Research and analysis

Trade facilitation: rapid evidence assessment

Review of the evidence on the impact of trade facilitation on trade performance.

• From: Department for International Development
• Published: 28 July 2015

Documents

Trade facilitation: rapid evidence assessment

PDF, 1.3 MB, 45 pages

Details

The objective of this rapid evidence assessment is to review the evidence on the impact of trade facilitation on trade performance. In particular, the assessment focused on the following questions: what has been the impact (on trade costs, volumes and values) of different types of trade facilitation interventions in developing countries and which factors lead to positive and negative impacts?

The key findings of this rapid evidence assessment on trade facilitation are:

• trade facilitation reduces trade costs and increases trade flows
• improvements in infrastructure, customs efficiency and regulatory environment have the greatest impact on trade
• the effectiveness of trade facilitation interventions is context specific
• impact evaluations and case studies help to highlight what works best, where and why, and can contribute to better design of trade facilitation interventions.

Published 28 July 2015