The tool from UN Trade and Development helps nearly 30 countries better monitor, coordinate and fast-track actions to reduce the time and cost of trade.
© Shutterstock/CamNet | Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Cambodia.
Between April 2022 and June 2024, only nine out of 95 developing and least developed countries reported early implementation of measures related to the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The TFA helps reduce bureaucracy and lower trade costs for businesses, particularly benefiting developing countries. It simplifies and streamlines international trade procedures, making it easier and faster to move goods across borders.
Among these front runners, Cambodia, Egypt, Eswatini, and Maldives, participate in the “Accelerate trade facilitation” programme, jointly implemented by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Customs Organization.
The programme, funded by the United Kingdom, features an online reform tracker tool that enables better coordination and monitoring of trade facilitation reforms.
Real-time insights from the reform tracker have helped user countries like Cambodia, Egypt, Eswatini, and Maldives identify their implementation progress more quickly.
In June, these four countries collectively reported an accelerated timeline of 42 years to put in place 19 TFA measures, meaning that on average, each measure was implemented two years earlier than expected.
Similar progress is also reflected in the TFA implementation score compiled by UN Trade and Development.
Based on data from the reform tracker across 21 participating countries, the overall score increased by 36 percentage points from April 2022 to June 2024.
Streamlining reporting, enhancing coordination
“The reform tracker, combined with our advisory services and training courses, has significantly bolstered the ability of developing countries to oversee and lead the trade facilitation agenda,” says Shamika N. Sirimanne, director of technology and logistics at UN Trade and Development.
This web-based tool helps national trade facilitation committees (NTFCs) organize information about their members and systematically coordinate inter-agency implementation of priority trade facilitation initiatives.
“The reform tracker has been a crucial digital tool in advancing goals in a timely manner, facilitating engagement, communication, and participation of stakeholders from the public and private sectors,” says Karen Sosa Salgado, trade facilitation coordinator at the Ministry of Economic Development of Honduras.
Additionally, the tool automates task distribution, resource planning, and data collection, easing the process for NTFCs to report progress on trade facilitation reforms.
“NTFC secretariats are more confident to report early implementation, with information collected, validated, and traceable through the reform tracker,” says UN Trade and Development project manager Arántzazu Sánchez.
So far, nearly 30 economies have benefitted from the reform tracker. Countries seeking access to the tool and related advisory support can connect with UN Trade and Development through tf@unctad.org.
