WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TF/W/5 
14 January 2005 
 (05-0166) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation  
  
 
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING 
ON TRADE FACILITATION 
 
Note by the Secretariat
 
 
 
    
 
  
1. One of the aims of the negotiations on Trade Facilitation is "enhancing technical assistance 
and support for capacity building in this area"  (Paragraph 1 of the Group's mandate).   
2. At the meeting of the Negotiating Group on 22-23 November 2004, the Chairman requested 
the Secretariat to prepare a working document that  could serve as a basis for further discussions on 
this issue.  The Secretariat was ask ed to follow-up in two areas in particular.  One is to help Members 
clarify how best they can encourage and sup port the collaborative effort among international 
organizations that is called fo r in Paragraph 8 of the Group's mandate.  The second is to help 
Members identify how they can make best use, in  a practical way, of the technical assistance and 
capacity-building activities that are available – in par ticular, at this stage, to assess their individual 
needs and priorities on trade facilitation.   
I. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES OF THE WTO SECRETARIAT 
3. The WTO Secretariat is available at all times to  delegations in Geneva to provide technical 
assistance on matters relating to the work of the Negotiating Group.  The Secretariat's aim is to provide delegations with substantive support to participate effectively in the negotiations.   
4. In addition, the Secretariat has organized a programme of technical assistance activities on 
trade facilitation in 2005.  These activities are desc ribed in the Technical Assistance and Training 
Plan 2005 (WT/COMTD/W/133/Rev.2).  They consist of: 
• Seven three-day regional works hops, in cooperation with the World Customs Organization, 
UNCTAD, and other relevant regional inte r-governmental organizations.  The regional 
workshops may be supplemented by a sma ll number of national workshops, upon written 
request from individual Members and subject to th e availability of Secretariat resources.  The 
aim of the regional and national workshops is to assist delegations to participate in the 
negotiations by helping capital-based offici als keep up-to-date with progress in the 
Negotiating Group in Geneva and providing them  with background information and analysis 
on relevant WTO provisions that relate to th e negotiations, in particular GATT Articles V, 
VIII and X.  Following suggestions made by sever al delegations at the Group's last meeting, 
the Secretariat will endeavour to collect inform ation from participants at these workshops on This document has been prepa red under the Secretariat's own 
responsibility and without prejudice to the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO TN/TF/W/5 
Page 2  
 
 the practical problems that they feel their governments encounter in the area of trade 
facilitation, and report on the results to the Group. 
 
• Sessions dedicated to trade facilitation in the nine WTO Trade Policy Courses and two 
"Geneva Week" courses that are scheduled in 2005. 
 
5. In the "July Package", the General Council encouraged improved coordination on trade-
related technical assistance with other agencies, in particular th rough the Integrated Framework (IF) 
and the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Pr ogramme (JITAP).  In the context of JITAP, 
consideration is being given to in troducing work on trade facilitation into the programme in 2005, and 
specifically to the possibility of holding two workshops during the course of the year in conjunction with the WTO's partner organizations, UNCTAD and ITC.  Under the IF, customs reform and trade 
facilitation more generally have taken an increasingl y important place in the preparation of Diagnostic 
Trade Integration Studies (DTIS) that are prepared to help define trade-related technical assistance 
and capacity-building needs and prio rities in participating least-developed countries.  Of the 14 DTIS 
that have been completed and validated to da te, 12 contain detailed information on the trade 
facilitation needs of the countries concerned, a nd recommendations for policy reforms and trade-
related technical assistance to be provided on a me dium/high priority basis (relative to the priority 
given to other areas of policy reform and technical assistance).  The 12 least-developed countries 
concerned are Burundi, Cambodia, Djibouti, Et hiopia, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, 
Mozambique, Nepal, Senegal, and Yemen.  DTIS are under preparation for a further fourteen least-
developed countries. 
6. It is further foreseen to take part in technical  assistance activities carried out by other relevant  
international organizations to the extent possible.  
II. COORDINATION WITH OTHER RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL 
ORGANIZATIONS 
7. An effective programme of technical assist ance and capacity building on trade facilitation 
will require a well-coordinated a pproach among implementing agencies,  particularly international 
organizations which each have their own mandate s and areas of expertise, and involving the donor 
community.   
8. In cooperation with the OECD Secretariat, th e WTO maintains a database that aims to 
provide comprehensive information on trade-related technical assistance and capacity building.  It 
contains information on technical assistance a nd capacity building bein g provided multilaterally, 
regionally and bilaterally, in the area of trade fa cilitation.  The database can be accessed by WTO 
Members on http://tcbdb.wto.org and used by them to keep track of trade facilitation projects 
underway in their countries and regions. 
9. The WTO Secretariat participates in meetings  of three bodies that have been set up to 
facilitate collaboration and coor dination of technical assistance and capacity building on trade 
facilitation.  The start of negotiations on trade facilita tion in the WTO has attracted particular interest 
from implementing agencies and members of the donor  community that participate in these bodies, 
and expressions of willingness on their part to cont ribute actively to the success of the negotiations. 
10. The Global Facilitation Partnershi p for Transportation and Trade
 (GFP) groups together 
interested parties from international organizations , government agencies, and the private sector who 
want to cooperate to achieve significant improve ments in trade and transport facilitation at the 
multilateral level.  The GFP website is a valuable  source of background materials and information on 
trade facilitation (http://www.gfptt.org).  Internationa l organizations that are partners in the GFP are  TN/TF/W/5 
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 the World Bank, WCO, WTO, UNCTAD, UNECE, UNESCAP, UNECLAC, UNESCWA, UNIDO, 
IMF, IMO, the Asian and Inter-American Developm ent Banks, and the Commonwealth Secretariat.  
Government agencies that participate include the U.S. Customs Service, USAID, Agence Française de 
Développement, the Malaysian Ministry of Finance, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the 
Swedish National Board of Trade.  The private sector  is represented by more than 70 companies, 
non-governmental organizations, such as the Inte rnational Chamber of Commerce, and academic 
institutions such as the World Trade Institute and th e China Institute of International Studies.   
11. Inter-Agency Meetings on Trade Facilitation  are held pursuant to a decision of the U.N. 
High-Level Committee on Programmes which governs the work programme of the U.N. and its 
related agencies.  The meetings bring together a ll the U.N. organizations and related agencies with 
activities in the area of trade facilitation (e.g., WCO, IMF, World Bank, ISO).  Donor governments 
sometimes also participate in these meetings.  Mee tings are held on a regular basis to coordinate 
activities, discuss technical assistance and other wo rk, explore possibilities for joint activities, and 
ensure that there are neither gaps nor overlaps. 
12. The International Trade Procedures Working Group  aims to identify best practices in public 
and private sector international trade procedures.   It has increasingly focused on trade facilitation 
issues under consideration in the WTO negotiations .  It brings together U.N. bodies and other 
international organizations, representatives from in terested national administrations, private sector 
associations and non-gove rnmental organizations. 
13. The existence of these bodies dedicated inter alia  to coordinating technical assistance and 
capacity building on trade facilitation suggests that th ere is no need, at least for the time being, for the 
WTO to seek to establish a separate mechanism to unde rtake the collaborative effort that is called for 
in Paragraph 8 of the Group's mandate.  As deta iled requirements of WTO Members for technical 
assistance and capacity-building support become clearer, in the context of Paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of the 
Group's mandate, the Secretariat will use its par ticipation in the bodies listed above to convey the 
information to implementing agencies and the donor  community, and to try to identify where support 
can be provided or where there may be gaps that  need filling.  The Secretariat will keep the 
Negotiating Group informed in this regard. 
III. ASSESSING NEEDS AND PRIORITIES 
14. In July 2002, the Secretariat prepared a docume nt compiling material available to it on "Trade 
Facilitation Needs and Priorities of Members" (G /C/W/393).  The document contained information 
from ten delegations that made submissions through  national experience papers  – Australia, Canada, 
Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Guatemala, H ong Kong China, Korea, Maldives, Norway and 
Switzerland – and information drawn from the resu lts of the 1998 Trade Facilitation Symposium and 
the 2001 Technical Assistance Workshop, as well as from relevant submissions by other organizations. 
15. At the Group's last meeting, one delegation suggested compiling a database on practical 
problems encountered by customs officials in their day-to-day activities, to provide information for 
the Group and help raise awareness of problems at the ground level that require attention.  One means of doing this would be to update the document c ited above on the basis of further submissions from 
Members and information gathered by the Secretar iat from participants at its technical assistance 
workshops. 
16. Several delegations have stressed the importance that they attach to the negotiating modality 
of identifying their trade facilitation needs and priori ties.  They have expressed interest in diagnostic 
tools that can assist them to carry out such an exer cise at the national level, and emphasized that they 
require a tool that can be applied on a country-s pecific basis, not a one-size-fits-all approach.  TN/TF/W/5 
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 Presentations made at the Group's last meeting by the WCO, World Bank and UNCTAD concurred on 
the importance of accurate diagnosis of capacity -building needs on a case-by-case basis in order to 
produce effective country-specific responses.  They  also described the diagnostic tools that are 
available already, or are under preparation, whic h can assist Members to identify their needs and 
priorities. 
17. The Customs Capacity Building Diagnostic Framework
 is a diagnostic tool that has been 
developed by the WCO covering all customs require ments and procedures, which the WCO uses to 
design its technical assistance and capacity-building s upport for customs administrations.  It is freely 
available to all WCO member governments.  It is a comprehensive and standardized diagnostic tool 
and project design/implementation guide, designed for both self-assessment and use by practitioners 
to diagnose capacity-building needs and priorities.  It contains common questions, commonly 
observed weakness, possible solutions and improvement  options and related reference materials, with 
respect to a wide range of customs issues. 
18. The WCO is developing an extract of this  Diagnostic Framework to support the WTO 
negotiations.  It will be a self-assessment tool, for u se by the country itself or by a consultant.  By 
using it, a customs administration should be able to identify any difficulties, bottlenecks and gaps 
between its legislation and practices and the WCO instruments pertinent to GATT Articles V, VIII 
and X.  The findings could provide a basis on which a WTO Member can identify its trade facilitation needs and priorities.  It should be noted, however, that this diagnostic tool is designed for customs 
procedures only, and it does not necessarily cove r all formalities and procedures related to 
importation, exportation and transit as described in th e GATT Articles.  It is expected that a first 
version of the tool will be available in February 20 05.  It will be modified and updated to take account 
of developments in the WTO negotiations.  
19. The Time Release Study
 (TRS), also developed by the WCO,  is used to assist a government 
to measure the average time taken between the arriva l of goods at the border and their release into the 
domestic market.  By using the TRS, WTO Members may be able to identify problems and 
bottlenecks in the cross-border movement of goods , and develop possible remedies.  The findings 
might be used as an additional basis on which a Member can assess its tr ade facilitation needs and 
priorities.  The TRS can also be used to stimulate efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness 
of customs clearance procedures.  According to  the WCO, several WTO members have already 
conducted a TRS (United States, Japan, Philippines a nd Kenya).  The WCO is working closely with 
the Word Bank on the development of a software  programme to support the TRS, which will be 
available shortly.  
20. UNCTAD assists its member governments to de velop the capacity to assess their needs and 
priorities in the area of trade and transport facilita tion through integrated regional and country-specific 
projects that it undertakes as part of its long-term t echnical assistance activities.   In this context, it 
encourages the establishment of National Facilita tion Bodies and National Trade and Transport 
Facilitation Committees, which allow the public and the private sector to analyze issues at stake 
collectively and develop solutions of common interest.  Typically, the first phase of a project involves 
UNCTAD support to carry out diagnostic studies a nd look into institutional, legal, operational and 
human resources development issues, with seminars for government officials to better understand the 
issues at stake and to come up with an action plan .  UNCTAD is designing new Guidelines to Assess 
Trade Facilitation Needs and Priorities , which it hopes will be available early in 2005. 
21. The World Bank assists governments to assess their needs and priorities in the area of trade 
facilitation.  To that end it uses a number of diagnostic tools, among them the WCO Customs 
Capacity-Building Diagnostic Framework.  The Bank  considers this to be a comprehensive diagnostic 
tool since it covers not only technical issues but also management-related issues, such as human  TN/TF/W/5 
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 resource management and development, good govern ance, and supporting issues such as having in 
place a sound legal framework.   
22. The World Bank has published recently its Customs Modernization Handbook , which is 
complementary to the WCO Diagnostic Framework a nd which covers all issues of customs reform, 
including valuation, rules of origin, information technology, transit and integrity.  The Bank has also 
published a Customs Modernization Initiatives Handbook , consisting of eight case studies of reform 
processes, highlighting what did and what did not  work as well as the related costs and lessons 
learned.    
23. The World Bank also conducts Trade and Transport Facilitation Audits , looking at the whole 
trade supply chain process and searching for ways of  improvement.  These audits are based on a Bank 
publication entitled "Trade and Transport Facilitation – An Audit Methodology".  Audits have been 
conducted by the Bank in Malawi, Chad, Be nin, Zambia, Guinea, Mozambique, Bangladesh, 
Dominican Republic and Tajikistan.   
24. The World Bank has typically taken the lead in the preparation of Diagnostic Trade 
Integration Studies for least-developed countries in th e context of the Integrated Framework exercise. 
Most of these studies have covered trade facilitation in detail, and their findings provide the basis for 
a country's assessment of its needs and priorities in this area.   
 
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