Week 4: Managing the Border: Trade Costs, Customs Reforms and Trade Facilitation

This course will discuss conditions for successful trade facilitation and logistics reforms – a challenging process which involves identifying and addressing bottlenecks along a supply chain. Individual countries and regional economic groups can turn to the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and use the Bank’s Trade and Transport Facilitation Assessment methodology (TTFA) to benchmark their performance. Modern approaches to the reform and modernization of border management procedures and institutions will be examined. Another big contribution to trade expansion comes from radical improvements in the service delivery of global logistics companies, whose perspective will also be discussed. The course will also update participants on the latest developments in the treatment of trade facilitation disciplines in the WTO and in preferential trade agreements.