The World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) entered into force on 22 February 2017, when it was ratified by two-thirds of the WTO`s 164 members. The TFA – the first multilateral pact agreed by WTO members since its inception on 1 January 1995 – is an important milestone for the global trading system. The TFA aims to speed up trade procedures, including the movement, release and registration of goods. Its full implementation could boost global trade by $1 trillion a year and reduce trade costs by 14.3 percent for low-income countries and more than 13 percent for middle-income countries. Excerpt Source: UNCTAD, „The World Trade Facilitation Agreement at two: Where do members stand?“, Written by Pamela UGAZ, Economic Affairs Officer, 22 February 2019 The Trade Facilitation Agreement is available HERE. The system, known as the multilateral trading system, is centered on WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by a large majority of the world`s economies and ratified by their parliaments. The Doha Round was launched in 2001 to achieve comprehensive reform of the international trading system by introducing lower trade barriers and revised trade rules. One of the fundamental objectives of the Doha Development Agenda is to improve the trade prospects of developing countries. The WTO establishes a framework for trade policy; No results are defined or specified. That is to say, it is a question of defining the rules of „trade policy“. Five principles are particularly important for the understanding of GATT and the WTO before 1994: well before the 40th anniversary of GATT, its members concluded that the GATT system is striving to adapt to a new globalised world economy. [29] [30] In response to the problems identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration (structural deficiencies, knock-on effects of the policy of certain countries on world trade, etc.), the GATT was unable to cope in September 1986 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, with the eighth GATT round, called the „Uruguay Round“.

[29] According to a 2017 study in the Journal of International Economic Law, „almost all of the latest [preferential trade agreements (SAAs) explicitly refer to the WTO, often dozens of times over several chapters. Similarly, in many of these SAAs, we find that essential parts of the language of the treaty – sometimes most of a chapter – are literally copied from a WTO agreement. . . .