Trade Facilitation
GEA and Trade Facilitation
The Global Express Association is a strong supporter of so-called ‘trade facilitation’ measures.
Trade facilitation is about streamlining border clearance processes in order to reduce
- the complexity and cost of compliance with official border procedures,
- the time required to release goods after they arrive in a country.
GEA supports an ambitious implementation of the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, which will contribute to a significant reduction in the cost of trading across borders (up to 15% according to the OECD).
GEA is also a strong advocate of the World Customs Organisation’s Immediate Release Guidelines, which are part of the Revised Kyoto Convention adopted in 1999. Some of the simplification principles in the Guidelines are:
- Application of a ‘de minimis’ regime. Documents or goods not exceeding a certain value or weight are exempted from import duties and taxes and from full declaration procedures. (See the latest update of world-wide de minimis thresholds in our Customs Capabilty Database).
- Supply of advance information. GEA members have invested heavily in automated systems to supply border control agencies with accurate shipment information ahead of arrival, so that they can target certain shipments for physical examination. This should result in fast processing and release of express consignments.
- Separation of physical release of the goods from fiscal clearance. The importer may collect the goods following importation and complete customs procedures later, within a specified time.
Our Customs Capability Database generates a gap analysis to show where we think a country or territory is with respect to facitliation standards set out in the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the Revised Kyoto Convention.
Frontier Economics has conducted a study for the GEA on the economic impact of express delivery and trade facilitation on the global economy. According to this report, a country that implements a single trade facilitation measure could see its trade voulmes grow significantly.