Reducing Trade Costs: Including the Landlocked Developing Countries - Trade Facilitation Potential of Existing Asian Transit Agreements

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) face higher costs of trade because they lack direct access to the sea, thereby reducing their competitiveness in terms of trade and investment. The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA) has potential to reduce trade costs and boost trade for LLDCs through the article on ‘Freedom of Transit’ which protects “legitimate” interests of the transit country’s access to the sea. This can help LLDCs integrate in to global value chains (GVCs) and transition from landlocked to land-linked.

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For other notes on Reducing Trade Costs in Asia and the Pacific see:
http://www.unescap.org/resources/notes-reducing-trade-costs-asia-and-pac...