These national assessments have been particularly
useful in highlighting the existing gaps between what
is being proposed at the WTO and what is being
implemented on the ground, in developing countries,
and in LDCs in particular. As illustrated in figure
5.1, in the majority of the participating developing
countries, less than 50 per cent of the trade-facilitation
measures under discussion in the WTO are currently
fully implemented. In all of the participating countries,
the rate of full implementation was below 76 per cent,
with the lowest implementation rate being 19 per cent.
The implementation rate is even lower for LDCs, with
the majority of them below the 40 per cent level. At
the same time, the measures that have not yet been
implemented constitute a clear minority, ranging from
3 to 28 per cent, which suggests that only a small
number of the proposed trade-facilitation reforms are
completely new to the developing countries.