Trade facilitation Agreement of the WTO aims to simplify customs procedures in member countries to facilitate trade -exports and imports. A remarkable feature of the TFA is that is the first major agreement signed since the WTO was established in 1995.
The agreement was signed under WTO’s Bali Ministerial Conference in 2013. The agreement aims to simplify and speed up customs procedure by member countries for enhancing trade.
The agreement was came into force on 22 February 2017 following its ratification by two-thirds of the WTO membership.
Trade facilitation
The trade facilitation decision is a multilateral deal to simplify customs procedures by reducing costs and improving their speed and efficiency. It will be a legally binding agreement and is one of the biggest reforms of the WTO since its establishment in 1995. The TFA will come into existence once two third of the WTO members ratify it. As on January 24, 2016, sixty-four countries out of the 162 WTO members ratified it.
