Efforts persist on many fronts to emphasize the
potential benefits of having a multilateral agreement
on trade facilitation for the world economy as a whole
and for developing countries in particular. In the
WTO, in parallel to the negotiations on the text of the
trade-facilitation agreement, there have been a series
of regional and global conferences to address the
practical experience of implementing trade-facilitation
reforms, including their costs and benefits. These
events included dedicated sessions on showcasing
trade-facilitation programmes supported by bilateral
and multilateral development partners and highlighted
the wealth of existing technical assistance and
capacity-building programmes in the trade-facilitation
area. In addition, with the launch in November 2012
of the WTO Technical Assistance Programme for
National Self-Assessments of Trade Facilitation
Needs and Priorities 2012-2014, the focus was once
again on identifying and evaluating the gaps in the
implementation capacity of developing countries,
especially amongst LDCs. Ensuring that the needs
of the developing countries are well matched by the
assistance offered by the international community of
donor countries and organizations remains the major
goal and challenge of all these activities.