27 Developed Countries Offer Support for Deal on TF at Dec Bali Meet

With the Bali ministerial just months away, the need to finalise a trade facilitation agreement in time for the December meeting was highlighted by various participants during this week’s meetings.

“Such an agreement would go a long way towards supporting the emergence of regional and global value chains, and the enhanced participation of developing countries in these fragmented production processes,” OECD Secretary-General Ángel Gurría said.

WTO members are currently negotiating a set of deliverables from the Doha Round of trade talks for agreement in time for the ministerial conference, with a trade facilitation agreement being at the core. The process of preparing such an “early harvest” package, however, has been difficult. Many have warned in recent months that the process of removing “brackets” from the draft trade facilitation text has been moving too slowly, held up both by disagreements within those talks and in the other elements of the so-called “Bali package.”

One of the main issues in the trade facilitation talks are questions by some developing country WTO members over whether they will have the capacity and resources to take on new commitments under such a deal. In an effort to assuage these concerns, a group of 27 developed country governments and several international organisations issued a statement on Monday pledging to help developing countries in this area.

“We recognise that there are WTO members that will require support to fully implement a Trade Facilitation Agreement, complementing the support provided to date,” the group said. “Developing and least developing WTO members can be confident of our ongoing support for their implementation of a WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.”