reforms associated with trade facilitation. But uniform application of multilateral agreements is desirable in order to achieve the ultimate goal – removal of trade facilitation barriers worldwide.

**_Customs Modernization—International and Russian Experience._** In chapter 28, Luc de Wulf summarizes the results for the large study he led for the World Bank in best practices in customs modernization. In chapter 29, Carlos Ferreira summarizes the World Bank-Government of Russia project on customs modernization in Russia. Surveys of traders in Russia have shown that the number of complaints about the Russian customs service has declined subsequent to implementation of this project.

# **Standards and Technical Regulation**

**_International Experience._** In chapter 30, Spencer Henson notes that with the decline in traditional barriers to trade, attention has focused on the potential role of standards as technical barriers to trade.  At the same time, consumers in both industrialized and developing countries are increasingly demanding safer, higher quality and more consistent products that require that systems of standardization are put in place. The question for the world trading system is how to provide for the legitimate rights of a country to use standards to provide for the quality and safety of products without standards becoming a technical barrier to trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO) through the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures and on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) has played a significant role in this respect. Hensen notes that Members are required to provide scientific evidence when applying SPS measures that differ from international standards.  Further, Members are obliged to achieve consistency in the application of SPS measures, to avoid arbitrary or unjustifiable distinctions in the levels of protection it considers to be appropriate if the distinctions would act to distort trade. Nonetheless, there are now a number of documented cases where developing countries have faced restrictions because of their inability to meet mandatory standards, and lost markets due to their inability to meet voluntary standards.  At the same time, other countries have managed to gain access to high-value markets in industrialized countries despite the existence of exacting standards and indeed may have gained a competitive advantage in the process.

**_Technical Regulation in Russia._** In chapter 31, Alexander Rybtsov explains the recent reforms in the Russian system of standards and technical regulation. He notes that under the new law, the quality of products has been removed from the area of technical regulation by the government; technical regulation is limited solely to safety issues. Moreover, the system of technical regulation in Russia is being completely reorganized and simplified.

# **Foreign Direct Investment and the WTO Agreement on TRIMs**

**_International Experience_** _._ In chapter 32, Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Angelica Salvi del Pero discuss Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs). Measures regulating foreign direct investment (FDI) with particular requirements on trade are defined as TRIMs. These are requirements imposed on investors by host countries seeking to protect and foster domestic industries or to redistribute profits generated by foreign investors towards domestic residents. These measures hinder both FDI and potential trade flows and they are rarely welfare improving. TRIMs introduce distortions in the domestic economy and often impede an efficient allocation of

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