In a year that was full of worrisome news for proponents of expanded global trade, there was one bright spot in 2017. In November, Mark Green, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development, announced that the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, an initiative that aims to help countries reduce administrative barriers to trade, would scale up its operations from four to 20 countries.
This is an important move, one that will not only provide a lift for developing countries but also boost US exports and jobs. To date, the alliance has projects in four pilot countries: Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, and Vietnam, and has been evaluating potential projects in Morocco and Sri Lanka. It has plans to expand its work to 20 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria, and Zambia.
The United States, despite withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threatening to scuttle the North American Free Trade Agreement, has ratified the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which entered into force in early 2017. That’s important, because the TFA will provide a shot in the arm to US exports. Studies estimate that, when implemented, the agreement will cut the average cost of exporting by some 14 percent, delivering a net gain of $1 trillion in global annual GDP, and spurring the creation of more than 20 million new jobs around the world, including many in the United States.
All this makes the work of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation that much more important. The alliance, a public-private partnership, was launched by the International Chamber of Commerce and other groups in 2015 to support implementation of the TFA. Funded by the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, its expanded scope of work should help target countries to swiftly cut red tape and improve their performance, thereby opening up many new opportunities for US exporters.