WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TF/W/33 
28 April 2005 
 (05-1735) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation Original:   English 
  
 
COMMUNICATION FROM THE AFRICAN GROUP 
 
  The following communication, dated 27 Apr il 2005, from the delegation of Rwanda, on 
behalf of the African Group, is being circulated  in advance of the Negotiating Group meeting of 2-
4 May 2005. 
 
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TRADE FACILITATION 
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. Trade facilitation has long been recognized by A frican countries as critical for enhancing the 
competitiveness of their economies, for promoting in tra-African trade and for harnessing the benefits 
of globalization. The importance attached to trade facilitation is reflected in the numerous bilateral, 
sub-regional and regional agreemen ts entered into by African countries. Indeed, the Abuja Treaty 
Establishing the African Economic Community, the Framework for African economic integration and 
development, contains a number of pr ovisions relevant to trade facilitation. 
2. The adoption of Annex "D" on the modalities for trade facilitation by the General Council on 
1 August 2004 as part of the "July Package" presen ts an opportunity as well as challenges to African 
countries. The work of the Negotiating Group on Tr ade Facilitation (NGTF) and its outcomes must, 
therefore, be made relevant to the development ne eds and priorities of developing and least-developed 
countries by ensuring that the benefits of trade f acilitation are maximized while mitigating against its 
associated costs. 
3. This preliminary paper from the African Group seeks to: 
• share the Group’s perspective on the mandate on trade facilitation; 
• identify the basis on which trade facilitation needs and priorities of African countries 
could be identified as well as the cost implications of any proposed measures;  
• set-out the S&D parameters as well as the sc ope for inter-agency co-operation;  and  
• make preliminary observation on proposal s submitted thus far by other WTO 
Members. 
II. SCOPE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS 
4. The mandate of the work of the Negotiati ng Group on Trade Facilitation as provided for 
under Paragraph 1 of Annex D of the 1 August 2004 Decision (WT/L/579) is to: TN/TF/W/33 
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 • "clarify and improve relevant aspects of  Articles V, VIII and X of the GATT 1994 
with a view to further expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, 
including goods in transit"; 
 
• enhance "technical assistance and support for capacity building in this area";  and 
 
• establish "provisions for effective coope ration between customs or any other 
appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues". 
 5. The scope of the negotiations conducted under the aegis of the Negotiating Group must in 
essence remain consistent with the objectives set forth above. The negotiations should be focused 
solely on clarifying and improving GATT Articles V, VIII, and X. For the African Group, 
enhanced Special and Differential treatment, tech nical assistance, support for capacity building 
and implementation assistance is a critical component of these negotiations. The right to select 
policy options and exercise policy flexibility gran ted in favour of developing and least-developed 
countries must remain sacrosanct.  
III. SUPPORTING TRADE FACILITATION NEEDS AND PRIORITIES OF AFRICA 
6. The trade facilitation needs and priorities of African countries are enormous.  The process of 
identifying specific trade facilitation needs and setting out the pr iorities of African countries requires 
intensive work to be undertaken, both at the nati onal and regional levels, with the assistance of the 
relevant international organiza tions. The overarching objective of such an identification process 
should, as a minimum, aim at providing solutions to the following basic ch aracteristics of Africa’s 
trading environment: 
• How to reduce high transport and communication costs that impact adversely on the 
competitiveness of African enterprises; 
 
• How to enhance the capacities of Customs Administration, including through their 
automation, in order to dramatically redu ce delays at points of entry and exit while 
maximizing public revenue receipts; 
 
• How to improve the integration of African enterprises/economies into the 
international payments and insurance systems. 
 
IV. ADDRESSING COST IMPLICATIONS 
7. The cost implications on developing and least-developed countries of proposals for new 
commitments on trade facilitation need to be full y assessed and examined. Any findings on the cost 
implications (especially with respect to the de velopment of necessary public works infrastructure, 
information and communications technology infrastru cture, administrative re-engineering, and human 
resources) should then be directly linked to th e provision of adequate technical and financial 
assistance and support for capacity building.  
8. It must be emphasised that enhancing techni cal assistance and support for capacity building is 
one of the primary objectives of the negotiations. As provided for in Paragraph 6 of Annex D, the 
implementation of new commitments on trade f acilitation by developing  and least-developed 
countries is conditioned on the provision of adequa te technical and financial assistance and support 
for capacity-building in trade facilitation by develope d countries. In this respect, the goal of assisting 
developing countries, especially LDCs, to address su ch cost implications ef fectively needs to be 
treated as priority.  TN/TF/W/33 
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 9. Furthermore, to assist developing and least-dev eloped countries participate effectively in the 
negotiations on trade facilitation, Pa ragraph 5 of Annex D  needs to be  operationalized. In this regard, 
the African Group would like to propose the establishm ent of an appropriate mechanism, to be agreed 
upon not later than the end of July 2005, for the provision by developed countries of technical assistance and support for capacity building during the negotiations.  
10. Among others, such technical assistance and capacity-building support during the 
negotiations should support:  
• Trade Facilitation negotiations-oriented research and capacity-building projects 
identified and proposed by developing and least-developed country Members;  
 
• The conduct by developing and least-dev eloped countries of participatory and 
transparent trade facilitation needs assessment  and prioritization exercises to assist 
them in developing their own nego tiating positions and priorities;  and 
 
• Specific travel support for capital-based experts of developing-country Members who 
are knowledgeable on trade facilitation issues to  enable them to participate actively in 
the NGTF. 
 V. SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATM ENT IN TRADE FACILITATION  
11. Paragraph 2 of Annex D lays down the paramete rs for the application of the principle of 
Special and Differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries in the trade facilitation decisions. For the African Group, speci al and differential treatment goes beyond longer 
transitional periods. In the context of any ne w commitments on trade facilitation, Special and 
Differential treatment should also be refl ected in legally binding provisions that: 
• Are precise, effective and operational; 
 
• Provide policy space and flexibility for de veloping and least-developed countries 
while determining (based on their own assessment of their implementation capacity) when, how, and the extent to which such  new commitments on trade facilitation are 
to be implemented by them;  and 
 
• Condition the implementation by developi ng and least-developed countries of such 
new commitments to the provision by deve loped countries of effective, adequate, 
long-term, and sustainable technical and fi nancial assistance and support for capacity-
building with respect to national structural or sector-specific trade facilitation-related 
projects or programmes identified by deve loping or least-developed countries as 
being necessary, in their view, to allo w them to fully implement such new 
commitments. 
 
VI. INTER-AGENCY COOPERATION 
12. A number of international and regional orga nizations have considerable experience and 
expertise on the subject of trade facilitation. They can make important contributions to one of the 
objectives of the negotiations, namely the provision of technical assistance and support for capacity 
building to developing and least-developed countries. Of particular note is the work of the World Customs Organizations and the ASYCUDA and ACIS programmes of UNCTAD.  Further, the work of the Economic Commission for Africa, because of its Africa specificity, will be crucial for the 
identification of Africa’s needs and priorities in this area. TN/TF/W/33 
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 13. The African Group is of the opinion that th e work on trade facilitation provides a unique 
opportunity for the WTO, IMF and the World Bank to  deliver concretely on  the coherence mandate. 
In this regard, we call upon the th ree institutions to undertake a conc rete collaborative effort with a 
view to, inter alia , addressing the needs and priorities that will be identified by the African Group in 
the course of the negotiations. 
VII. GENERAL COMMENT ON PROPOSALS SUBMITTED TO DATE  
14. Since the establishment of th e NGTF, various Members have submitted proposals to the 
Negotiating Group. The African Group has studied these proposals and would like to make the 
following preliminary observations: 
• a number of the proposals go beyond the mandate of these negotiations as they 
espouse additional commitments in the context of the exercise to clarify , improve  
and review GATT 1994 Articles V, VIII, and X; 
 
• they do not provide for adequate S&D tr eatment for developing and least-developed 
countries; 
 
• the technical assistance components of th ese proposals are of a "best endeavour" 
nature;  and 
 
• they provide for no new resources. Instead, they seek to divert resources from 
existing development assistance programmes.  
 15. The Group fully reserves its right to further el aborate on all elements contained in this 
communication and any other it deems necess ary in the course of the negotiations. 
 
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