Context and Justification Trade facilitation has become a key issue in international relations, with the adoption of the WTO Trade Facilitation
Context and Justification
Trade facilitation has become a key issue in international relations, with the adoption of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) on 7 December 2013 and entry into force on 22 February 2017. This tool aims to reduce trade costs by an average of 14.3% and to increase global trade by US$ 1 trillion per year, with greater gains for the poorest countries. The implementation by States of the technical measures prescribed by this Agreement is based on the principle of “special and differential treatment for developing country Members and least-developed country Members”. Under this principle, developing and least-developed countries will be free to choose, on the basis of their implementation capacity, which measures they will include in each of the categories set out in the Agreement as follows:
- Category A contains provisions that a developing country Member or a least-developed country Member designates for implementation upon entry into force of the TFA, or in the case of a least-developed country Member, within one year after entry into force;
- Category B contains provisions that a developing country Member or least-developed country Member designates for implementation on a date after a transitional period following the entry into force of the TFA;
- Category C contains provisions that a developing country Member or least-developed country Member designates for implementation on a date after a transitional period following the entry into force of the TFA and requiring the acquisition of implementation capacity through the provision of assistance and support for capacity building.
Cameroon notified category A measures on 24 May 2016 and category B and C measures on 5 July 2019. However, these notifications still need to be completed with information that was not available at the time of their preparation. In the absence of notification to the WTO of the final dates of implementation of B and C measures, which should have been done since 2019, Cameroon is among the countries that do not comply with the TFA, which makes it imperative to organize the planned workshop.
General and Specific Objectives
The general objective of the Workshop is to: “enable Cameroon to finalize the process to notify the WTO of categories B and C measures of the TFA”. Specifically, this will concern:
- the completion and updating of the notifications table for B and C measures by: (I) indicating the final implementation dates for Category C measures; and (ii) indicating technical assistance and capacity-building needs for the implementation of Category C measures;
- the preparation of a technical assistance plan for the implementation of Category C measures by: (i) assessing needs; (ii) identifying donors.
Schedule
To achieve its objectives, the workshop will be carried out in two (2) days:
- Day 1: Thursday, 2 March 2023 – 10 a.m.-1 p.m.:
- Ownership and assessment of the document on the categorization of B and C measures;
- Updating the categorization document: (I) Indicating the final implementation dates for Category C measures; indicating technical assistance and capacity-building needs for the implementation of Category C measures;
1 p.m. – 2 p.m.: Lunch break;
2 p.m. – 5 p.m.:
- ownership and assessment of project sheets on the request for technical assistance for Category C measures;
- updating of project sheets on the request for technical assistance for Category C measures (articles: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 3, 5.1, 5.3, 6.3, 7.2, 7.4,7.5, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9) ;
- Day 2: Friday, 3 March 2023, 9 a.m.-11 a.m.:
- finalization of project sheets on the request for technical assistance for Category C measures;
11 a.m. – 12 p.m. : Lunch break;
12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Feedback on the deliberations of the workshop and adoption of deliverables.
Expected outcome
Workshop deliberations are expected to produce the following outcome:
- the finalization of the document on the categorization of B and C measures;
- the finalization of project sheets required for the implementation of Category C measures;
- the prefiguration of the Donors’ Workshop for the financing of the implementation of category C measures;
- the initiation of the notification process for the categorization of B and C measures to the WTO.
COMMENTS