Introduction
The international economy provides vast opportunities to drive economic growth through international trade. Weaknesses in many developing countries’ trade support services sectors, however, contribute to high transaction costs and a limited ability to meet the transport and distribution demands of an increasing complex global economy, undermining the competitiveness of their goods and thus the ability take advantage of foreign market opportunities. This report addresses the provision of trade support services from the perspective of developing countries interested in becoming integrated into the global economy. It aims to demonstrate the importance of trade support services within the context of increasingly complex transport and distribution demands of the international economy and how various constraints and weaknesses in the provision of these services can increase transaction costs affecting competitiveness. He