The World Trade Organisation has published the first draft consolidated negotiating text of a possible WTO agreement on trade facilitation. The draft agreement, published just before Christmas 2009, runs to sixteen articles, covering such issues as publication of and consultation on new national rules on import, export or transit procedures for goods; advance rulings and appeals procedures; fees and charges; release and clearance of goods; border agency co-ordination; formalities and freedom of transit.
The text is being negotiated as part of the WTO's Doha Development Agenda. It is currently a consolidation of various proposals tabled by developed and developing member countries and includes a large number of square bracketed pieces of text, representing areas where convergence has not yet been reached. The negotiating process throughout this year is expected to reduce these through successive rounds of negotiations.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has commented, "This provides us, for the first time, with a clear picture of what the new agreement will contain. Much still remains to be done in the next months to move this draft towards a consensus document."
The consolidated text is available at http://docsonline.wto.org/, quoting document symbol TN/TF/W/165.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 71, Winter 2009/2010
