The Global Enabling Trade Report 2016 Home

Recognizing that neither governments nor the private sector can deliver on the full potential of trade facilitation on their own, the World Economic Forum, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Center for International Private Enterprise, together with the governments of Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, joined forces to form the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, which was launched in December 2015 at the WTO’s 10th ministerial conference in Nairobi.

Since then, Alliance partners have worked closely to establish a unique public-private platform to leverage business expertise, leadership and resources to support effective trade facilitation reforms measured by real-world business metrics. With the overarching aim of accelerating ambitious trade facilitation reforms, the core activities of the Alliance include:

  • Building understanding of the benefits of trade facilitation within both the public and private sectors
  • Establishing sustainable multi-stakeholder dialogues on trade facilitation
  • Mobilizing public-private partnerships to drive change, engaging local businesses and associations
  • Technical and financial assistance in support of capacity building
  • Benchmarking and evaluation based on established business metrics

As of October 2016, the Alliance is active in four pilot countries: Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Vietnam. Going forward, the Alliance intends to support more developing and emerging countries while also working at global and regional levels to enhance stakeholder awareness of the importance of the TFA and of public-private cooperation in implementing customs and border reforms. To ensure synergy with the activities of other international programmes, the Alliance will actively engage with other international bodies, donors and associations.

With the support of national governments, the Alliance’s in-country projects will leverage the expertise and resources of leading companies and international organizations—as well as provide a platform for local business communities to identify trade bottlenecks and to work collaboratively with governments to support effective reforms. With the implementation of these in-country programmes, the Alliance also benefits from the expertise and network of GIZ—the German government’s enterprise for international cooperation.

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