcoming deadlines. 
Regional coordination is spurring national implementation momentum and is mainstreaming regional 
trade facilitation best practices through the sharing of implementation experience and expertise in 
the RCTF. Notably, some Member States have accelerated implementation of priority TF measures 
and have completed implementatio n ahead of their notified implementation dates.  
10.54.   Notwithstanding this generally positive picture, there are lessons that we want to share in 
terms of how perhaps we can maybe improve on what we are already doing and my friend from the 
EU did speak to the im portance of these kind of sharing of experiences. The first lesson I want to 
share is that there still remains a paucity of grant resources to support TFA implementation, and 
from our experience donor Members have at times reserved the discretion to block the disbursement 
of grant resources.  
10.55.   With respect to TFAF grant funds of USD 30,000 for project preparation grants and up to 
USD 200,000 for other types of grants, for regional projects we found that perhaps there is a need 
for a more significant commitme nt of funds. In a national context this is more than adequate but in 
a regional context covering multiple capitals additional resources are usually needed.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.56.   Furthermore, geographical and other eligibility criteria, such as per capita income criteria, 
applied by some donor members limit access to TACB resources and can impact negatively on 
regional coordination and mobilization efforts.   
10.57.   It is also important to note that technical assistance and capacity building  needs are not 
static. TFA implementation support needs change over time. For examply the needs that CARICOM 
Members notified in 2019 are not static. The global pandemic has provided ample evidence of how 
priorities and needs change in response to the chan ged global landscape. Moreover, as small 
vulnerable island and continental economies, one significant weather event can significantly alter 
physical and institutional infrastructures, and by extension the nature and extent of capacity building 
support that  is required.    
10.58.   Finally, technical assistance and capacity building  support is not a one -off event. Full and 
effective implementation of the TFA will require follow -up assistance to ensure sustainability.  
10.59.   We commit to continue our constructive engagement  in the CTF. We also look forward to 
deeper engagement with donors in the year ahead to further expedite trade facilitation reforms in 
CARICOM. And it would be remis of me to close without thanking the Secretariat team as well, both 
those that work directl y on Trade Facilitation Committee matters as well as the TFAF team, for 
always being very responsive to our requests for any kind of support. We are certainly grateful for 
that and we look forward to the collaboration in the year ahead.  
10.1.3   Experience -sharing  by international and regional organizations supporting the 
implementation of the top five category C provisions  
10.60.   The representative of the International Trade Centre  indicated the following:  
10.61.   It is a pleasure for the ITC to be present and share its experi ence in this dedicated session 
on category C measures today. I am sure that Members are familiar with ITC. ITC is the joint agency 
of the UN and the WTO established with a mandate to connect small businesses in the developing 
and least developed countries to international markets through a more competitive and transparent 
business environment.  
10.62.   ITC has been supporting a wide number of beneficiaries, Governments, trade support 
institutions, NTFCs and MSMEs all around the world through the implementation of tr ade-related 
technical assistance projects. Allow me to thank first our donors, the European Union, including 
Germany and the UK for their support and commitment to trade facilitation. We are present virtually 
in every continent and more than 80 countries h ave been assisted so far to enhance their business 
environment including through trade facilitation reforms. In particular, we have supported a number 
of countries to meet their notification and category C commitments within the WTO as per TFA 
requirements  and as you can see ITC has an established track record of technical assistance in the 
field of trade facilitation.  
10.63.   In the past few years we have supported many countries to meet their TFA obligations and 
we have a strong expertise in delivering technical assistance in the large majority of TFA articles. 
Indeed we are proud to have supported more than 20 countries to implement more that 50 trade 
facilitation reforms in compliance and beyond with their TFA obligations including many Members 
that are here tod ay and have taken the floor.  
10.64.   As the focus of today's meeting is experience sharing and capacity building and technical 
assistance on category C measures, including the top five category C measures that are due for 
implementation in 2023 and 2024, allow me to share a few words on ITC technical assistance in this 
field. 
10.65.   In the past years, ITC has been very active in supporting on the ground the implementation 
of the top five category C measures. For instance, we have supported a number of countries in 
Africa,  Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia to establish, review or upgrade the risk management 
system. Similarly, we have supported countries to conduct time release studies to measure their 
efficiency in the clearance processes for different operations and  for different modes of transport. 
Similarly, we have  supported countries to establish the initial and operational framework or upgrade 
their programme for authorized operators.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.66.   We have been quite active in supporting the implementation of Article 8 of t he TFA on border 
agency cooperation where we have supported countries to align internally at the domestic level, 
practices among national border agencies but also enabling countries to strengthen their border 
cooperation. We have notably supported countrie s to establish a joint border committee in the 
COMESA region and we have also supported the countries to strengthen the border cooperation in 
West Africa. To conclude, we have also supported countries to kick start their initial dialogue and 
consensus -building on the single window project and on strategic issues around it. As you can see, 
we have already been actively supporting many countries that are due to implement these five 
measures in the next two years  
10.67.   In delivering technical assistance, ITC tailors  its services to adapt to the country's specific 
needs and frameworks, and we cover the full spectrum of support from initial capacity building and 
awareness raising, to actual legal drafting and operational implementation to design an 
implementation of di gital tools and IT systems. We, therefore, always strive to modulate our 
technical assistance based on the country's progress on the implementation of a specific trade 
facilitation mesure and we support the process from there. For instance, in Guinea we ar e building 
the initial capacity and framework to set in place the risk management system. In Sri Lanka, we 
have supported the initial national dialogue and consensus -building on the single window project 
and key strategic options around its implementation.  In the Philippines, as they already had an AEO 
programme in place we have been supporting the country to review the programme and upgrade it 
in line with international best practices.  
10.68.   While we support WTO Members to meet their core TFA commitments, we al so strive to drive 
ambitious reforms beyond the core or minimum TFA requirements. In many countries, we are 
ambiously driving implementation of Article 7.4 of the TFA by building the required legal, operational, 
strategic, IT and capacity building framewor k to integrate Customs and other border agencies' 
operations to make cross border trade procedures more efficient for businesses. We are also 
leveraging digital solutions to source realtime data and provide access to a wealth of information on 
national tra de and logistics performance to rapidely identify bottlenecks in the overall supply and 
find appropriate solutions.  
10.69.   To support our beneficiary countries to successfully meet their category C provisions, ITC 
has envisaged a dedicated line of support to emp ower countries to request financial and technical 
assistance for the implementation of these provisions. In particular, we have supported a number 
of NTFCs through dedicated training and capacity building sessions to develop project proposals to 
request su pport from the international community to implement some of their category  C 
commitments. We will be pleased to support many more countries to meet their category C 
commitments through this programme and we encourage Members to contact us for any support 
they require in this regard.  
10.70.   Let me conclude with a few word on the principles that underpin our approach to technical 
assistance. We always strive to ensure that the technical assistance is fully aligned to the needs and 
priorities of the countries, espec ially of the business community to ensure that their perspective is 
factored into the technical assistance and reform implementation. We always champion a whole -of-
government approach, we build strong partnership between public actors and between public an d 
privat e sector actors to ensure that reforms are widely supported and sustainable. To ensure 
long-term sustainability we also focus on, and champion, local ownership by training local experts 
and empowering them to deliver trade facilitation related ser vices in their own countries. As seen 
previously, we also leverage innovative digital technology and solutions to support an efficient 
implementation of trade faciliation measures, through trade facilitation portals, trade dashboards 
and tools to automate cross-border trade procedures.  
10.71.   Let me stress again that we amplify the voice of private sector in policy -making and reform 
implementation and we make sure that their perspective is fully taken into account in the design, 
implementation and monitoring of t rade facilitation reforms. And last but not least, we foster regional 
and inter -regional partnerships including peer -learning programmes to foster experience sharing 
and connectivity. Thank you very much for your attention and do not hesitate to contact us  for any 
questions or any request you might have on our technical assistance. We look forward to future 
opportunities of collaboration.  
10.72.   The representative of UNCTAD  indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.73.   Like ITC has just presented, UNCTAD also provides multifaceted sup port in the area of trade 
facilitation, on general trade facilitation issues. We very much focus on supporting countries through 
their National Trade Facilitation Committees and then we provide more targetted trade facilitation 
support, such as automation and digitalization in particular, through the ASYCUDA system, through 
trade portals and through the reform tracker.  
10.74.   The reform tracker was already mentioned this morning by the delegate from Ecuador and 
the usefulness of the reform tracker that UNCTAD is rolling out. This reform tracker can help 
countries collaborate and monitor their implementation of trade facilitation obligations at national 
level. Right now, with the financial support of the UK, we have rolled out this reform tracker in 
22 countries. T his helps with the TFA implementation, namely monitoring implementation status. 
You can monitor early implementation or early successes and completion but you can also clearly 
identify delays that are expected and therefore, it assists countries in being t ransparent and also 
notifying their status. We have seen recently that countries that have used the tool have been able 
to notify where they have had delays and then notify the Committee accordingly of their new 
implementation schedule.  
10.75.   Clearly the objecti ve is for countries to use the reform tracker to implement according to the 
schedule they have already submitted but the reform tracker gives this possibility and I think this is 
an important element in the transparency vis -à-vis other Member States.  
10.76.   Turning to the top five obligations that are the subject for this specific agenda item, I am 
very pleased to report that UNCTAD provides assistance under all of these areas and to a large 
extent through the ASYCUDA programme and through trade digitalization tha t we implement 
together with the partners that we work with.  
10.77.   The ASYCUDA programme is to a large extent a knowledge transfer programme where 
UNCTAD through ASYCUDA provides the technical backbone for Customs and trade digitalization and 
then we train the partner countries in order to take over running these tools such as ASYCUDA single 
windows, trade information portals and others. Let me give you a few examples of how we have 
implemented this with regard to the five  acticles at hand.  
10.78.   First, regarding Art icle 7.4 on risk management, the ASYCUDA system contains a risk 
management module which is based on a dynamic approach for selectivity of risk management for 
declarations. I give here the example of Guinea where we have recently assisted Guinea in 
implemet ing a risk management module in ASYCUDA. Whereas before, Guinea had many (almost 
half) of the consignment and clearances that came in either physically examed and another half of 
the declarations had an additional document examination, we are now bringing this down to a 
considerably lower level. This is done through having selectivity included in risk management. 
We are now at a level of around 80% of the declarations that are going through the port of Conakry 
being fed into the selectivity system of ASYCUD A and thereby they are divided in either green lanes 
for immediate release, yellow lanes where there may be some document controls, or red lanes where 
there is further control of the goods. This increases the through -put of the port and it reduces the 
time that the goods are standing on the quay before they can be released. This is something that 
we are very pleased to report on.  
10.79.   Regarding average release times, we do not do time studies per se but in the ASYCUDA 
system we have included a module on performance management which extracts data from the 
declarations that are included in the system. This performance management data can be used by 
Customs and by the other stakeholders at national level in order to carry out their time release 
studies and t o target the roadblocks in the system and focus on where it is that we should make a 
specific effort to do further work in order to release the goods faster.  
10.80.   When we come to Article 7.7 on authorized operators, the ASYCUDA system also provides a 
facility f or this. In Belize we have worked with the authorities to implement an authorized or trusted 
trader programme that is then implemented and integrated in the ASYCUDA system. And what we 
have seen over the years since this has been implemented is that the de crease of Customs 
intervention between 2011 and 2019 is 46% and that means that for authorized operators they have 
considerably less need to have Customs intervention but can carry out their declarations and imports 
without these declarations which lead to  delays in the clearances.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.81.   Regarding Article 8 on border agency cooperation, it is clear that many of the tools that are 
included in ASYCUDA, and in particular single window, assist in border agency cooperation. But also 
the general support that we are pro viding for NTFCs and via that, support for the border posts and 
linking the border posts to the National Trade Facilitation Committees, provides considerable relief 
to the import and export of goods at national level. By having digitalized systems that con nect the 
various agencies the clearance of goods is reduced considerably, and by setting up the individual 
border post for integrated border management and linking these to the NTFCs in order to use best 
practices, this will also assist countries in reduci ng the time for clearance, and improve trade 
facilitation.  
10.82.   Lastly, let me mention Article 10.4 on single window. We have by now assisted around 
15 countries with implementing single window systems to a larger or smaller degree, all of these on 
the backbone  of the existing ASYCUDA system. So you can say that these single window systems 
are Customs centric systems. They use the same hardware and technology as the ASYCUDA system 
but of course include all the relevant national stakeholders in order to improve c learance procedures. 
The latest country we have assisted with this is Burundi where we have started with a focused 
approach on automated processing of medical imports between a number of agencies. In this 
context, according to the figures that we see, by n ow we are processing 71% of the requests coming 
in in less than 24 hours whereas before, these processing times were considerably higher, and we 
were counting days and not hours.  
10.83.   These are just a few examples of how UNCTAD is providing assistance to countr ies, 
specifically for these top five obligations that we are focusing on today. We will be very pleased and 
happy to work with other countries in a partnership in order to implement various of the obligations 
where we as UNCTAD have competency and can assi st countries in enhancing their knowledge and 
bringing them to a level where they can improve their clearance procedures and their trade 
facilitation environment.  
10.84.   The representative of the World Bank  indicated the following:  
10.85.   The World Bank Group is provi ding support around implementation of trade facilitation and 
particularly the TFA across a number of flagship programmes. The main flagship programme that 
the World Bank has in place is the Trade Facilitation Support Programme which is supported by nine 
donor partners, Australia ; Canada ; European Union ; Norway ; the Netherlands ; Sweden ; United 
Kingdom ; Switzerland and the United States.  
10.86.   In addition, we have a trade facilitation middle -income country programme which is 
supported by the United Kingdom and a Trade Facilitation West Africa Programme supported also by 
the United States, European Union, Denmark and GIZ and which is implemented in partnership with 
GIZ in -country.  
10.87.   The World Bank works very closely and collaborates on an ongoing basis with all of our 
international Annex D partners, UNCTAD, ITC, the World Customs Organization, and STDF. I will 
now focus on the five measures that ha ve been selected for the focus of today's meeting and provide 
some metrics around how many countries we are supporting but also some challenges and lessons 
we have seen since inception of the TFA and our technical assistance programmes.  
10.88.   Beginning with the Time Release Study (TMS), we currently have supported or are 
supporting 25 countries to design and implement a TRS using the WCO methodology. We focus very 
much on the importation, exportation and transit of goods. Currently, you will see most TRS are 
focusing mostly on imports and we found that it is really important to look at the complete focus of 
the flow of goods to get a real sense of the time and cost for import, export and transit.  
10.89.   The challenge we have seen is often a lack of a formal policy with a structure in place to 
measure public average release times periodically on an ongoing basis. Publishing of a TRS can also 
be a challenge when it takes some time. So what we have seen is that it is really important to ensure 
that the TRS is published in a ccordance with the TFA.  
10.90.   The World Bank is partnering with the World Customs Organization to revise the 
methodology and technology to ensure that TRS would take a whole -of-government approach. 
We expect to see that this methodology will begin to emerge some time during the next few months.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.91.   Turning to single window, we are supporting 18 countries on this provision. The single 
window work connects very nicely to our trade information portal initiatives where we have helped 
countries to implement trade informat ion portals in 15 countries which aligns with Recommendation 
38 from UNECE. The World Bank led with the UNECE and member countries the design, development 
and piloting of recommendations. Some of the countries that we are helping to support the single 
window include the Western Balkans where we are looking to design and also build the single window 
in a region where members and some non -members would be able to operate together in the import, 
export and transit of goods, and the flow of goods will become th e centre of such economies that 
will have a single window system.  
10.92.   Regarding challenges around the single window implementation, one challenge is that it is a 
long-term endeavour. It can take many years to prepare a single window implementation, it can 
take many years to implement a single window solution and it is not a stand -alone enterprise. It 
needs to be appropriate, customized for the existing context of the particular environment and have 
a whole -of-government approach to ensure all stakeholders, part icularly SPS and standards agencies 
are included. One of the challenges and lessons that we have seen around our single window 
implementation work is that preparation is the key, and it is necessary to take a long -term approach 
to ensure the automation and  digitalization is fit for purpose and also ensuring an adequate level of 
automation for back -office functions. Often Customs might have the ASYCUDA system and be 
automated, however, the other government agencies need to be brought up to the same level to 
ensure an integrated approach to digitalization of the trade processes and procedures.  
10.93.   Moving to authorized operators, the World Bank Group is supporting 19 countries to 
implement an Authorized Operator Programme and often the challenge is a lack of a risk  
management framework. Authorized operator is part of the risk contenium and needs to be 
integrated and not implemented in a linear, isolated manner. Communicating the benefits of reform 
to the private sector is particularly important and it is critical to  have the private sector committed 
and have access to specific benefits. As such, consistent efforts need to be made to have open 
dialogue between the public and private sector and often this is achieved most efficiently through 
the National Trade Facilita tion Committees. Sequencing of implementation is critical to move from 
an authorized operator or trusted trader programme to an authorized economic operator programme 
with a Mutual Recognition Agreement in place.  
10.94.   The COVID situation has heavily emphasized the benefits of authorized operator 
programmes being available to compliant traders and Mutual Recognition Agreements highlighting 
and allowing the flow of trade to continue in a time of crisis.  
10.95.   We are supporting 33 countries in the inception of a risk man agement framework. Risk 
management is not in place in many countries to the full effect and needs to be integrated across a 
number of measures under the Trade Facilitation Agreement. The sequencing and integration is 
critical. The risk management contentiu m is an important framework that allows pre -arrival, advance 
declaration, processing formalities, authorized operator programme and post -clearance audit to 
ensure compliant traders receive benefits and lower inspections and can access the authorized 
operat or programme as a compliant trader. It is important to develop a project implementation plan 
that will take into account specific issues and capacities of not only Customs but also the other 
border agencies, particularly SPS and standard agencies, also ope rating at the border and requiring 
inspections at the border, before the border, and in some cases post the border. Conducting joint 
inspections is key, and simultanous inspections by all border agencies and at border posts, 
particularly across borders, an d as we heard earlier from the LLDCs, this is a particularly important 
focus that needs to be built into those implementation plans.  
10.96.   Border agency cooperation connects nicely to the implementation of a risk based approach, 
both at the border and across the  border. We are currently supporting 17 countries to implement a 
border agency co -operation framework both within border agencies and across borders. Often, there 
is a lack of formal arrangements, a lack of standards to facilitate the coordination of activ ities across 
border agencies and across borders. Countries with more stable and administrative frameworks 
generally can make progress faster because following effective implementation of these reforms 
requires clear legal mandate and legal foundation and o ften this can take time. So the preparation 
around designing a border agency cooperation framework does require a legal focus initially and 
implemenation of the law and standard operating procedures that are shared in common amongst 
all border agencies.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.97.   Lastly, I would like to emphasize the criticality of the National Trade Facilitation Committees. 
We are supporting 34 countries and as we know, this is the public -private dialogue mechanism that 
is not only important for the dialogue to allow the private sec tor to identify constraints but to also 
validate reforms implemented by border agencies. Often, a regional approach, as we have heard 
from a number of speakers this morning, is one way of implementing an efficient Trade Facilitation 
Agreement framework acr oss a particular region where countries and economies can actually 
leverage and share. We have assisted CARICOM to design the trade facilitation strategy and we are 
currently assisting the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to draft a trade facilitation str ategy for the 
whole Pacific region.  
10.98.   Again, there is a number of lessons that can be learned from taking the regional approach 
to ensure that there is economies of scale. We look forward to the implementation of the Pacific 
Regional Trade Facilitation Stra tegy which will be validated in the coming week.  
10.99.   The representative of the World Customs Organization  indicated the following:  
10.100.   Since its launch in June 2014, the Mercator Programme has been the World Customs 
Organization's strategic initiative aimed at a ssisting governments worldwide in implementing the 
TFA in a uniform manner by applying WCO instruments and tools.  
10.101.   The key objectives of the Mercator Programme are to achieve harmonized implementation 
of the TFA, to provide "tailor -made" technical assistanc e and capacity building, and to coordinate 
effectively amongst all stakeholders.  
10.102.   The Mercator Programme has two tracks. The "overall track" deals with broader interests, 
including awareness -raising at global, regional and national levels, as well as updati ng and 
developing trade facilitation standards and tools. The "tailor -made" track focuses on meeting 
Members' specific needs related to effective TFA implementation.  
10.103.   The WCO Mercator Programme operating model, adopted in 2017, includes needs 
assessment, s trategic planning and implementation, followed by monitoring and evaluation. 
Tailormade assistance may come in the form of multi -year (MY) Mercator Programme 
Implementation Plans or ad hoc engagements to support specific TFA articles.  
10.104.   During 2022, several  additional Members have requested specific support under the MY 
Mercator Programme approach bringing the current total number of administrations benefiting from 
this medium to long -term WCO engagement to 59. A growing proportion of TFA related support 
under the tailor -made track is now being delivered under MY Mercator partnerships.  
10.105.   The WCO continues to engage with MY Mercator beneficiary countries through active 
engagements focused on conducting diagnostic assessments, reviewing Mercator Implementation 
Plans, providing implementation status updates and completing Mercator Maturity Model 
assessments.    
10.106.   Regarding the top 5 provisions in category C to be implemented by 41 WTO Members in 
the two -year period 2023 to 2024:  
• All of these top five measures are covered by the Mercator Programme and technical 
assistance provided by the WCO;   
• Customs administrations of 26 Members out of these 41 administrations are benefiting from 
medium to long -term WCO MY Mercator Programme eng agement. The other 15 Members are 
not MY Mercator Programme beneficiaries, however they can benefit from ad hoc tailor-made 
assistance under the Mercator Programme upon request by Customs administrations;  
• Moreover, some of Customs administrations in these Members are also supported by the WCO 
to effectively implement the provisions of the TFA under different programmes and projects;  
• WCO – SECO (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland) Global Trade Facilitation 
Programme (GTFP) is currently as sisting the Customs administrations of two of these 
41 countries (Bangladesh and Guatemala);  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  • Customs administrations of two of them, (Eswatini and Zambia) are currently assisted by WCO 
– HMRC – Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme (ATFP);  
• WCO – SIDA (S wedish International Development Cooperation Agency) Trade Facilitation and 
Customs Modernization Programme in Sub -Sahara Africa is currently assisting the Customs 
Administrations of four of these 41 countries: Eswatini ; Malawi;  Zambia and Zimbabwe; and,  
• Last but not least, Customs administrations of nine of them (Burkina Faso ; Ghana ; Malawi ; 
Senegal ; Zambia ; Zimbabwe ; PNG; Tonga ; and Vanuatu) are currently assisted by WCO/JICA 
(Japan International Cooperation Agency) Joint Project.  
10.107.   Regarding the top 5 provisions in category C to be implemented in 2023 to 2024, in the 
last one and a half year period, since July 2021, the WCO conduc ted risk management workshops 
in five of these Members: Barbados ; Jamaica ; Kyrgyz Republic ; Viet Nam;  and Zimbabwe in terms 
of the implementation of the Article 7.4 of the TFA.  
10.108.   In the same period, regarding Article 7.6 of the TFA, we conducted two Time Rel ease Study 
missions in Maldives.  
10.109.   Regarding the implementation of the Article 7.7, two AEO missions have been conducted 
in Zambia.  
10.110.   Last but not least, we also conducted Coordinated Border Management workshops in four  of 
these Members namely Eswatini ; Pakist an; Viet Nam;  and Zambia regarding the implementation ot 
Article 8 of the TFA.  
10.111.   Before finalizing my intervention, let me underline that Customs Administrations of 
developing Members and LDCs may submit their requests for tailor -made technical assistance t o the 
WCO Capacity Building Directorate at any time.  
10.112.   Interested development partners and donor institutions may contact the WCO External 
Relations Unit with regard to further cooperation, including the offer of financial support for technical 
assistance an d capacity building projects:  
10.113.   Last but not least, referring to the previous intervention by the World Bank representative, 
we would like to thank the World Bank for their collaboration and engagement in the area of Time 
Release Studies.  
10.114.   The delegate of Canada indicated the following:  
10.115.   Thank you for the presentations from the four organizations. These organizations have 
presented a number of projects that they have been working on specific to these provisions. I 
wondered to what use it might be to share tha t information directly through you, Chair, to the 
Members who are on that list having category C provisions coming up for implementation in the 
coming years who have not had a chance yet to identify donors to help them out with those specific 
provisions. I  do not know what that looks like in terms of sharing information but, again, in the same 
vein of the way we created the table in the document series G/TFA/INF/1  of upcoming provisions 
under category C and B for implementation in the coming two years, if there is some way that you 
and the Secretariat could gather together this information that has been shared with us today and 
have that available to the Members currently seeking a donor. I am thinking here of the database 
and the way it is set up where we can search to see where donors have been working on certain 
provisions in terms of assistance to Members. This is another resource for Members who have not 
yet identified donors to help them with implementation.  
10.116.   The delegate of the United States indica ted the following:  
10.117.   The United States would like to support Canada's idea. We think it makes a lot of sense 
and we think those kind of resources, written products from these presentations of the international 
organizations could really help us all keep tra ck of what resources are available.  
10.118.   The delegate of the United Kingdom indicated the following:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.119.   We would just like to say thank you to all the Annex D organizations for their excellent 
presentations. It is very valuable to be able to see this level of in formation about the support they 
are providing and the impact they are having. Just to note with reference to the upcoming item on 
the agenda 2.2, when we talk about synergies, we think there are many good examples of Annex D 
organizations coordinating wit h each other when they supporting the same country and we welcome 
further dialogue on that point in this Committee in this session or in the future.  
10.120.   The delegate of Norway  indicated the following:  
10.121.   I would like to thank UNCTAD, the World Bank, the WCO and ITC for their presentations. 
This was really both useful and interesting. And to support the proposal made by Canada to see how 
we can even make it more transparent for Members. I also wondered whether it would be possible 
to receive the very good presenta tions by the diffferent organizations. Also encouraged to hear the 
good coordination that these organizations are having between each other in the assistance they 
provide.  
10.122.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.123.   I would like to thank the presenters under this agenda item not just for the presentations 
but for the effort that their organizations are putting into this. I would like to second the thoughtful 
suggestion made by the Canadian d elegate and I was thinking that it would also be interesting to 
hear from Members who are receiving the support to get some feedback, maybe not here and now, 
about whether the experience sharing that was provided by international and regional organizations  
here today, how it helps them and perhaps how it could be even more helpful and there I refer back 
to the Canadian suggestion.  
10.124.   The delegate of Ecuador  indicated the following:  
10.125.   I would like to contribute to converstion around the usefulness from these  k ind of 
presentations. In the case of Ecuador, it is precisely in these exchanges that we have been able to 
identify options for cooperation, even just through obtaining contact details like e -mails or contacts 
that facilitate our initial consultations here  in Geneva. In this case, we endorse as well the suggestion 
by Canada. It would greatly facilitate the work of delegations in identifying potential support for 
specific provisions. This also allows us to give a clear message to our colleagues in capital, s ince we 
all know that action has to begin in capital. So to have this assistance for our teams in capital it is 
really useful.  
10.126.   The delegate of Paraguay  indicated the following:  
10.127.   I would like to thank the speakers for their presentations as well as the international 
organizations who presented these very useful mechanisms for technical assistance and capacity 
building. In the case of Paraguay, we have had various projects, and just  to mention a few: we 
concluded the Empowerment Programme with UNCTAD. This was a project which strengthened our 
National Trade Facilitation Committee and ran between August 2020 until June 2021 when it 
concluded its first phase. We have always had a very positive relationship with UNCTAD, they have 
given us a great deal of support in the process of negotiation, including on the TFA, and now on its 
implementation. We have also had a pilot project with ITC that began in 2019, which is the Global 
Trade Help D esk where Paraguay participated and we thank the ITC for this cooperation with this 
phase. To conclude, I would also like to endorse the comment by the Ambassador of Botswana made 
on the previous agenda item on behalf of the LLDCs to carry out dedicated se ssions having to deal 
with the particular challenges faced by LLDCs, questions of transit or additional trade costs, which 
have increased as a result of the pandemic and the assistance to find donors to strenghten 
implementation. These contributions are ke y, as well as the help of the WTO Secretariat, in preparing 
reports that provide visibility to these stumbling blocks. So we would like to thank our partners for 
your continued help and later we are going to intervene about a particular project which is an  
example of this type of assistance by donors.  
10.128.   The delegate of Costa Rica  indicated the following:  
10.129.   I would like to associate myself with the statement from Paraguay, thanking the 
presentations by international organizations. I would also like to thank th e World Bank for their G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  support to implement provisions under category C, the World Customs Organization for the support 
received to conduct time release studies, as well as UNCTAD for their assistance, particularly in 
relation to the Empowerment Programme for the NTFCs, which my colleague from the Secretariat of 
the Central American Integration Organization will refer to.  
10.130.   The delegate of Colombia  indicated the following:  
10.131.   We would join previous spkears in thanking these very important international 
organiz ations with whom we have had the opportunity to share work and efforts in this very 
important process of implementing the TFA. We would like to especially thank UNCTAD and ITC for 
their programmes with Colombia, but we certainly also want to pay tribute to  the other participants 
in this process of cooperation that have been so important for strenghening trade within our 
countries. We are very happy to attend this meeting and we invite other Members to take advantage 
of the excellent opportunities offered by  these wonderful institutions for the help they provide in 
trade facilitation implementation.  
10.132.   The Committee took note  of the presentations and the comments and the suggestion by 
Canada.  
10.1.4   Experience -sharing by donor members supporting the implementation of the 
category C provisions in the 2023 to 2024 period.  
10.133.   The delegate of Japan  indicated the following:  
10.134.   Japan would like to share our cooperation with Lao People's Democratic Republic on the 
implementation of risk management, and with Cambodia on Authorized  Operators.  
10.135.   With regard to Lao People's Democratic Republic, Japan has been providing technical 
assistance to the Customs of Lao People's Democratic Republic, including through a long -term policy 
adviser from Japan Customs to Lao Customs. Supporting the fu ll implementation of TFA Article 7.4 
risk-management, for which the definitive implementation date is 31 December 2024, Japan 
Customs, in collaboration with JICA, is implementing a three -year project for the Customs of 
Lao People's Democratic Republic unti l 2024 on risk management. On recent activities, online 
training sessions were held in September and inperson sessions were held in October, by inviting 
Customs officials from Lao People's Democratic Republic to Japan Customs.  
10.136.   During the training sessions,  officials exchanged views on how Lao People's Democratic 
Republic could develop the Customs officials' skills and improve the operation of Customs clearances 
and risk management, after learning about international standards as well as Japan's experiences 
on how we have reviewed and improved the import/export control and criteria for examination. We 
hope these sessions would help Lao People's Democratic Republic achieve the full implementation of 
Article 7.4 before the definitive implementation date, and ar e committed to continuing our support 
to Lao People's Democratic Republic in the field of risk management.  
10.137.   Regarding Cambodia, Japan has been providing technical assistance to Cambodian 
Customs, including through a long -term policy adviser from Japan Custo ms to Cambodian Customs. 
Supporting the full implementation of TFA Article 7.7 Authorized operators, with the definitive 
implementation date of 31 December 2023, Japan Customs provided online workshops in May, and 
in-person training sessions at Japan Custo ms in October for Cambodian Customs, to share expertise 
in introducing AEO programmes, including about necessary legal instruments and guidelines, based 
on the request from Cambodian Customs. Also, the long -term policy adviser arranged an on -site 
visit to Malaysian Customs in June for Cambodian Customs officials to learn about the AEO division 
of Malaysian Customs and to exchange views with them. Japan is committed to continuing our 
support to Cambodia towards the full implementation of Article 7.7.  
10.138.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.139.   The EU has recently notified to the WTO Secretariat its update of assistance under 
Article  22.1 both at European Union level and EU Member State level.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.140.   The EU would like to showcase a few figures and fa cts from the forthcoming EU Annual Aid 
for Trade Progress Report 2022, which is to be published soon. Members are invited to read the 
report, which includes numerous project examples and experiences from our work, including on 
trade facilitation. It will b e available soon on the website of the European Commission's Directorate -
General for International Partnerships.   
10.141.   Firstly, the EU and its Member States continue to be the world's largest Aid for Trade 
donors, providing well over one -third of global Aid fo r Trade (40%), with a total of EUR 22.9 billion 
of Aid  for Trade in 2020 (the latest year for which we have data, based on OECD CRS reporting). 
Secondly, in 2020, the EU and its Member States provided EUR 194 million for trade facilitation, 
which stands fo r almost two -thirds (63%) of global trade facilitation support. And thirdly, since the 
entry into force of the Trade Facilitation Agreement in 2017, and over the subsequent four years (in 
other words up until and including 2020), commitments from the EU an d its Member States have 
amounted to EUR 837 million in trade facilitation assistance. This means an average of EUR 209 
million per year, compared to the annual average of EUR 92 million of the preceding six years. 
In other words, the EU has significantly stepped up trade facilitation support to underpin the 
implementation of the Agreement.  
10.142.   Looking back, it can be noted that the cumulative value of EU aid for trade facilitation 
during 2014 -2019 was EUR 423.7 million, by far exceeding the commitment to the WTO at the time 
of signature of the TFA.  
10.143.   Turning now to the specific question of category C commitments, during our yearly survey 
that we send to EU delegations to collect not only quantitative but also qualitative information for 
our annual EU Aid for Tra de Progress Report, we found that 32% of the EU delegations surveyed 
this year said that they have been either 'extremely', or 'considerably' solicited to support the 
implementation of category C provisions, while 35% of respondents said it was 'moderate'.  Finally, 
33% had only slight or non -existent demand for support on category C commitments.  
10.144.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
10.145.   The US is happy to share updates on three projects administered by the US Department of 
Agriculture which helps other countries implement the TFA. These projects are under the USDA Food 
for Progress Programme which assists developing countries and emerging  democracies by 
introducing and expanding enterprises in the agricultural sector.  
10.146.   The two principal objectives of the Food For Progress Programme are improving agricultural 
productivity and expanding the trade of agricultural products. The three projects are focused on 
improving TFA implementation in Bangladesh, Egypt and Paraguay. Total funding from the USDA is 
USD 64.7 million through 2025. In addition, the USDA also approved USD  37.8 million funding for 
projects in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras th at will run from 2023 to 2028. These projects 
focus on improving TFA implementation.  
10.147.   The representative of the USAID Office of Economics and Market Development  in 
Washington DC indicated the following:  
10.148.   Our office oversees all of our agencies' Aid for Trad e initiatives including those that relate 
to the Trade Facilitation Agreement. Over the course of the last five years, 2016 -2020, the US 
Government has obligated a little less than USD  200 million to supporting Customs reforms and 
implementation of the TFA . Of that total, USAID itself provided approximately USD 132 million.  
10.149.   Rather than providing a catalogue of all our activities, let me highlight some of USAID work 
in a number of countries around the world which I think will serve to illustrate our global a ctivities.  
10.150.   First let me focus on the Trade Reform and Development in Egypt, the TRADE programme 
and the Commercial Law Development Programme (CLDP) there. USAID Egypt is assisting the 
Egyptian Government to fulfill its TFA commitments through the funding of two projects, TRADE and 
CLDP. These two programmes work with different Egyptian counterparts that have roles in TFA 
implementation and they also closely coordinate with the Egyptian National Trade Facilitation 
Committee. The NTFC and its tactical Secret ariat work collaboratively with public and private sector G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  stakeholders in implementing their TFA obligations as well as with donor agencies to avoid 
duplication of efforts in delivering technical assistance services.  
10.151.   During the previous 18 months, the TRAD E project and CLDP together have been providing 
different kinds of technical assitance in relation to the TFA. For example, TRADE is conducting 
analysis of Egypt's compliance with the TFA Article 6 disciplines on fees and charges in connection 
with exporta tion, importation and transit processes and Article 11 freedom of transit. CLDP in 
collaboration with the TRADE activity and the World Bank are also working on Article 7.4 risk 
management having organized a four -days study tour to Jordan for several border  agencies to see 
in operation the Jordanian integrated risk management functions. The World Bank has taken on 
responsibility of establishing an integrated border management system and TRADE will collaborate 
by providing needed technical assistance which wi ll include training, revision of regulations, 
providing experts for different authorities as well as supporting the public -private dialogue that is 
an integral process of this activity.  
10.152.   The next project that I would like to highlight is USAID's Economic Development, 
Governance and Enterprise Growth or EDGE project. The EDGE project is a regional project active 
in 12 economies in Europe and Eurasia. EDGE's objectives include the creation of inclusive and 
sustainable economic growth and to support intra-regional and Euro -Atlantic integration, more 
specically, the project supports national and regional reforms that facilitate trade in line with 
international trade agreements and the EU acquis. Beneficiary countries include three sub -regions; 
the West ern Balkans which includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, 
North  Macedonia and Serbia; the Caucasus region Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan and then 
Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus.  
10.153.   In the period 2020 to 2022, the EDGE project provided a range of trade facilitation 
assistance activities enhancing the overall compliance of beneficiary countries with the WTO TFA as 
global set of standards were increasing the efficiency of cross -border procedures. It also helped 
improve the level of harmoniza tion of the region's trade facilitation laws and practices with the EU 
acquis communautaire and it also supported trade facilitation reforms implemented in line with 
regional economic integration initiatives encompassing more comprehensive activities for e xpediting 
the movement of goods across border including the Central European Free Trade Agreement 
(CEFTA), the Western Balkans and Moldova, the Common Regional Market Action Plan and the Open 
Balkans Initiative.  
10.154.   More specifically, the project has focused on a number of TFA provisions including 
pre-arrival processing, risk management, trade facilitation measures for authorized economic 
operators, cross -border agency cooperation, single window, e -payments, and institutional 
arrangements, in particular, suppo rting the National Trade Facilitaiton Committees.  
10.155.   The third example I would like to focus on is USAID efforts with the USAID Moldova 
Institutional and Structural Reforms Activity (MISRA). This project is working on a variety of trade 
facilitation activiti es including the conduct of a time release study, using methodology developed by 
the WCO to assist customs administrations, other government agencies and the private sector to 
quantify wait times at the border, identify bottlenecks and define strategies to  improve border 
procedures and logistics. The project is also conducting training on a new Customs Code, supporting 
digitalization of customs declaration forms, and assisting the full implementation of a digitalized AEO 
system.  
10.156.   In addition to these activi ties, USAID recognizes that TFA implementation is a team sport, 
no one of us can do it all alone and so we would like to focus on some of the collaborative efforts 
that we support and I want to acknowledge on behalf of USAID our appreciation for the work t hat 
we do collectively with others around the world. These include supporting the World Bank's Trade 
Facilitation Support Program (TFSP) which we support along with eight other donors. We also provide 
significant support to Trademark East Africa (now known  as Trademark Africa), which initially 
focused on the East African Community Members but is now expanding its work continent -wide and 
that programme we support along with Canada donor partners. We also support the Trade 
Facilitation West Africa (TFWA) Prog ram, which is an initiave driven by multiple development 
partners, that aim to improve existing trade facilitation measures in West Africa. This programme 
brings together key development partners including the EU, USAID, the Government of the 
Netherlands, and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. Last, but certainly not least, 
USAID is the founding member of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GATF), a public -private G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  partnership. We want to acknowledge our collaborative work with the Go vernment of Canada, 
Germany and Denmark and we will certainly invite other donor partners to join us in this innovative 
implementation mechanism.  
10.157.   We greatly appreciate the opportunity today to share with the Committee some of our more 
detailed experiences of implementing the TFA, specifically those in Central Asia and Central America 
as we will have that under a later agenda item. My USAID colleague who is the trade team -lead at 
the Economic Development office in Almaty in Kazakhstan, will highlight the wor k in Central Asia 
and the project management specialist in our office in San Salvador will focus on the regional 
activities in Central America.  
10.158.   Even with all that we will have presented we only touched of course on a small number of 
our activities but we h ope that the information we have provided is useful to other Members and 
underlines USAID's ongoing commitment to supporting TFA implementation. We look forward to 
engaging further with delegates to discuss our assistance effort in greater detail.  
10.159.   The delegate of Egypt  indicated the following:  
10.160.   My delegation would like to thank the delegations of Japan, the EU and the US for sharing 
their experience, and especially to the US for the report that was presented today which was very 
informative.  We extend our  special thanks to the USAID for the programmes that were initiated in 
Egypt - Trade Reform and Development and CLDP. I believe that those programmes are very 
relevant and will contribute enormously to building up our capacities in terms of better implemen ting 
the TFA. We are ready to cooperate further and I believe that there is a lot more to do.  
10.161.   This concluded  agenda item 1.  
10.2  Sharing of experiences and information on ongoing assistance and support for 
capacity building and implementation programmes, incl uding challenges and successes  
10.162.   The delegate of Ecuador  indicated the following:  
10.163.   As we have stated on previous occasions, one of the topics to which we attach great interest 
and which presents the most challenges when it comes to TFA implementation is coor dination with 
donors. In this context and as a result of the debate held here in the Committee, Ecuador is currently 
holding its first donor roundtable for its category C commitments which we hope will take place in 
the first quarter of 2023.  
10.164.   It is a lear ning on -the-go process and we would like to share with you some of the main 
takeaways that we have had so far, and perhaps reach out to those who are facing similar difficulties.  
10.165.   This may sound obvious, but the first challenge is identifying the domestic agencies in 
charge of coordinating international cooperation. Our NTFC had the experience of reaching out to 
the diplomatic representation of one donor in capital, who indicated that contact must be made 
through the corresponding official channel. In Ecuad or, contact with any donor is made through the 
Division of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - a different unit than our 
usual counterpart for international trade matters, which has its own dynamic. We speak of different 
kinds of  cooperation such as bilateral, multilateral, south -south, bilateral cooperation, multilateral 
cooperation, south -south, reimbursable, non -reimbursable, etc. On the other hand, and like in many 
countries, the responsibility of implementing the TFA is on th e Ministry of International Trade, which 
presides over the NTFC.  
10.166.   Once we had identified all the actors, we needed to have an inter -institutional discussion 
to align the dynamics and procedures of each topic. In our case, this took place last October when 
we had an inter -ministerial meeting of the ministries involved – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
(Division of International Economic Organizations and International Cooperation), the Ministry of 
International Trade (NTFC Secretariat), as well as our own re presentation at the Permanent Mission 
to the WTO.  
10.167.   One of the identified challenges was lining up the deadlines of cooperation programmes, 
on the one hand, and TFA implementation commitments, on the other. International cooperation G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  management has its own d eadlines, which we understand to be true not only for those who seek 
cooperation but also for those who offer it. Furthermore, although our NTFC was very precise in 
identifying cooperation needs for the implementation of category C commitments, where the 
UNCTAD Reform Tracker was very useful, there was no budget or financial estimate attached to 
these needs. This was a recommentation made by our area of international cooperation, based on 
their experience dealing with donors.  
10.168.   About this point, it would be worth knowing in advance the type of information donors need 
for project management, information tht could come from various channels: diplomatic 
representations of donor countries in Geneva, the TFAF, or other agencies that work in this area and 
have expe rience coordinating with donors.  
10.169.   Furthermore, we understand that ensuring support for trade facilitation as part of bilateral 
cooperation plans  is a much more complex task, as countries may have more pressing or urgent 
needs that may overtake available r esources. In this context, specific projects tied to bilateral 
cooperation plans may shorten coordination timelines and project implementation.  
10.170.   The preparation of the notification on arrangements and progress has been quite an 
enriching exercise for Ecuad or. The notification is undergoing its final review and we hope to share 
with Members in the coming weeks. This exercise has allowed us to take stock of all activities carried 
out, progress and roadblocks in this process.  
10.171.   Ecuador will continue to make progress towards its first donor roundtable and with it, we 
hope to make a constructive contribution to this collective learning process. We encourage other 
Members to do the same. We lookf forward to hearing from your experie nces.  
10.172.   The delegate of the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.173.   Colleagues from EU Member States are ready to present experiences relevant to TFA 
implementation. It is worth noting how certain TFA measures proved essential during the pandemic, 
and also that the pandemic has hit developing Members hard, especially least -developed countries. 
For recovery from the pandemic, smooth and efficient import, export and transit procedures are key 
to boost trade flows again, to keep value and supply chains working and to keep trade flowing also 
during the COVID -19 pandemic. I am saying this to illustrate the continued importance of our 
collective effort under the TFA.  
10.174.   The delegate of Czech Republic  indicated the following:  
10.175.   First of all, on behalf of the Czech Repu blic, I would like to thank the European Commission 
for coordinating the statements made by some of the EU Member States as well as the Chair for 
giving us the unique opportunity to speak here today.  
10.176.   Let me start by highlighting that the Czech Republic is a medium -sized open market and 
export -driven economy that has experienced its large -scale transformation in 1990s. Hence, we 
understand the need for integration into global value chains, and multilateralism and a rules -based 
order are essential for us. The refore, we continuously strive to strengthen the resilience of supply 
chains and simultaneously, we support the integration of developing and least -developed countries 
into the international trading system.  
10.177.   For the aforementioned reasons, we attach great i mportance to trade facilitation and the 
facilitation of customs procedures that contribute to reducing trading costs, especially for developing 
countries and vulnerable groups such as MSMEs and women in international trade. We realize that 
those groups hav e been facing even greater challenges during the COVID -19 pandemic.  
10.178.   The pandemic has further underlined the importance of the WTO's Trade Facilitation 
Agreement and the related need to ensure a smooth supply of production inputs and subsequent 
distribution, especially of health products, including vaccines, to all countrie s of the world. As a 
result, we decided to become a donor to the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility (TFAF) grant 
programme to help developing and least -developed countries in assessing their specific needs in 
implementing the TFA and in identifying appr opriate partners to provide the necessary assistance.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  The Czech Republic contributed CZK 550,000 (which is approximately CHF 22,000) to TFAF in 2020 
and again in 2021.  
10.179.   In conclusion, although the Czech Republic does not have any specific trade facilitati on 
projects except for some local Aid for Trade initiatives, we believe this contributing channel is the 
right one to fund capacity -building activities in developing countries to assist them in implementing 
the TFA.  
10.180.   The delegate of Finland  indicated the f ollowing:  
10.181.   Finland is an active donor in the field of trade facilitation. We have been funding a number 
of regional and multilateral trade development projects. We channel our support mainly through 
Multilateral Agencies that have the required expertise to  deliver technical assistance in trade 
facilitation. Finland believes that the combination of supporting increased regional trade and 
assistance to the private sector will accelerate economic growth and jobs, with the ultimate goal of 
poverty reduction.  
10.182.   Today I would like to highlight our longstanding support to the TradeMark East Africa 
(TMEA). Finland's support for the project in 2021 -2023 totals EUR 10.5 million. The cooperation aims 
at advancing trade and supporting regional trade integration by reducin g the time and cost of 
transiting and transporting goods. In addition to creating economic opportunities for women, Finland 
also emphasizes the importance of environment and climate friendly economic growth. TMEA 
considers these aspects in its infrastructu re projects by, for example, advancing transition of goods 
trade to railways. We are also pleased that TMEA's work is now expanding regionally and look 
forward to productive cooperation with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).  
10.183.   The delegate o f Lithuania  indicated the following:  
10.184.   Lithuania is a consistent donor to the WTO Global Trust Fund and active in providing 
bilateral Aid for Trade. We have engaged in WTO Trade Facilitation acitvities as from 2007 when 
Lithuania organized a regional worksh op on trade facilitation for Central, Eastern European countries 
as well as Central Asian countries which took place in Vilnius, Lithuania.  
10.185.   Geographically, Lithuania's support to facilitating trade programmes mostly target Eastern 
Partnership countries, b ut we steadily expand our technical assistance. Today I would like to present 
a bilateral assistance programme in which Lithuania has promoted women's social and economic 
empowerment to develop skills in the areas of digital and financial technology throug h a trade 
facilitation project in Viet Nam.  
10.186.   The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Lithuanian ICT Association INFOBALT in partnership with 
Viet Nam's "Women's Initiative for Startups and Enterpreneurship (WISE)" in September 2021 
initiated a project to empowe r women and girls in Viet Nam to strenghten their digital skills and 
knowledge of creating online businesses.  
10.187.   The pandemic has moved many businesses online, and women have become more 
vulnerable. The project aimed to introduce new challenges and opportuni ties that the Internet 
provides. These include new applications, platforms and services that are making online trade more 
accessible and easier to navigate thereby lowering the entry barriers into this type of business model.  
10.188.   The project helped participant s to strenghten their digital skills to become independent 
online business creators, establish themselves and compete in international trade. Our ICT experts 
organized series of interactive workshops and discussions online. A special attention was paid to 
explain relevant parts of EU -Viet Nam FTA which was signed in 2020 and to explain the specifics of 
EU digital business, taxation, customs clearance procedures, consumer rights and data protection, 
as well as other regulatory issues that were relevant for t he participants in order to successfully 
carry out business activities focused on the EU markets.  
10.189.   The delegate of the Netherlands  (Chief Technical Advisor at  CBI) indicated the following:  
10.190.   I am very happy to have the opportunity to inform this meeting on the activities of one of 
the instruments of the Netherlands Government in the field of Aid for Trade.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.191.   The Netherlands Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) 
contributes to the transition to more sustainable and inclusive secto rs in developing countries by 
strengthening the economic, social and environmental sustainability of small and medium -sized 
enterprises through export of value -added or niche products to European and regional markets.  
10.192.   In order to achieve this, we have sect or based projects in approximately 25 countries in 
Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In our projects we work directly with SMEs but also with institutions 
in the export enabling environment. At the same time we also work on building local capacity in 
services that are vital for potential exporters in such diverse areas as certification or product design.  
10.193.   As I mentioned, CBI aims to contribute to the transition to more sustainable and inclusive 
sectors. This means that all projects aim to create decent jobs in which workers earn a fair wage 
and can do their work in safe conditions. Besides that, we strive to be inclusive with respect to 
women and youth not only as employees but also with projects aimed specifically at women and 
young entrepreneurs. Finally, o ur projects are not climate -blind. For each project we make an 
estimate of the effects our work has on Green House Gas emissions and actively promote reduction 
or the introduction of mitigation measures.  
10.194.   However, today I want to inform you more specifical ly on the market intelligence at CBI.  
10.195.   Limited access to high quality market intelligence is a major obstacle for SMEs that want 
to export to Europe. That is why the provision of up -to-date and practical market intelligence is a 
core service provided by CBI . 
10.196.   We provide market intelligence on 14 different sectors, all of which are relevant for many 
developing countries, through our website. These sectors cover agricultural and consumer products 
as well as services such as IT and tourism. Each year we publish 250 new and updated studies. 
A large part of the information is also disseminated through webinars. The information is easily 
accessible, not only technically but also because this service is free of charge. In 2021, we had 
almost 1,000,000 users that visi ted our website and their average score for the content was an 8. 
The information is easily accessible for any aspiring exporter and offers insights into: which countries 
offer the most opportunities for a product or service; what channels should you use t o enter the 
market; and what laws and requirements must you follow. And of course, we give tips and advice 
on how to find buyers in the European market.  
10.197.   The information that we have is compiled by experts for each sector but we also actively 
involve import ers by interviewing them on their view on transit and opportunities in the market and 
we also organize focus groups where we discuss with importers the developments in their sector.  
10.198.   CBI not only provides market information through its own website but we also build capacity 
at Trade Promotion Organizations and Business Support Organizations, such as sector associations, 
to enable them to compile and disseminate their own studies tailored to the needs of their client 
companies. Companies that participate in  CBI projects are trained to conduct their own market 
research to enable them to draft their export marketing plan and define their market entry strategy.  
10.199.   An additional service offered to our counterpart organizations in the developing countries 
is the ins tallation of an affiliate site on their own website. With the installation of an affiliate site or 
a link through a CBI Market Information partnership, an organization can provide access to the entire 
CBI market information database through its own channel s. 
10.200.   Thank you once more for the opportunity to share this with you and I would like to invite 
all delegates to have a look at the information on our website and please feel free to contact us for 
further information.  
10.201.   The delegate of Sweden  indicated the fo llowing:  
10.202.   I am grateful for this opportunity to provide some insights into part of Sweden's support to 
facilitating trade.  
10.203.   Sweden is a firm believer of multilateralism, as of free fair and inclusive sustainable trade. 
Therefore, Sweden contributes in vario us ways to the implementation of the TFA. The provisions on G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  assistance and support for capacity building of developing and least developed country members in 
the Agreement are key and I would like to share a few highlights and some context from a Swedish 
perspective.  
10.204.   To put the Swedish support into context, the Swedish Policy Framework for Development 
Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance recognizes free and fair trade including trade facilitation 
as important aspects. Free and fair trade is a powerful to ol for sustainable economic growth, 
development, employment generation and poverty reduction. However, many people living in low 
and middle -income countries have limited capacity and possibility to benefit from and contribute to 
the potential that lies in trade, which is why aid for trade towards trade facilitation is key.  
10.205.   In 2021, Sweden contributed with approximately USD 365 million to the international Aid 
for Trade agenda to support partner countries in their efforts to use trade as means for developme nt. 
The aid for trade going explicitly towards trade facilitation is currently mainly done at a regional level 
in Sub -Saharan Africa where Sweden, through the Swedish International Development Cooperation 
Agency, works together with the World Customs Organ ization. We are also engaged in dealing with 
trade facilitation, customs and related issues through multilateral partners such as the Enhanced 
Integrated Framework, the World Bank Umbrella Trust Fund for Trade and the International Trade 
Centre.  
10.206.   Let me say a few more words about our long and fruitful collaboration with the WCO, 
targeting countries in Sub -Saharan Africa. This programme on trade facilitation and customs 
modernization covers approximately USD 3.4 million and the current phase is the third p hase of 
collaboration with the WCO in Sub -Saharan Africa. The focus of this phase is on trade facilitation, IT 
connectivity, green customs, regional harmonization, gender equality and anti -corruption. 
The programme contributes to enhanced regional trade wh ile interventions will be implemented at 
the national level through capacity building support of customs administrations. The work will both 
target the implementation of the WTO TFA and is also expected to contribute to the African 
Continental Free Trade A rea (AfCFTA). This third phase also has a more direct link to poverty 
reduction through a strengthened gender and SME -perspective compared to previous phases.  
10.207.   Geographically, the third phase targets a total of 12 countries in EAC 
(East African  Community)  and SADC (Southern African Development Community) region : that is 
Kenya ; Rwanda ; Uganda ; Tanzania ; Burundi ; Botswana ; Eswatini ; Lesotho ; Malawi ; Mozambique ; 
Zambia;  and Zimbabwe.  
10.208.   Through our support to this programme with the WCO, we have, for example, bee n able to 
contribute to perishable imports going straight to stores rather than being held up at the border, 
resulting in reduced wastage rates and increased sales for companies. This kind of concrete impact 
can truly make a difference for companies and pe ople in our partner countries.  
10.209.   Let me conclude by mentioning how important the Trade Facilitation Committee at the WTO 
is for sharing experiences and for us to be able to assess the demand and needs from partner 
countries in the area of trade facilitation.  Sweden remains a committed partner in supporting 
developing countries in their efforts to integrate into the global economy through trade in general 
and trade facilitation in particular.  
10.210.   The delegate of India indicated the following:  
10.211.   I would like to com pliment all the presenters for making excellent presentations which were 
enriching. I would take this opportunity to highlight certain capacity building and technical assistance 
activity undertaken by India in the region.  
10.212.   India has fully implemented the W TO TFA well before the stipulated time. India has also 
set up a NTCF consisting of government and private sector. Also echoing the words of the 
Director -General in her remarks today, India has the latest technology, artificial intelligence, block 
chain tec hnology, machine learning, etc. It has launched its flagship Customs programme to make 
Indian customs faceless, paperless and contactless for expediting customs clearance processes.  
10.213.   As mentioned in our presentation the other day, India has created in -house capacity in the 
customs administration for a comprehensive time release study. India is committed towards G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  contributing to the capacity -building activities in the area of trade facilitation. Indian Customs has 
been conducting various capacity building pro grammes with the developing Members to support 
them in implementing trade facilitation measures.  
10.214.   India has entered into an MOU with Maldives for a capacity building programme. India is 
also a resource centre for SASEC (South -Asian Sub -Regional Economic Co operation Countries) 
supported by ADB (Asian Development Bank) to undertake reforms and capacity building for officers 
of SASEC countries, including in the various areas of the TFA such as authorized economic operators, 
single window, time release and data base and coordinated border management.  
10.215.   India has also actively associated in capacity -building initiatives by the WCO. India takes 
this opportunity to express a willingness to share India's expertise and experiences in the field of 
risk management, facel ess assessment, and other trade facilitation initiatives with the Members. 
We would be happy to engage with Members in this regard.  
10.216.   India strongly believes that a coordinated and cooperative approach to implement the TFA 
among Member countries based on the ir identified needs and priorities would help in ensuring 
efficient flow of goods across borders leading to effective and inclusive trade facilitation and the ease 
of doing business.  
10.217.   The representative of the World Customs Organization  indicated the follow ing:  
10.218.   WCO would like to thank Sweden for their support in the technical assistance and capacity 
building activities of the WCO regarding the implementation of the TFA through Swedish 
International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) "Trade Facilitation and Cus toms 
Modernization Programme for Sustainable Development in Sub -Sahara Africa". As highlighted by the 
Swedish Delegate, the WCO -SIDA Programme is currently assisting the Customs administrations of 
10 countries in Africa.  
10.219.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
10.220.   I would like to thank our colleagues from the EU and Member States and India for their 
very interesting presentations and we would be very much interested in learning more about 
potentially how you are scaling up or thinking about  scaling up all of your interesting TACB initiatives 
you presented today. Regarding the presentation from my colleague from Ecuador, what  an 
interesting, creative, almost out of the box way of approaching and trying to manage donors, so we 
would be very i nterested in hearing more about it. It is a proposal that I am putting forward on the 
floor to hear you maybe presenting about the results of this roundtable when you will be ready and 
available to do so. We will be very happy to actively participate.  
10.221.   The representative of China Customs Co -operation Fund  (CF China) at the Capacity Building 
Directorate of the WCO indicated the following:  
10.222.   I would like to share China's experience in supporting WCO's effort to provide capacity 
building for WCO developing and l east-developed members which contributes to promoting customs 
administration, customs organization, customs enforcement, and global trade facilitation.  
10.223.   In 2014, China established the China Customs Co -operation Fund at WCO and increased 
its contribution to EUR 1 million per year in 2019. Since its inception, China has funded more than 
110 WCO capacity building activities benefitting more than 2,500 Customs officials globally. 
Currently, there are 53 ongoing activities funded by the CF China, including 16 reg ional or 
sub-regional activities and 31 national activities.  They cover all six WCO regions around the world 
and a wide range of topics such as customs technology innovation, SMART borders, cross border 
connectivity, data analysis, Authorized Economic Ope rators, e -commerce etc. Among them, Customs 
modernization and implementation of the WTO TFA have always been given priority. For example, 
CF China is funding a strategy advisory and a support mission for Customs in relation to effective 
TFA related reform.  Additionally, we also support the WCO Fellowship Programme which enables 
promising mid -level customs managers from developing countries to undertake a detailed study 
course in a specialized Customs area, as well as trader workshops capable of supporting t he 
implementation of TFA at national and regional level.  As we all know, WCO's e -learning platform is 
very popular and in our Customs global community, we also have an e -learning platform called WCO G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  Click where Customs officers can access a goldmine of le arning opportunities and participate in 
scheduled global and regional training workshops.   
10.224.   Second, to establish WCO regional trading entities in supporting the WCO's regional 
approach towards building customs capacity.  So far, China has established the W CO Asian Pacific 
Training Centre in Shanghai and Xiamen, the Asian Pacific Training Centre in Beijing and the Asia 
Pacific Customs Laboratory in Beijing, contributing to WCO's effort of providing to international 
standards as well as best practices to its Members.   
10.225.   Third, to actively participate in the WCO Capacity Building Committee, China fully supports 
WCO to set standards for capacity building and to promote more improvements in the effectiveness 
of Customs through capacity building related tools, inst ruments, and initiatives. Since 2021, a 
delegate from China Customs has been elected as the Vice -Chairperson of the WCO Capacity Building 
Committee for two consecutive terms.   
10.226.   Fourth, WCO has developed a network of more than 900 qualified experts from amo ng its 
members and associates who can be called upon to assist the WCO in the delivery of capacity building 
activities. Based on international standards and best practices, they support developing and LDC 
members in improving the management of 25 areas. So  far, China Customs has 25 WCO accredited 
experts in various fields such as Customs modernization, the implementation of the TFA, Customs 
evaluation, AEO, risk management, single window, etc. For example, one of the Mercator Programme 
advisors from China C ustoms assisted WCO in a mission to Lao PDR in July this year which aimed to 
promote Lao's implementation of the TFA.  
10.227.   The representative of the World Customs Organization  indicated the following:  
10.228.   The WCO would like to thank China for their continued suppor t in the technical assistance 
and capacity building activities of the WCO regarding the effective implementing of the TFA. We 
would like to especially thank CCF China for their financial support for a series of regional workshops 
on the WTO TFA that we lau nched last year and which will continue with two more regional 
workshops next year.  
10.229.   The Committee took note  of the presentations and the discussions.  
10.230.   This concluded  item 2.1.   
10.3  Agenda i tem 2.2: Experience sharing by Members and organizations on how such 
synergies have supported implementation of the TFA  
- Central Asia cross -border case study   
10.231.   The trade team lead at USAID Central Asia regional mission  (Almaty Kazakhstan) made the 
following presentation:  
10.232.   Our trade facilitation project, which is in its second of five years, is called "Trade Central 
Asia".  It works in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. I would 
like to quickly present a snapshot of our trade facilitation activities, starting with our activities 
providin g technical assistance to two of the regions' countries in their efforts at WTO accession. 
We provide support to the governments of Uzbekistan and also Turkmenistan. Our activity does a 
lot of work with the region's Customs authorities. We provide training , technical support for 
digitalization efforts and business process analysis among other things. We work on developing 
phytosanitary capacity. The activity has implemented two phases of the IPPC's (International Plant 
Protection Convention) phytosanitary a nd capacity evaluation in Uzbekistan. We are providing 
support to the Kyrgyz phytosanitary agency for further modernization and digitization of their 
internal systems. We are accessing the capacity and equipment of phytosanitary laboratories in 
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan with the goal of modernizing. The activity also helps with revising 
legislation and regulations whether that be for border crossing authorities or for food safety.   
10.233.   First of all, the activity is active in strengthening private sector associ ations with a goal of 
greater involvement of the private sector in trade policy development. This is important in a region 
which traditionally had strong government control. One thing we do is train private sector G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  associations to monitor implementation of the National Trade Facilitation Committees' action plans. 
We are proud that all eight of the private sector associations that the USAID central Asia trained 
have been included in Kazakhstan's Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development Working 
Group on Transport Matters. The Central Asian Transport and Logistic Partnership supported by 
USAID since 2015 is a regional association that advocates for pro -business reforms and it has 
analyzed border crossing procedures, and it has also reviewed Customs an d regulations and 
produced recommendations for modernizing Customs for Central Asia covering a wide range of 
technical areas.  
10.234.   Our activity takes a sustainable approach to strengthening the private sector trade 
consultants who will remain on the scene and h elp their business clients access new customers and 
new markets. Some examples of this work are the USAID trained global gap consultants in 
Turkmenistan who so far have helped three large producers get certification, and a region -wide 
USAID supported trade  promotion consultants who are receiving training and then for a limited 
period receiving financial support if they deliver for their clients. Finally, I would like to invite you all 
to seek out and enjoy a very nice success story about USAID's support for  Uzbekistan as it gained 
membership in the IPPC. The story highlights how this move helped growers on the ground .  
10.235.   The next presentation on trade facilitating agricultural systems and technology was 
presented by the Chair of the Commercial Information and Transparency Working Group of the 
Paraguay NTFC, who also was Paraguay's first authorized economic operator, and a certified customs 
broker.  
10.236.   The presenter from Paraguay  indicated the following:  
10.237.   I will discuss the implications of the T -FAST project for the  NTFC. We have collaborated 
with the T -FAST project since the beginning of 2019. It is a project to facilitate trade, financed by 
the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) focusing on simplifying, modernizing, and harmonizing 
the import, export, and transit procedures of agricultural goods in Paraguay. The T -FAST project 
certainly represents a before -and-after for the NTFC of Paraguay because it has as its major objective 
to include technological solutions that replace the paper processes, prone to corruption . TFAST also 
supported a pre -existing initiative in the private sector called "Mapping of the Systematization of 
Foreign Trade Procedures in Paraguay" which covered land, air, and fluvial transport, given that 
Paraguay is a landlocked country.  
10.238.   This mappin g study was extremely comprehensive and inclusive, conducted through more 
than 50 full-day workshops involving over five hundred representatives of the private sector and the 
twenty -seven public authorities that participate in the NTFC. In the workshops, t hese mapping 
activities identified 273 improvement opportunities and more importantly, there was collective 
agreement on 257 improvement measures among participants of the public and private sectors. An 
agreement was not reached for all the problems identi fied but certainly for most of them.  
10.239.   After finishing the mapping study, we incorporated these agreed -upon solutions in the 
approved NTFC action plans, which we are now we are implementing. Without this mapping study 
our NTFC would not have the global pers pective it now has. I would like to recommend to other 
NTFCs to conduct similar collaborative activities to get everyone, public and private sectors, on the 
same page, spending less time on discussions on what needs to get done and more time focusing 
on the details of how to do it.  
10.240.   Being part of the NTFC in Paraguay is particularly challenging. We address real and urgent 
trade issues, sometimes to the detriment of powerful interests that exist in all sectors. It is not easy 
to keep up with the multiple wee kly sector -specific meetings and change the mindset of both public 
and private sectors. However, we are certainly motivated. Although we run into important roadblocks 
when implementing the solutions, we are making progress, slowly but surely. Next year, th e NTFC 
will go through an important test for which T -FAST's continued support will be critical. We have 
general elections coming up in Paraguay and we will see if the institutionalization of the NTFC will in 
fact prevail over the political changes. The NTF C has garnered the momentum to address more 
ambitious and longstanding issues such as logistics, information management, and air freight 
governance, among others. We look forward to continuing to improve Paraguay's trade conditions 
to make Paraguay an incr easingly welcoming country to do business with. What we always say is 
persist but not desist.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.241.   The delegate of Paraguay  indicated the following:  
10.242.   Paraguay thanks this presentation on the T -FAST project, financed by the US Department 
of Agriculture. Likewise , we thank the delegation of the US for their continuous support in 
implementing the TFA. As noted in the presentation, T -FAST aims to simplify, modernize, and 
harmonize import, export, and transit procedures for agricultural products in Paraguay. Together  
with efforts from the public and private sector, the programme will reduce the trading costs for 
agricultural products in 14% and will reduce processing times for the release of goods in 30%. The 
project will improve predictability through transparency an d process automation.  
10.243.   We cannot fail to highlight the importance of projects such as this, especially for a 
landlocked developing country like Paraguay, because of the 25% contribution that agriculture 
makes to our GDP, its 59% contribution to exports and  the fact that it comprises 25% of our 
workforce.  
10.244.   Agriculture is of transcendental importance to our population and for sustainable 
development. Between 2008 and 2017, the increase in agricultural exports coincided with a 
reduction by more than 20% of tota l poverty and 12% of extreme poverty in our country.  
10.245.   Paraguay strongly believes in the importance of technical assistance and capacity building 
for the implementation of this Agreement. To date, we have achieved a 96.2% implementation rate, 
thanks to the staunch support from our donors. We will continue to collaborate with our strategic 
partners until we achieve 100% implementation of the TFA to ensure that we are fully integrated 
into global trade, overcoming the additional obstacles that we face as a lan dlocked country.   
10.246.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
10.247.   I would like to thank the presenter for the presentation, it was very informative. I was 
struck by the presenter that said that they had over 270 bottlenecks or areas of conflict  or challenges 
that together with the private sector through their NTFC they were able to successfully resolve over 
250 of them.  That is a huge number and if she could share from her experience, would that have 
been possible before the creation of the NTF C? Is this kind of change something they will internalize 
in Paraguay to bring that kind of success moving forward?  
10.248.   The presenter said that it is challenging because the problems and the conflicts/challenges 
come in real time as we all know in the Customs  space and especially during COVID there was a 
need to constantly pivot as conditions on the ground changed. So, I was wondering if she could give 
us a little bit of her experience of how the NTFC operated and how important it was during COVID 
as changes o n the ground were constant to keep cargo moving. And finally, the information that 
there was a 20% reduction in poverty and a 12% reduction in extreme poverty over implementation 
was very striking.  
10.249.   The presenter from Paraguay  indicated the following:  
10.250.   During the COVID -19 period, we learned how to work together using various technological 
means. It was a bit difficult in the beginning, but in time we gained more experience. I cannot say 
that we met as often but tried to do it a t least once a month. In parallel to that, with also made 
efforts to ensure meetings of the working sub -groups. The meetings also continued to take place 
between the private and public sectors. It was not ideal, but we did not stop.  
10.251.   In my presentation, I said it was very intense to follow the pace of the NTFC because we 
meet every 30 or 40 days. However, it was more demanding within the working sub -groups, where 
you are effectively doing to the work. However, it was positive because we saw see that the 
investment in time and knowledge leads to results. That is why I suggested that public/private 
collaboration is the best way to find solutions to problems and issues that we face to improve TFA 
implementation. That is my suggestion and that is my experience.  
10.252.   There was a question about whether Paraguay was already working closely with public 
institutions before the implementation of the Agreement. Here I should say it depends on which 
public institution. We were already working very closely with the Customs au thorities, for example. 
This on -going, hand -in-hand work with the Customs authorities and with the private sector was also G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  transmitted to the other public institutions. Therefore, we could say that before the Agreement we 
worked with public institutions bu t not as closely as we do today after the Agreement. The support 
of T-FAST was, is, and will be fundamental as there is more work to do. We have achieved many 
goals, and plenty remain for the future.  
10.253.   The delegate from Paraguay  indicated the following:  
10.254.   In response to the US question, yes, the information that we have are national data as 
provided by the Ministry of Agriculture. This is just to say that between 2008 and 2017 the export 
in agriculture commodities coincided with a reduction in poverty - total poverty by 20% and extreme 
poverty by 12%. Just to mention the additional obstacles that we have: as an example, not only the 
additional cost from the pandemic where we had issues with the cost of containers and transport to 
get our products out to the por ts. We also had a problem with the hydro way Panama/Paraguay as 
the result of an important drought that made everything more difficult. In our case, if we need to 
get our products out, we need to use the fluvial transport system. Eighty % of our products go  
through this hydro way to the maritime ports and we had to adapt to the drought of this hydro way. 
Our products took an additional seven days to get to these ports and to get to other markets. 
We have so many obstacles to overcome and so projects like thi s (TFAST) can help identify solutions. 
The working group identified more than 250 measures and then one by one they try to work on 
them. The NTFC is going to be key to keeping the institution alive and making it more active as well 
as to having a solution -oriented work programme.  
10.255.   Presentation by Bangladesh  
10.256.   The Director -General of the WTO Division in the Ministry of Commerce of Bangladesh  (who 
is also a member secretary of the Bangladesh NTFC and the focal point of coordinating the 
implementation of trade fa cilitation measures) shared a presentation on the Bangladesh Food for 
Progress, as follows:   
10.257.   Bangladesh has already notified 13 measures under category C, as well as their definitive 
implementation dates. We have got development partners with eight of those measures and some 
parts of ten measures actually. We have not yet found any development par tners for five measures.  
There are several agencies that are working to implement the TFA measures, among them World 
Bank, USAID, USDA, JICA and some other organizations.   
10.258.   Among those organizations, the United States Department of Agriculture funded one of our 
lead projects, the Bangladesh Trade Facilitation Project (BTF) which is supporting the Government 
of Bangladesh to implement the category C measures. The project is working to expand the value 
and volume of agricultural trade in the country by addre ssing systemic constraints. The Bangladesh 
trade facilitation project is directly and indirectly supporting as many as 10 category C measures 
focusing on simplification, harmonization and automation of procedures, the introduction of risk 
management system , the development of laboratories capacity and expanding cold chain logistics 
in the country. The project is working with nine agro -trade and policy related agencies of the 
government.   
10.259.   So far, the BTF project has made significant contributions to the Imp ort Policy Order 
2021-24 and National Budget 2022 -23, which are among the main legislations guiding international 
trade in Bangladesh. A significant reduction in tariffs on cold storage freezers was among the 
achievements under the policy intervention. Tho ugh the concept of risk management is not widely 
known or practiced, other than the Customs organization, the project through its extensive 
advocacy, sensitization and training programmes was able to establish a Risk Management Unit at 
the major agro -trade  regulatory agencies in Bangladesh namely the Department of Agricultural 
Extension, the Department of Livestock Services, and the Department of Fisheries. BTF is supporting 
the public -private coordination in TFA implementation and has established a dedicat ed Agro Trade 
Working Group under the NTFC.  
10.260.   BTF has seen significant success in a very short period mainly because of its demand -driven 
design approach. The project activities are aligned with the Government's visions like export 
diversification and Digita l Bangladesh vision and also targets agencies' priorities. The agencies are 
given ownership of the activities and BTF plays a supportive role which naturally expedites the 
implementation process and ensures sustainability. Formalization of partnership with  Government G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  agencies through a memorandum of understanding and establishing Project Engagement 
Committees at each agency have also been useful in coordination and monitoring.  
10.261.   The project has tremendous opportunities in facilitating the agro -trade of the co untry by 
implementing the TFA measures. The introduction of risk management can significantly contribute 
to reduced time and cost of agro -trade. In addition, policy reforms in line with international best 
practices and harmonization of procedures will impr ove the country's position as a trusted trading 
partner. BTF is supporting the exporters to meet the importing country compliance requirements 
like contract farming, traceability, EU Traces, etc. ISO certification of the laboratories will enhance 
the credi bility of Bangladeshi products . 
10.262.   Regarding challenges, the project is facing some challenges in on -boarding all the agencies 
in the process, especially as risk management is still a new area agencies are not very confident to 
initiate the system. In additio n, though implementations are being regularly monitored, some delays 
are also visible due to procedural issues. For example, bringing changes in legislation can be time -
consuming as it takes multiple steps and bureaucratic procedures. Overall knowledge of the 
measures under the TFA is limited in some of the agencies, especially the ones with less involvement 
in cross -border trade. As BTF is taking a holistic approach and targeting all the agro trade -related 
agencies, it is having to intervene in creating aw areness of TFA measures, as well.   
10.263.   Thanks to USDA, USDA BTF has been an impactful partner to the Ministry of Commerce 
and other agro -trade-related agencies. The government of Bangladesh acknowledges USDA's 
support to Bangladesh.  
10.264.   We also have been impleme nting single window through the support of the World Bank and 
also border infrastructure also supported by the World Bank, JICA and some other organizations. 
We believe that the remaining five measures of our category C provisions will get a development 
partner soon and we will be able to implement those measures within the notified definitive date.  
10.265.   The delegate of Bangladesh  indicated the following:  
10.266.   My thanks go to USDA for funding the Bangladesh Trade Facilitation Project and the 
presenter for his informa tive presentation on the opportunities and challenges of the programme. 
Bangladesh gives high priority to the implementation of the TFA in order to integrate into the 
international trading environment as trade has been contributing significantly in the LDC  graduation 
process and it is in the 2030 agenda. Bangladesh invites and welcomes US and other development 
partners and donors for technical assistance and financial co -operation to implement TFA category 
C provisions within the notified implementation dat es.  
10.267.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:   
10.268.   I was very impressed by the presentation in general and in particular my attention was 
caught by the challenges and the difficulties of inter -agency collaboration. This is something that 
resonates with our government, with all governments, I think. What advice would you give your 
colleagues to address the challenge of bringing all agencies on board at the same level? Could you 
pick the top three pieces of advice that you would give to your in teragency colleagues?   
10.269.   The presenter from Bangladesh  indicated the following:  
10.270.   Inter-agency cooperation is a big problem in Bangladesh because when we go for the 
implementation of measures, coordination becomes the problem. Some organizations like to stay 
within themselves and there is a tendency to accept changes among themselves. We try to sensitize 
them through the NTFC, bring them together and show them what they need to do and how they 
need to co -operate with each other.  Also, we are sitting separatel y with all the officials of the 
individual agencies to appraise them of the necessity of risk management issues, trade facilitation 
issues and how they can cope with this. Sometimes we found that the legislation that they are 
working under has some kind of  provisions that is kind of risk management and expedited shipment. 
These are not within the legislation so they like to stay with the legislation. Now, we are assisting 
them and appraising them that they can come up with changes to the legislation. We are  trying to 
show them the benefits that it can bring to our economy. I believe from what I saw, they become G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  positive when they sit together and we can discuss things together, and we can make them positive 
towards cooperating with each other.   
10.271.   The delegate  of the United States  indicated the following:   
10.272.   Regarding opportunities, you specifically noted cold storage, which from our experience is 
one of the greatest emerging issues that we are hearing constantly about - the lack of cold storage 
available to tra ders. It became most noticeable and the lack became very clear during Covid because 
most of the supplies that had to be moved needed to be in cold storage and the lack of cold storage 
became a big issue. We are being asked by our stakeholders - there is a big push in this area - to 
try to raise awareness of the lack of cold storage which greatly impacts the movement of perishable 
goods and a lot of agricultural goods and those beyond that. In our experience, the only cold storage 
the government suppl y is wh en it is for the government to do its particular work, meaning 
examinations or such, but access to cold storage to hold the goods is actually something provided 
by the private sector. But it is the regulatory environment that the government provides that m akes 
cold storage investment attractive or not. Most people that want to build cold storage around ports 
have to know that they are going to be able to have goods moved into there and it be utilized. So, 
it becomes incumbent upon the governments to utilize  the TFA, reducing formalities and thinking 
about how you let goods be stored in private sector warehouses that have cold storage while you 
wait to do an examination or before release.  So, there is a lot in TFA that has to do with cold 
storage, and I real ly think and I hope that in the coming year this could be part of a large 
conversation in this Committee. I did want to ask the presenter what he has seen and what they are 
thinking about in Bangladesh when it comes to cold storage and public or private in volvement and 
what they are thinking about especially understanding cold storage involves so many other agencies.   
10.273.   The presenter from Bangladesh  indicated the following:  
10.274.   The US rightly mentioned that the cold storage issue is very important in Bangladesh 
because Bangladesh is a country with high temperatures remaining for a longer time, especially for 
the agricultural products that are coming from the field to the market. We conducted several studies 
and we found that around 40% of the harvested products are being wasted during carrying and 
storage. So, storage, and not only cold storage, is the whole chain system from after harvesting, 
carrier and storage, the whole system  has been taken into consideration that it can support to retain 
the product quality, including products like onions and other things. We saw that in the off season 
these products become scarce and in order to store those seasonal products we need some col d 
storage. The other question is about the approach - whether this will be done by the government or 
private sector. We are doing this through government support. Government alone is doing some, 
but many cold storage facilities are mostly built by the priv ate sector. We are exploring some other 
options with public -private partnership co -operation. Even in the Bangladesh Trade Facilitation 
project when the government is the owner of the port area, we are looking for private partners who 
can share the cold st orage facilities within the support areas. So public -private partnership is another 
area we are trying to implement these cold storage facilities within the country to retain the agro -
products in the country.   
10.275.   The delegate from Egypt  made a presentation o n the Egypt Food for Progress SPS/TFA 
Programme.  
10.276.   I would also like to thank the US for having put together, implemented, the transformation 
of the assessment and inspection of food businesses in Egypt with the TAIB project. TAIB in Arabic 
is kind and this is a really kind project because of the deliverables and achievements. TAIB intends 
to expand exports of the Egyptian food products by scaling up the capacity of the Egyptian National 
Food Safety Authority (NFSA). The project focuses on providing assistanc e to harmonize Egypt's 
food law with international standards. This project demonstrates the importance of international 
collaboration to ensure a successful, modern food safety system.  It is the kind of project that would 
contribute to building the resili ence needed to face food insecurity around the globe.  
10.277.   TAIB project has contributed to an increase in trade of agriculture products by more than 
USD 1.2 billion by supporting the drafting of more than 20 administrative policies and procedures, 
and the appro val of 20 technical regulations governing the production, handling, and trade of food.  
It has also provided training for more than 1,100 Government food inspectors. With TAIB's support, 
Egypt is transforming from consignment sampling to a more risk -based approach that would promote G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  transparency, reduce the time and cost of food -import clearance allowing for food to be immediately 
released into the custody of the importer while awaiting compliance verification. TAIB has 
significantly reduced Egypt's samplin g rate of imported food consignments from 100% to 25% today.  
Furthermore, I would like to mention that TAIB has many useful objectives through which and after 
its successful conclusion in 2024 Egypt would become the regional model for Africa and the Middl e 
East for food standard setting and food safety inspection effectiveness and efficiency, leading to 
increased domestic, regional, and international trade. The outcome of the activities of the project 
are very promising and relevant to the proper functioni ng and implementation of both the TFA and 
the SPS Agreement.   
10.278.   Presentation by the United States  Department of Agriculture presentation on the Northern 
Triangle USD food for progress project in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.   
10.279.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
10.280.   In September 2022, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) got approval for 
a new Food for Progress Project in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.  This is a five -year project, 
funded at USD 37.8 million t hat will improve agricultural trade through stronger implementation of 
the TFA.  Some of the main points of the project include improving Customs systems and procedures, 
building institutional capacity for sanitary and phyto -sanitary procedures, and in add ition, the project 
will help strengthen climate smart value chains at the farm level. USDA is excited to begin this 
project in 2023 and will share experience in the future to this committee.   
10.281.   The delegate from El Salvador  indicated the following:  
10.282.   We are grateful for the support of the USDA to simplify, modernize, and harmonize trade 
procedures applicable to the horticultural products in the Central American Northern Triangle, of 
which El Salvador is part. We have heard about the project and its objective to facilitate the reduction 
of time and cost in trade operations, which fully coincides with the objectives in our country to 
facilitate trade.  
10.283.   The delegate from Honduras indicated the following:  
10.284.   Honduras thanks the United States for their support, and we thank USAID for their support 
through the Trade Facilitation Border Control Project since 2018. This project aims to increase 
economic growth in Central America, strengthening trade capacity and competitiveness in the region, 
supporting regional integratio n, and reducing the cost of trade. It also provides technical assistance 
and develops practical guidance for border control agencies to harmonize  processes and improve 
the use of IT systems which are crucial for everyday tasks related to border control. We  have 
benefitted from a revision of the customs ethics regulation in Honduras. In coordination with the 
CBP we have strengthened customs integrity in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador through 
specialized trainings organized in March, June, and July last  year. We are thankful for the assistance 
provided in this area and we hope to continue to improve trade facilitation in our country and in our 
region.  
10.285.   The delegate of Guatemala  indicated the following:  
10.286.   I wanted to join my colleagues from El Salvador and Honduras to thank the US for the 
immense support that they have been giving our countries. In fact, they have been great cooperators 
in the process of deeper integration between these three countries and we are grateful for the 
support. We would be happy to bring back the good practices coming out of these projects so that 
we can share them with the rest of the members of the committee.  
10.287.   Presentation on the Customs Integrity Issues Project  delivered by the Project Management 
Specialist, USAID El Salvador:  
10.288.   It is my pleasure to be participating in this session to present the trade capacity building 
efforts developed by USAID under the trade facilitation and border management project.  One of the 
components of this project is supporting a comprehensive implementation of the TFA in El Salvador, 
Guatemala, and Honduras by supporting the NTFCs, the authorized economic operators (AEO) 
programme, digitization of procedures, updating regulations, among other trade fac ilitation G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  initiatives in line with the TFA. We have had important advances in all these areas but in this 
presentation, I will be highlighting the assistance provided to strengthen the AEO programme in this 
country. In addition to supporting Customs under this support, USAID strengthened the AEO 
programme in the region by providing capacity building directly to the private sector. Supporting 
companies has been key, not only to benefit them from more efficient and transparent procedures, 
but also helping the m comply with regulations and processes, thus helping them move their goods 
across borders in a timely manner thus becoming more competitive. By also assisting companies, 
USAID makes both the private and public sectors be accountable for facilitating trade . What have 
we done? Well, in El Salvador, USAID has been supporting companies in improving their import and 
export procedures by helping them identify and manage their own customs and security risks, 
improving their trade procedures, and preparing them to  be certified as trusted operators. 
We started in 2021 and by now there is one AEO company that has been recently certified.  
10.289.   In Guatemala, USAID trains companies to manage their own risk. Additionally, the project 
trained five private sector representative s to become AEO experts. These experts are currently 
providing support to companies to meet the requirements set by Customs so they can apply to also 
be certified as AEOs. Additionally, USAID provided training to Customs and companies under security 
standa rds to better manage the supply chain risks while facilitating trade. So far, we have 16 AEO 
companies that have been certified and there are a further 16 coming up.   
10.290.   In Honduras, USAID supported Customs, developed the AEO programme and created the 
AEO un it. Considering the success the project had in Guatemala, we also trained six experts in 
Honduras. Currently, these experts are also supporting companies in their process to become AEO 
operators. It is important to say that here in Honduras they recently s tarted the process and they 
have considerably advanced, thanks to their commitment to develop the AEO programme.  
10.291.   In addition to this direct assistance, USAID and the Organization of American states (OAS) 
and its departments have developed two virtual event s to create more awareness of the AEO 
programme.   
10.292.   Last but not least, were the challenges and opportunities. There are challenges that we are 
definitely going to continue addressing. The two main ones are (i) incorporating to the AEO 
programme other contr ol entities in order to enhance border control agencies coordination.  Customs 
is not the only one at the borders so there needs to be a coordination with other agencies and so 
they also have to be part of this AEO programme. We are going to be working to support countries 
with this effort.  And then strengthening mutual recognition agreements with other AEO programmes 
for companies to have better access to other markets.   
10.293.   The delegate from the United Kingdom  indicated the following:  
10.294.   The Authorized Economi c Operator programme is a very interesting one. I think we all 
recognize it has a lot of benefits but some countries offer trusted trader programmes and then to 
actually get AEO status can take quite a lot of effort from businesses. Therefore, a really cle ar 
articulation of the benefits is very important. I notice in the presentation that we are talking about 
the regional workshops and the benefits.  I wondered if you could say a bit more about the technique 
for getting private sector enthusiasm for applyin g to AEO.   
10.295.   The delegate from Honduras  indicated the following:  
10.296.   We thank USAID for the work we have been doing since 2018 on trade facilitation and 
coordinated border management. We hope to continue to work in the same way, to strengthen 
customs integrity between Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. We also thank the USDA for their 
help in the past month, as well. The USDA met with our NTFC to inform us about an orchard project 
which will facilitate local, regional, and international trade, will foster cli mate change mitigation and 
reduce the economic insecurity that arises from migration.  
10.297.   The delegate from El Salvador  indicated the following:  
10.298.   We thank the presentation which gave good examples of the valid support that we have 
received from USAID, through the regional programme for trade facilitation and border control. 
The implementation of annual work plans of our NTFC has been supported by USAID and I would G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  like to highlight the assistance we have received in preparing a national strategy of trade facili tation 
for the period 2023 -2027, which we are close to adopting in upcoming weeks. We have also received 
technical assistance and capacity building of human resources to advance our incorporation to the 
Northern Triangle Deep Integration Project, as well a s the simplification of trade procedures using 
technology. We hope to continue working together on trade facilitation projects to benefit our private 
sector and to benefit our country.  
10.299.   The delegate from the United States  indicated the following:   
10.300.   It is d ifficult to bring other agencies into an AEO programme and we wondered if you could 
touch a little bit on strategies that USAID and the northern triangle countries are working on to 
accomplish that high bar of a goal and also hear a little bit about the mu tual recognition arrangement 
process and how that might be working especially among the three countries that are involved in 
the same programme.  
10.301.   The presenter from El Salvador  responded as follows:  
10.302.   First to the United Kingdom - one of the main challenges of the AEO has been the benefits 
offered by the customs authorities. Guatemala and Honduras are doing a great job in showing the 
benefits that the companies have, and companies are experiencing those benefits, especially when 
mutual recognition arrangements are signed.  
10.303.   Regarding the US question, the benefits in these countries are mainly to have quicker 
access to cross the borders. If you come to central America, you will see long lines at the borders, 
definitely the infrastructure is not the bes t and you only have a two -lane road to the border. Having 
a single line is not easy but going through the border quickly, having all their paperwork done – 
pre-arrival procedures and not stopping at the borders - makes their life much easier. That is how 
we have been addressing those challenges here in the region. Definitely, it is still a challenge in 
some countries but since Costa Rica has done a great job with AEOs, Guatemala is doing a great job 
Honduras is also advancing very quickly, and El Salvador i s now also aligned, it is easier to continue 
convincing companies that to become AEOs is to their own advantage. It makes them more 
competitive not only to cross the borders withing the region but to access other markets which is 
why mutual recognition arr angements are one of the supports that we want to support.  
10.304.   In response to what the United States was asking, Guatemala has made great advances in 
these mutual recognition programmes. They have signed mutual recognitions with a group of 
companies, includin g in South America where they have signed one which in 13 counties so they 
already have access to all these countries in South America including Paraguay and Peru. 
So, Guatemala is definitely taking the lead with the AEO programme and the Customs Director has 
been very inspiring for the other two countries that we support under this trade facilitation and 
border management activity.  
10.305.   Regarding the other question on bringing all the border controls together - yes, definitely 
it is not easy,  but we started/in itiated with an important effort in Honduras. We recently developed 
joint inspections between agriculture, (SENATA) and Customs authorities in Honduras so we are 
launching a pilot programme at Puerto Cortez. We are going to be interconnecting this to agenc ies 
electronically so that they can share information when the cargo arrives,  and they will decide when 
to make those inspections together and definitely saved a lot of time. This is the first effort where 
we are moving forward. We are going to launch this  effort next week in Honduras. So, this is step 
by step and it is not an easy job. Trade facilitation as a whole is not easy as it requires so many 
actors together, including the private sector, but this is the first great effort that we are doing,  and 
it is thanks to the commitment of Honduras. The Government is really committed and now that 
SENATA and Customs authorities have developed joint inspections in Honduras we hope that we can 
replicate this effort in Guatemala and El Salvador.   
10.306.   Presentation by t he United Kingdom  on the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme.  
10.307.   The delegate from the United Kingdom  indicated the following:  
10.308.   The United Kingdom is a firm believer in the power of trade to reduce poverty, boost 
resilience to external shocks and to drive environmental and societal benefits, such as women's G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  economic empowerment. The UK has a range of programmes which aim to support developing 
countries to increase their trade and investment, and this includes support for the implementation 
of the TFA.  
10.309.   A number of broader UK support include programmes in Asia, such as the Asia Regional 
Trade & Connectivity programme administered by the World Bank, and the Revenue Mobilization 
Investment in Trade programme with the ITC which supports reforms in Pakistan inclu ding on trade 
facilitation. We are also working with the ITC on other initiatives, including the UK Trade Partnership 
Programme supporting developing countries to export to the UK, and the "She Trade"s Initiative to 
support women entrepreneurs to trade.  
10.310.   Today, we want to focus on one of our purely TFA focused programmes called "Accelerate 
Trade Facilitation".  
10.311.   The presenter from the United Kingdom  made the following presentation:  
10.312.   I would like to talk specifically about the Accelerate Trade Facilitation prog ramme which is 
a UK sponsored partnership working with the World Customs Organization and UNCTAD to support 
the implementation of the TFA. I would like to reflect on some key factors we have found to support 
sustainable capacity building. I would like to o ffer a donor perspective on some of the challenges we 
face in achieving sustainable trade facilitation reform and finally I would like to highlight ongoing 
and upcoming areas of focus with further coordination. I will look to refer to some broad examples 
generally throughout this presentation,  but it is really our developing partners and colleagues in 
UNCTAD and the WCO who are very much leading on this activity on the ground. I certainly do not 
want to take ownership away from that, so this presentation is  really about trying to offer a UK 
donor perspective at a programmatic level.  
10.313.   The programme is a dedicated funder programme to support implementation of the TFA.  
It started in 2015 and was recently renewed for a further three years until 2025. The programme's 
fundamental objective is to work with Customs administrations to build institutional capacity which 
usually involves providing long -term assistance for partners to ultimately drive sustainable reform. 
This is very much in spirit with the WTO Di rector -General's opening remarks this morning about TFA 
implementation being very much a ground -up affair. The programme is a three -pronged approach 
to the kind of support that is provided. There is a TFA article regarding specific capacity building 
assist ance; there is support for Customs administrations with organizational development reform; 
and it is also about empowering NTFCs to drive internal reform. As of now, in the full phase of the 
programme, we are currently in partnership in 26 countries.  
10.314.   With regard to the sort of support the programme looks to provide in practice, I think 
actually a lot of this has been covered very nicely by delegates earlier so perhaps to summarize 
instead and save some time.  The WCO is of course a membership organization. The WCO's trade 
facilitation capacity building support is principally delivered through their Customs to Customs 
approach using expertise from across the global Customs community and that includes the UK's 
Customs Administration (HMRC), but it can also inc lude other customs administration partners, for 
example, the South African Revenue Service and the US Customs Border Protection amongst others.  
10.315.   UNCTAD's work is centered around the Empowerment Programme working with NTFCs. 
One of the key elements of this s upport is through the Reform Tracker alongside UNTAD's continuous 
training and coaching approach during setup. This contributes to putting NTFCs in a place where the 
TFA envisaged them to be in, in the first place, as the driving force behind trade facilit ation reform.   
10.316.   Coming to HMRC 's role, it is very much focused on ensuring that the programme continues 
to provide value for money, making sure we have gotten clear impact level results in mind, but also 
looking to generate long -term sustainability. There are experts from HMRC and UK's border force, 
as well, who are used to delivering some of the customs reform activity, particularly through the 
WCO.   
10.317.   Among the 26 countries that Accelerate Trade Facilitation is currently partnered with, both 
the WCO and UN CTAD are collaborating in some countries,  and we do our best to try and generate 
complementarity between the different offers. So obviously with the NTFCs supported by UNCTAD 
we will look to coordinate priorities and donor activity across trade facilitatio n reform and then the G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  WCO action plans and working groups will often feed in directly to the UNTAD reform tracker too 
and it helps to create accountability for the NTFCs and helps them to maintain oversights as well 
across the reforms that are being taken forward.  
10.318.   That leads me on to the first key focus of this presentation, which relates to the key factors 
in supporting sustainable reform. Firstly, to ensure we have the necessary buy -in to drive 
sustainability, it is critical for all of our activities to b e needs -driven. Our programme will work with 
Customs administrations and NTFCs to identify potential priority areas but ultimately support is only 
rendered where there is a clear willingness and drive on the part of the beneficiary. We find, time 
and time again, often developing members are collaborating with multiple development 
organizations and often, the staff who are interacting with those different organizations are also 
obviously juggling their day jobs. Therefore, we try to make sure we secure senio r leadership support 
to make sure that they have the necessary bandwidth in place to support this programme too.  
10.319.   Secondly, we are also conscious that there are always ways to deliver different activities 
through different lenses, not least gender equality.  Our programme has been at the forefront in 
supporting and delivering tools to try and mainstream gender. Firstly, within Customs administration 
themselves to enable the participation of women and that is through the WCO's gender equality and 
organizationa l assessment tools which helps to self -identify areas of reform, and secondly, in terms 
of developing learning modules to determine inclusive policy decision making that reflects the lived 
experience of women traders, which can include coercion, discrimina tion, harassment for women 
traders trying to cross borders. There is an excellent UNCTAD Policy brief that has compiled various 
recommendations produced by NTFCs on practical ways that gender can be integrated into trade 
facilitation reform.  
10.320.   Thirdly, refer ring back to the competition for bandwidth when providing capacity building 
support, one of the ways to best ease that pressure is to make sure that our support is well -
coordinated. We are cognoscente that sometimes the reality is that there is a competiti on to provide 
certain areas of assistance, particularly where strong outcomes can be achieved. Obviously, this can 
be healthy, it can drive innovation, it can drive efficiencies, and it can ultimately better the results 
that everybody is looking for. At th e same time, through "Accelerate Trade Facilitation" we found it 
very important to ensure that we are appropriately coordinated, and so our programme regularly 
coordinates with other Annex D+ organizations. As a donor in this programme, it might mean 
occas ionally that the UK foregoes an opportunity to sponsor or be affiliated with whole activities in 
their entirety and it means that sometimes things are not necessarily clear -cut in terms of what has 
been delivered and where, but ultimately if we create a be tter impact, then that is the result that 
we are looking for.  
10.321.   The fourth point here is that one of the strengths which I think is particularly crucial to the 
programme has been its focus on longevity. I mentioned before that the programme has existed 
since 2015 and it can take time to establish relationships which will bring an understanding of the 
context of the support you are trying to provide,  and the long -term implementation plans that can 
prove a real strength. This has allowed us a greater level of c ontinuity with a deeper connection with 
our partners in the programme that we are working with, including working group practices, and 
you spend less time having to develop new relationships or identifying different priorities and actually 
allows you to co ntinue to build on existing investment.   
10.322.   The final point here is the importance of contextualized interventions, particularly when we 
are exploring the provision of article -specific technical assistance. We will try to understand the 
wider trade and logis tical context and so, for instance, we will work with programme partners to 
understand what trade policy initiatives are being developed, and what is underway. As a good 
example, we recently visited a partner in Africa which has the ambition to develop an airport into a 
regional transit hub in Southern Africa. It helps us refocus around the possible benefits of expedited 
shipments and air cargo streamlining and the need to bring in other government agencies who are 
involved in that initiative.   
10.323.   A lot of ex cellent work is being driven by developing Members and developing organizations 
across this programme. The following are simply reflections from a donor management 
programmatic viewpoint on some of the challenges.   G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.324.   First, securing sustainability, which ca n be considered here in a couple of ways. 
Our programme is fundamentally about enabling self -led supply side reform but there would always 
be a limited impact if there is not a domestic budget -line in place once that support cycle has come 
to an end, for e xample, with UNCTAD support with e -learning or on the reform tracker with NTFCs.  
10.325.   If there is not sustainable funding or the political will to support the NTFC, sometimes the 
impact of that work can fall away. However, that said, of course we have to recognize that sometimes 
the resource is very limited or is not there. I think that the  other sustainability lens is institutional.  
10.326.   There are new opportunities or shifting political priorities that can lead to staff turnover 
which can risk expertise and institutional memory to maintain effective reform. We frequently find 
that rotation poli cies within Customs administrations can stilt the progress, particularly of working 
groups that are assigned to drive certain areas forward.  
10.327.   Secondly, there is a need to demonstrate impact, and the clear added value are the 
activities provided with our pr ogramme partners. Some activities lend themselves really well to these 
sorts of impacts and we can measure clear -cut efficiencies in clearance times, reduced compliance 
costs for traders, and increased revenue streams. However, for other activities that th e programme 
delivers it can be more challenging to prove the direct result or prove causality, quite often in the 
case of organizational development areas, so support on things like learning and development or 
human resources which do not often translate i nto impact -level results. Of course, all countries and 
NTFCs experience similar challenges when it comes to finding ways to measure performance and I 
think this is something that we continually have to bear in mind.  
10.328.   The third point in these ongoing challe nges is to ensure that the activity is still appropriately 
coordinated with other development work. More recently, this is an area where we have seen 
significant progress but even so, we still come across missed opportunities to maximize the 
effectiveness of the overall resource, which particularly tends to materialize when we are in -country.  
10.329.   The fourth point here is the challenge behind the trade -offs between the breadth and depth 
of support, particularly if you are looking at capacity building strictly t hrough the lens of the TFA. 
You can look at WTO Members' outstanding category C measures but that may not necessarily reflect 
the reality of where assistance is either most needed or where the biggest impacts could be made.  
10.330.   Finally, many of the remaining category C measures are inevitably some of the most 
challenging to implement. Single windows can be extremely complex, they can vary widely in terms 
of the intended impact. For example, how can a single window be operationalized across different, 
relevant government agencies? What would be the scope and documentation content? What are the 
systems currently in place? Those variables can make it very challenging to find the appropriate and 
sufficient assistance. Of course, this is not necessarily just for dev eloping Members, some of these 
articles can be challenging for Members across the Committee.  
10.331.   In conclusion, a lot of the work that is being taken forward over the next two years is 
already being coordinated across developing Members, donors, and the Annex D community. At the 
same time, there is always more to be done and so this is an open call to reach out if you think that 
more coordination can be helpful. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our developing 
Member partners that continue to show so much commitment to the programme and ask that they 
continue to take ownership in looking to coordinate the overall capacity -based assistance that they 
are receiving.  
10.332.   The representative from UNCTAD  indicated the following:  
10.333.   UNCTAD is very pleased to be associated with the collaboration with the UK and the WCO.  
I think this type of tripartite partnership is an innovative way of using the strengths of each of the 
organizations and we have seen that over the years. One of the advantages of this partners hip is its 
longevity, which also provides sustainability for the assistance being provided, and also sustainability 
for the partner countries that we are working with. It has also given us the opportunity to develop 
some of the tools that we are providing to the partner countries. This kind of partnership and having 
that kind of open dialogue with the funder and the partner WCO has been very beneficial, and I 
would very much like to thank the UK and the WCO, but most of all the partner countries we are 
working with for the collaboration we have in this partnership.   G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.334.   The representative from the World Customs Organization  indicated the following:  
10.335.   I would like to start off by expressing WCO's deep appreciation for the UK's commitment 
to the implementation of t he TFA and for recognizing the central role that Customs play in this 
context.  As the UK representative already mentioned, the programme started off initially in 2015 
and as we all know reforms can take time. The multi -year approach of the WCO Mercator 
Programme, financially made possible by the UK, allows us to be with the partner country through 
the reform journey towards not simply outputs but towards real tangible outcomes and impact in 
terms of increased alignment with the TFA and with this quicker, e asier, and less costly cross border 
trade resulting in inclusive sustainable development. In this context, our unique Customs for 
Customs model in which we leverage accredited Customs experts of the other administrations and 
the WCO secretariate for the be nefit of partner countries offers significant value for money. Lastly, 
of course we would also like to thank the UNCTAD colleagues for this partnership and the UK for 
bringing us together in one programme, of course recognizing and appreciating the complem entary 
nature of UNCTAD's support to NCTFs in various partner countries.   
10.336.   The delegate from the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.337.   With regard to the Accelerate Trade Facilitation programme which looks very promising and 
very interesting, I would li ke to know how much money is involved. A big word of thanks to the 
United States for the impressive array of presentations that they organized for this Committee, each 
of which was very highly interesting. I recognized a lot of important topics and regiona l partner 
countries where the European Union and its Member States are also active.  
10.338.   It struck me that the United States is leveraging the benefits of a regional approach in 
several of its programmes, as the EU is trying to do. As well as "ARISE", we are a lso taking a regional 
approach in Central America. Also, in Central Asia we have the EUR 15  million  "Ready for Trade" 
programme. There are lots of valuable lessons around trying to strike a good balance between what 
can be done at regional level and what c an be done at national level, that we will continue to explore 
together.  
10.339.   The presenter from the United Kingdom  indicated the following:  
10.340.   Thank you to the delegates from the United States and the European Union. Regarding the 
finances involved, this phase, i n particular over these three  years, is £4.2 million, which is alongside 
the other programmes supported by the UK that were mentioned earlier. The programme manages 
to leverage really significant in -kind contributions and we are very grateful to the Custom s 
administrations that continue to release experts that support the delivery of many of the activities, 
often at no cost to our programme directly.  We are also very grateful for the significant in -house 
expertise within UNCTAD on areas around trade facili tation and logistics that is invaluable to the 
programme more broadly as well.  
10.341.   The delegate from Ecuador  indicated the following:  
10.342.   As one of the beneficiary countries of the project described by the United Kingdom, we 
thank and recognize  the UK and the involved agencies. We have experienced firsthand the benefits 
of these projects and we encourage them to continue with this work.  
10.343.   The delegate from Japan indicated the following:  
10.344.    I would like to introduce Japan's co -operation with the WCO in assistance and capacity 
building in the field of trade facilitation. Every year, Japan provides a voluntary contribution to the 
Customs Co -operati on Fund (CCF) which was established to assist customs co -operation 
programmes provided by the WCO. For 2020 and 2021, Japan made a contribution amounting to 
about 22% of the total contribution to the Fund. The WCO has been utilizing the fund to provide 
technical assistance, including the dispatching of experts, by holding regional workshops or country 
by country seminars and by implementing human resources development programmes. In August 
this year, the WCO held a diagnostic mission in Mongolia on its impl ementation of post -clearance 
audit and the Japanese customs officers joined as experts. Through the course of the mission, the 
experts made recommendations based on their gap analysis. These activities held by the WCO in 
co-operation with Japan Customs dec ided, based on joint needs assessments of Japan Customs and G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  the Regional Office for Capacity Building for the WCO. Also, JICA (Japan International Cooperation 
Agency) is providing master trainer programmes in co -operation with the WCO, targeted at the 
Pacific Islands and African regions, to help provide training materials and programmes suited to the 
regions. Japan Customs is also contributing to the programmes by sending experts as project 
managers and lecturers for workshops. We recognize the importance t he synergy of working 
together with the WCO that has expertise in international standards and training skills, as well as 
human resources that have the expertise and ability to provide sound policy advice. We believe that 
Japan Customs can share its own ex periences and expertise based on the respective needs of 
developing country members and hence adds value to the work of the WCO.  
10.345.   The delegate from the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.346.   I would share a specific example of a successful regional approac h in supporting the 
implementation of the TFA because I think it shows how regional trade facilitation support can have 
a real added value in the field. Let me introduce you to the "ARISE Plus" programme. 
This programme started in 2013 with what was at the time ARISE. It is the seminal support 
programme that is financed by the European Union and consists of a mix between bilateral support 
for eight countries plus a package of regional support. "Arise Plus" is guided by four main 
components : 1) trade faci litation and transparency ; 2) standards and conformity assessment, in 
particular healthcare and agro -based products ; 3) Customs, transport, and ASEAN Customs Transit 
System (ACTS) ; and finally,  4) ASEAN economic, integration monitoring and statistics. 
More specifically on trade facilitation and Customs, there has been a focus on on -demand activities 
as well as a stronger interface between ASEAN institutions and the private sector, particularly 
through enhanced discussion within the series of ARISE Plus Roun dtable Discussions on Trade 
Facilitation and the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC).  Support has been provided towards 
the enhancement of customs and clearance procedures and the development of standard Authorized 
Economic Operator (AEO) programmes an d AEO Mutual Recognition Arrangements (AEOMRA). 
Looking at the main outputs in 2021 in these areas, because we still do not have the evaluation or 
monitoring conclusion for 2022, I would like to highlight the operationalization of the ASEAN Customs 
Transit  System  as well as the development of the ASEAN Trade Repository (ATR) which is a single 
point of access to all the trade -related information of ASEAN Member States. I hope this case study 
provides some interesting insights to the Membership.   
10.347.   The represe ntative from the World Customs Organization  indicated the following:  
10.348.   We would like to take this opportunity to thank Japan for their continuous support in the 
technical assistance and capacity building activities of the WCO regarding the implementation of the 
TFA, specifically through the WCO JICA joint project in Africa and the Pacific Islands, CCF Japan and 
also through accredited experts in different areas. We would like to extend a special thanks to CCF 
Japan for their financial support on the round of regional workshops on the WTO TFA that WCO 
launched last year and that will continue with two more regional workshops next year.  
10.349.   This concluded  sub-item 2.2.   
10.4  Agenda item 2.3: Consideration of where further collaboration and co -operation, 
including on a regional level might best support a future implementation of specific 
articles  
10.350.   The representative from the Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration  (SIECA) 
made the following presentation:  
10.351.   The Secretariat for Central American Economic Integrat ion is the technical administrative 
body of the process of economic integration, composed by Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, 
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. We work under the mandate of the Council of Ministers for 
Economic Integration which works as a governing body of the regional economic integration process.  
10.352.   I will present our experience implementing regional projects in trade facilitation. In 
addition, I will present two ambitious initiatives that the Council of Ministers has identified as 
strate gic in the work on trade facilitation in the future.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.353.   The Central American region works with a wide range of partners for development - 
international agencies and partners who have deposited their confidence in SIECA to implement 
various initiatives to impr ove the competitiveness of our economies, and particularly strengthen 
trade and investment relation between Member States. SIECA implements various regional projects 
under the mandate of the Council of Ministers, seeking a more efficient use of resources a nd to 
maximize the impact and expected results of different measures on trade facilitation. More than an 
administrative decision, the delegation of functions to SIECA for regional projects has become a key 
element to link together the public sector and pri vate sectors in dialogue and working spaces. 
As reference, SIECA implemented a project related to trade facilitation with the participation of 
partners such as European Union, USAID, IDB, World Bank, Spanish Co -operation Agency, and the 
Central American Ba nk for Economic Integration.  
10.354.   The European Union is one of the main partners  of the Central American region in terms of 
international co -operation focused on trade facilitation and support of the economic integration 
process. One of the projects financed wi th the help of the European Union is the regional programme 
for the quality and the implementation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures in Central America, 
implemented between 2010 and 2016 for EUR 23 million. Currently, with the support of the European 
Union, we are implementing the Central American Regional Integration project, with a value of 
EUR 22 million. It is not only the European Union that has trusted SIECA to implement regional 
projects for trade facilitation. Between 2018 and 2019, we have imp lemented initiatives with the 
financing of IDB, focused on the incorporation of technology in border control and strengthening 
coordinated border management. Likewise, with the support of the World Bank, we implemented 
the regional trade facilitation proje ct for agroindustry in Central America which aims to strengthen 
mutual recognition of sanitary registration of food and drink in Central America. Thanks to this 
measure, the region now has its system of mutual recognition for the sanitary registration of f ood 
and drink at the regional level.  
10.355.   During the regular session of the Trade Facilitation Committee, I presented the Central 
American Strategy for Trade Facilitation and Competition with an emphasis on coordinated border 
management. In the framework of thi s strategy, with the support of the IDB and Spanish Co -
operation, we have made important progress in implementing the technology of radio frequency 
identification (RFID) of five key border control posts of the Pacific Corridor in Central America.  
10.356.   Likewise,  in the framework of the Trade Facilitation Strategy, we have set up video cameras 
to improve and monitor transparency of cross -border operations. This project had support from the 
IDB. 
10.357.   The European Union financed the Central American Trade Digital Platfor m, through the 
Regional Integration Economic Project, administered by the IDB and implemented by SIECA. It is 
one of the most ambitious projects of regional integration, consisting of a catalog of services and 
procedures related to regional trade operation s. The project seeks to inter -operationalize platforms 
and existing national systems of migration, customs, single windows, and sanitary and phytosanitary 
services. One of the key products of this initiative is the regional integral risk management system,  
to be launched in tandem with the Central American Trade Digital Platform in 2023.  
10.358.   Also, we have a regional time release study, which is the first regional study conducted 
simultaneously in 13 border posts in the six Central American countries. It conside rs the WCO 
methodology as a reference, and it responds to the first pillar of the SAFE framework of the WCO. 
It covers definitive imports and exports, as well as international transit. The objective of this regional 
time release study is to identify gaps i n the flow of trade to implement coordinated measures with 
other private agencies and actors and accelerate release of goods, monitor release times and the 
synchronization of strategic actions among customs administrations to decrease the processing 
times.  We have a regional action plan as a dynamic work tool to control and follow up on 
implementation of actions that enables each customs administration in the region to decrease the 
average release times for each pair of countries, promoting one of the three  key strategies of the 
Central American Trade Facilitation Strategy.  
10.359.   I would like to highlight two regional initiatives that currently require support from donors. 
On 10 of November 2022, the Council of Ministers agreed to coordinate work to formulate a Ce ntral 
American Strategy for Trade Facilitation 2.0 that considers contemporary trends in international 
trade and would allow us to determined priority measures for the next years. We defined a work 
methodology with member countries which requires the devel opment of three phases including G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  diagnosis, formulation, and validation of version 2.0 of the Strategy 2.0. The Central American 
countries have identified the need for technical assistance throughout the process. They defined the 
creation of an advisory gr oup composed by the WTO, WCO and UNCTAD. In addition to technical 
assistance, we require cooperation funds to deliver regional and national workshops to validate the 
Strategy.  
10.360.   In addition, resulting from the first regional meeting of the National Trade Fac ilitation 
Committees, which took place in August 2023, the countries identified the implementation of the 
UNCTAD's NTFC Empowerment Programme as a good practice, stemming from Honduras ' 
experience. Consequently, one of the regional actions proposed to impl ement in 2023 is securing 
international cooperation resources to develop a regional NTFC Empowerment Programme to 
strengthen institutional capacity for implementation of the TFA. Together with UNCTAD, and with 
the support of SIECA, we are seeking to implem ent this empowerment programme at the regional 
level and to broaden the scope of UNCTAD's Reform Tracker so that it could be developed at the 
regional level.  
10.361.   As an obvious result, Central America has an active and dynamic agenda in trade facilitation 
supported by the necessary political endorsement for its implementation. We welcome donors and 
partners to come together and contribute to the development of Central America.  
10.362.   The delegate from the United Kingdom  indicated the following:  
10.363.   It is very encouraging  to see the benefits of the reform tracker in action after having 
discussed it in the session already. Noting the regional time release study, I think that would be a 
really interesting topic to hear more about in the future Committees meetings. I know the re have 
been other initiatives that are looking at being launched on regional time release studies so I'm sure 
we can do in this Committee to learn from each other the benefit of those.   
10.364.   The delegate from the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.365.   I also wanted to thank the Secretariat of SIECA. It is really the crowning presentation of 
all the regional presentations that we have had today, including our own. It gives a good prospect 
of how progress can be made at the regional level. We have actuall y combined as EU support for 
trade facilitation both under the TFA and under the Free Trade Agreement between the European 
Union and Central America to create synergies to support CEFTA (Central American European Free 
Trade Agreement).   
10.366.   The representative  from UNCTAD  indicated the following:  
10.367.   We certainly look forward to collaborating with the SIECA countries and the SIECA 
Secretariat on the exciting path forward. I think the presentation clearly outlines that there is still 
work to be done and we would like to partner with SIECA and stand read y to discuss with any 
potential donors on implementing the programmes that have been mentioned.   
10.368.   The delegate from the United States  indicated the following:  
10.369.   I know that SIECA does a lot of good work and has recently worked on the CAUCA update, 
and I beli eve it is working on RECAUCA regulations. I just wonder how that work fits into the work 
of out -year planning at a regional level.  
10.370.   The delegate from Costa Rica  indicated the following:  
10.371.   I would like to associate myself with the words of my colleagues, parti cularly to reiterate 
the commitment of Costa Rica to continue improving TFA implementation, both in category C 
measures and the rest. I would like to reiterate the interest of our region in continuing to foster 
capacity building, particularly concerning st rengthening our NTFCs. For this, we will need technical 
assistance to be able to participate in the UNCTAD's NTFC Empowerment Programme and the Reform 
Tracker.  
10.372.   The presenter from the SIECA Secretariat  responded as follows:  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.373.   We thank the United Kingdom for their comment regarding the relevance of the time 
release study. This is an exercise that already successfully took place in 2021 and we are now 
focused on implementing the regional action plan, composed of binational actions - by pairs of 
countries and pa irs of borders, as well as regional actions implemented by the customs 
administrations of Central American countries. We can certainly give you more information on this 
as part of this experience sharing.  
10.374.   Likewise, we would like to thank the United States  for their question on the relationship 
and consistency of the CAUCA and RECAUCA negotiations and the work on trade facilitation. On the 
one hand, the CAUCA negotiations cover the reform of customs procedures in force for trade 
operations. On the other han d, the Central American Strategy for Trade Facilitation has a 
multi-agency agenda. In other words, it includes elements of coordination of other governmental 
entities such as migration, health, agriculture, police, among others. For this reason, there is 
consistency between the two instruments that must complement each other for the development of 
regional trade.  
10.375.   This concluded  agenda item 2.  
10.5  Agenda item 3: Report by international and regional organizations and other 
agencies supporting the implementation o f the TFA in the activities that they have 
delivered in the period October 2021 to October 2022 as contained in the document 
G/TFA/W/85   
10.376.   The representative from UNCTAD  indicated the following:  
10.377.   I would like to take this opportunity to introduce briefly the  very recent study on NTFCs 
that UNCTAD has published.  
10.378.   As delegates will have previously seen, UNCTAD has a variety of tools in the area of trade 
facilitation and one of these is the UNCTAD database on NTFCs that we have maintained for a number 
of years.  
10.379.   This database right now includes information on about 134 NTFCs around the world. NTFCs 
self-report into the database on a number of features that are contained in the database. There is 
information available about objectives and scope, contact details, ins titutional frameworks, 
composition and gender, communications, and outcomes of the Committees. It also has a new area 
on sustainability. In the database, it is possible to look at a single NTFC, do some aggregations of 
data and also compare data between di fferent Committees.  
10.380.   Over the years, based on the data that has been consolidated in this database, UNCTAD 
has released since 2015 a number of studies of the experience by NTFCs and the latest of these is 
what I would like to present. It was published in No vember this year and is available on our website.  
10.381.   A new feature in the report and which is also in our database is what is called the 
sustainability score for NTFCs. This score aims at assessing the likelihood of an NTFC to be 
sustainable in the future and  focuses on the prerequisites for setting up an efficient NTFC but also 
considers a number of other parameters.  
10.382.   The main lessons from the report show that the main crucial factors for sustainability are 
political commitment - and that goes both for develop ing Members than least -developed countries - 
commitment plus a high level of participation from Members, involvement of the private sector, 
financial assistance - which is more important for least -developed countries and for developing 
Members - and co -operation among Members as well as a common understanding of the goals, and 
mutual trust.  
10.383.   Some of the main obstacles to NTFCs include lack of funding, lack of awareness of the 
importance of the NTFC; the issue of maintaining the engagement and motivation of the participants; 
a high level of support and political buy -in; and incorrect representation of members as well as 
frequent replacement of members. These are some of the challenges that are faced by NTFCs.  G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  10.384.   We have tried to track over the four editions of this report how the development has been 
between the top ten elements for sustainability . 
10.385.   The top outcomes of NTFCs that we see from the survey include improved coordination; 
ratification and notification of the TFA; improved transparency and dialogue amon gst stakeholders; 
raised awareness of the importance of trade facilitation and the development of an implementation 
plan for the TFA implementation.  
10.386.   So, I invite you to study this report. UNCTAD has also published our flagship report on 
trade logistics, th e so-called Review of Maritime Transport 2022 this week, which this year is entitled 
"Navigating Stormy Waters". It focuses on the current supply chain crisis.  
10.387.   The delegate of the United States  indicated the following:  
10.388.   I appreciate UNCTAD putting this pre sentation together. Is the information just presented 
based on survey data or is that based on data from the TF database? How do countries go about 
doing that self -update of the information about their NTFCs? If it is a website that we go to, it would 
be helpful if it could be circulated and in relation to the sustainability score – how is it calculated, 
and what are the algorithms?    
10.389.   The representative of UNCTAD  responded as follows:  
10.390.   Yes, the report is based on the online database and the data that we hav e in the database.  
In previous years we did specific surveys but having developed the input tool that we have for the 
online database this is no longer necessary.  I am very happy to circulate how countries can update 
their information in the online datab ase. It is also available on the website. On the sustainability 
score, the elements of this are also available on the online database website and you can go and 
visit this and how the sustainability score is put together. A number of elements that are also  
included in the report such as political commitment, chairmanship, whether there is a work plan, is 
there a decree, all of these elements are assigned a score. As this is a new product, we are obviously 
very open to suggestions for how we can improve it. Any of the indices can be improved and if there 
are any Members that have suggestions for this, we would very much like to hear them.   
10.391.   The committee took note  of the report, the information and of the statements made on 
agenda item 3.   
10.392.   This concluded  agenda item 3.   
10.6  Agenda item 4: Draft workplan of the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility for 2023 
which was circulated in document G/TFA/TFAF/W/1   
10.393.   The representative of the TFA Facility indicated the following:  
10.394.   This draft workplan sets out how TFAF will conduct its work in the four areas as set out in 
the new Framework for the Management and Operation of TFAF (G/TFA/3): (i) The Grant Program ; 
(ii) Technical Assistance and Capacity Building ; (iii) Engagement with Annex D and Development 
partners ; and (iv) the TFAF website.  
10.395.   In order to determine the activities that TFAF should carry out in 2023 within these four 
areas, we followed the process set out in the Framework and invited interested Members to work 
with us in the development of the plan.    
10.396.   We had volunteers from ten WTO Members, representing development partners, 
developing Members, the LLDC and LDC groups. (Botswana ; Canada ; China ; Ecuador ; Eswatini ; EU; 
Guatemala ; Nepal on behalf of the LDC Group ; OECS Secretariat ; and the United States). We are 
pleased to report that the process worked very well.  
10.397.   We took a 2 -step approach to develop the plan. The first step was for members of this work 
plan committee to identify the priorities for next year. They identified the nine priorities that are 
listed in section 2 of the plan -and are also repeated in the technical assistance activity chart in 
section 3. In identifying these priorities, the members took into consideration issues identified by G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  TFC Members in the TFA anniversary event, and four -year re view, as well as the top five 
implementation dates for 2023, plus MC12 outcomes.  
10.398.   The next step was to narrow down the focus of the priorities and identify the specific 
activities that TFAF should conduct to contribute to meeting these priorities. These inc lude: the 
transit workshop mentioned by Botswana this morning, to be held at the WTO immediately before 
the TFC dedicated session on transit; funding the participation of capital -based officials in next year's 
Committee meeting with the TACB dedicated sess ion and organizing additional workshops on the 
margins of the meeting; a global workshop on digitalization, smart border management and 
narrowing the digital divide; training for Chairs and secretariats of National TF Committees, and for 
TFAF to play a coo rdinating role, as requested, for any Members that will organize donor round tables 
or other sessions on development partner support.  
10.399.   Activities were not proposed for all of the nine priorities. However, all are retained in the 
plan because TFAF can suppor t some priorities through its coordination function, its website and 
through activity requests that are made throughout the year. These priorities are listed in the TACB 
activity chart, but it states that "no specific activity identified for 2023". For exa mple, no activity 
was identified for the top 5 implementation dates in 2023 and 2024. However, TFAF could focus on 
these TFA provisions when designing the programs of workshops, by finding experts on the topic, or 
by adding to the resources on the website for these provisions and highlighting these resources to 
make them easier to find.    
10.400.   I would like to note that we already have a database of Annex D projects on the website 
that we will continue to update so Members can see the support that is being provi ded.  
10.401.   Of course, the grant program can support implementation of the provisions with upcoming 
deadlines by providing grants, but also through the Expression of Interest matchmaking step of the 
program, in which we circulate the Member's needs to developmen t partners to ask if any can offer 
their support.   
10.402.   The workplan also provides information on requests that we have already received from 
the Maldives, Djibouti, and ALADI for national and regional activities to be conducted in 2023.  
10.403.   Members, and organizat ions representing Members, can continue to make requests for 
activities at any time during the year by making a request through the on -line Activity Request form.    
Information about the Activity Request Form - and the steps followed once a request is rec eived - 
are found in annexes to the workplan. And of course, we would also be happy to assist any Member 
to complete the form.  
10.404.   The workplan contains an estimated budget of CHF 1,120,000 based on the proposed 
activities. This is close to the amount TFAF spen t in 2019, the last pre -COVID year.      
10.405.   Some of the proposed activities might be conducted virtually, in which case their cost would 
be significantly less. At this time, we do not know how many activity requests and grant applications 
will come in during the year. However, interested Members will be able to maintain oversight of the 
evolving budget through information provided through the Activity Tracker and the grant tracker, 
both on the TFAF website.   
10.406.   We welcome any suggestions or additions to the work plan from Members today. We will 
take these requests into account and will make any necessary modifications to the work plan. If we 
make substantive modifications, we will circulate the revised plan to the workplan committee for 
their review and final appr oval. 
10.407.   The draft plan was circulated as a working document in G/TFA/TFAF/W/1 . Once the final 
version is ready the document will be issued under the document symbol – G/TFA/TFAF/2  so we will 
reissue it officially.   
10.408.   The delegate from Djibouti  indicated the following:  
10.409.   I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Secretariat for the presentation of the 
various support activities, technical co -operation and welcome the high qual ity and relevance of the G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  information found in these documents. We welcome the efforts undertaken by the Secretariat in 
charge of TFA and the fact that they have taken into account the concerns of developing Members 
and more specifically LDCs, and to have r esponded to their expectations. We endorse the statement 
made this morning by Nepal.  We also make two observations: first, the importance of close and 
ongoing co -operation that we are developing with the Secretariat. When we talk about obligations 
in term s of notifications, our countries are ready to respond quickly and efficiently but on our level 
that requires very close technical co -operation. I should particularly like to thank members of the 
Secretariat trade facilitation team with whom we have worked  very closely and who are following 
Djibouti's case very closely and have spared no effort to help us in our situation. This close co -
operation led by the TFA Secretariat alongside counties is an approach that is highly appreciated. 
Understanding our conce rns and providing an appropriate solution in order to fill the gaps that we 
have is what we expect from the Secretariat of the WTO and more generally it is important to support 
the countries with implementation of the TFA at a pace that is appropriate to e ach and every one. 
It is important to allow these countries to have the tools that they need to respond to the 
commitments that they have undertaken.   
10.410.   TFAF has been operational since 2017, so for five years and it has been set in place to 
assist countries  such as us Djibouti and so we have the pleasure to inform you that in 2023 Djibouti 
will be able to benefit from support in response to the expectations of the Committee. The document 
that you mention, G/TFA/TFAF/W/1 , establishes the workpla n for TFAF for 2023 and this document 
also mentions that TFAF will accept the formalities for request activities be submitted throughout 
the year. That is a very good thing. We have requested two extensions for the implementation for 
our category B and C p rovisions and that is in line with Article 16.3 of the Agreement. Our requests 
were accepted by the Committee and those requests for extension can be associated with the time 
required to secure support. Today, the aim is to define the implementation dates for the categories 
of B and C and to determine the needs for support for capacity building that is required for their 
implementation. This will allow us to make considerable progress in the implementation of the TFA 
and to better organize ourselves on a na tional level on this subject. I would like to extend my thanks 
to our colleague s. 
10.411.   The delegate from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , on behalf of the OECS WTO Members , 
indicated the following:  
10.412.   The OECS Member States are very supportive of the work that ha s been done and want us 
to place on record our support for the work that has been done by TFAF. The views that we expressed 
as participants in the process are fully captured in the document. We can accept what has been 
placed before us. In the past few yea rs, we have received a tremendous amount of support from 
the Facility. In 2019, for example, as part of the wider CARICOM Group we would have benefitted 
from a USD 275,000 regional capacity building workshop grant that was provided for that purpose, 
and la st year in 2021 we would have benefitted as part of the wider group from a USD 30,000 Project 
Preparation Grant. So, these have been very instrumental in all of our efforts in capitals, and we 
certainly look forward to continuing to benefit from the work o f the TFAF in 2023. In fact, one of the 
questions that I often get in capitals was when the in -person visits to Geneva will resume so that 
they can contribute to the work of the Trade Facilitation Committee in a much more direct way.   
10.413.   The delegate from Ecuador  indicated the following:  
10.414.   Like my colleague before me, we were part of the committee that collaborated on the 
Workplan. We would like to congratulate the entire TFAF team for their accuracy in processing our 
exchanges for their inclusion in this docum ent. We think that the document brings together the main 
elements of this plan and our discussions clearly and in a well -organized fashion. We think it is good 
to highlight the link between the activities and the priorities which have been identified as an  element 
which provides consistency to this draft. We are highly interested in following up the execution of 
the plan which we think will contribute substantively to the efforts of Members in implementing the 
TFA.  
10.415.   The delegate from the United States  indicated the following:  
10.416.   I would like to thank the Secretariat for the opportunity during the past few months to 
share our views and inputs in preparing the workplan and we certainly look forward to implementing 
the workplan and contributing specifically an act ivity to better understand how to align technical G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  assistance and capacity building to donors ' budget cycles through, but not limited to, capital -based 
round tables. So, to echo my colleague from Saint Vincent & the Grenadines we look forward to 
collaborati ng closely and hearing about opportunities and challenges and working on donors' budget 
cycles and programming together.   
10.417.   The Committee took note  of the workplan and the statements made.  
10.418.   This concluded  agenda item 4.  
10.7  OTHER BUSINESS  
10.419.   The delegate from the United States  indicated the following:  
10.420.   First of all, I would like to thank everybody for a fantastic meeting today, we all learned a 
lot. Secondly, the United States would like to ask the Secretariat to coordinate, for the benefit of the 
Members an informal session at our next meeting which will be 21 -22 March on Covid and disaster 
preparedness. The idea is to invigorate our work on this MC12 priority and we would ask the 
Secretariat to invite Members to seek participation from the private sector, from a board range of 
expertise and experience from the private and public sector including aid organizations, civil society, 
private industry and government experts and we are happy to provide more information to any 
Members who are intere sted. 
10.421.   The delegate  from Canada  indicated the following:  
10.422.   Following up on the US statement, I think that the Committee needs to return to what we 
did in 2020 and 2021 in terms of the pandemic and the information that we shared. I am participating 
in a proces s in the Market Access Committee which is quite rich in terms of the experiences and the 
information being shared and we are moving forward in terms of coming up with products from that 
process and I think that this Committee could use an extra focus on th at. I would like to thank the 
UK for the suggestion during our review process to revitalize, recast, the agenda for this session. 
I believe that it has worked very well. I would also like to thank all of the experts that joined us from 
capital. Coming back  to our review process, the hybrid session recommendation that came out of 
the review continues to show its usefulness as it offers an opportunity for those that cannot travel 
to be able to participate in the meeting and bring their expertise to our discus sions. I would also like 
to thank the US for arranging all of those presentations. I really enjoyed two aspects in particular: 
the rapid -fire presentations of experiences and the information that they shared. Each presentation 
had a little bit or a lot of evidence of the value of the TFA and what it has brought to the Membership. 
Having that in our records is going to be helpful going forward because a lot of Members continue 
to look for that evidence. As we go step by step, we are gathering that evidence t ogether. I think it 
has become crystal clear what implementation of the TFA provisions means for the Membership in 
terms of their ability to trade and participate in the international trading system.  
10.423.   The delegate from the United Kingdom  indicated the follo wing:  
10.424.   I will add my concurrence that it has been a very good meeting today with really good 
presentations. I think we heard a lot about concrete actions but also the impact of those actions on 
poverty and reducing checks at the border so that is fantastic.  Firstly, I would like to say we really 
support the US proposal, and we would be very happy to see that at the future meeting. Thank you 
to our Canadian colleague for his words and I also wanted to say thank you to the Secretariat for 
leading the engagemen t on the agenda for this meeting. This has been a very good first session. 
I do not know if you would like to say any words about a further engagement process ahead of next 
year. I know it feels like a long way away but obviously we stand ready to work wit h you and other 
Members on that.   
10.425.   The delegate from the European Union  indicated the following:  
10.426.   We would like to thank the United States for its suggestion. Canada made suggestions 
earlier and I agree with him that it was very rich overall. I join the UK in thanking you Chair and the 
Secretariat for how you have managed this meeting. There is a lot of food for thought. Part of the 
proof of the pudding is still in the eating, and for instance, you made an effort today to make progress 
on the category C comm itments and matching needs with supply of aid and we hope to see that that G/TFA/M/24  
 
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  is going to bear fruit going forward. The EU will be happy to get back to each and every one of these 
issues.  
10.427.   The Chair  thanked all Members for their informative contributions to th e discussion which 
had generated very rich and valuable discussions. He also thanked the interpreters for their hard 
work as well as the Secretariat for their support. He urged Members who are willing to share country 
experience in future meetings to kindl y send their proposal in advance so that those presentations 
are shared with the Members ahead of the meeting and they can come prepared to respond. 
He encouraged Members to comply with their obligations in terms of notifications so that there could 
be a c lear picture of their needs for implementation of the TFA.   
10.428.   The meeting was adjourned .  
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  ANNEX 11 
PRESENTATION BY THE SECRETARIAT – UPDATE ON RATIFICATIONS AND NOTIFICATIONS  
 
 
 
 
 
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