The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) creates a significant opportunity to improve the
speed and efficiency of border procedures, thereby reducing trade costs and enhancing
participation in the global value chains that characterise international trade today. The 2015
OECD Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFIs) find that the implementation of the TFA could
reduce worldwide trade costs by between 12.5% and 17.5%. Countries which implement the
TFA in full will reduce their trade costs by between 1.4 and 3.9 percentage points more than
those that do only the minimum that the TFA requires. The opportunities for the biggest
reductions in trade costs are greatest for low and lower middle income countries