On September 18, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) appealed to trade negotiators, who were meeting in Geneva, to find the way forward with respect to implementing the World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade facilitation agreement (TFA), following the breakdown in talks in July.

ICC chairperson Harold McGraw III urged WTO members to “bridge the gap” to ensure the TFA is in place. According to him, there is no logic in delaying the implementation of a deal that could add a possible $1-trillion to global gross domestic product and generate millions of jobs in the process.

According to the ICC, the missed July deadline was a huge disappointment to the global business community; however, the chamber emphasised that a deal was still possible in the weeks ahead.

McGraw stated: “Despite the procedural impasse, we are still seeing many developing economies pressing ahead with plans to implement the agreement. This progress should not be forgotten and should drive momentum to make further progress in the coming weeks.”

The ICC sees the TFA as an essential tool to boost cross-border small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sales. In a letter to Trade Ministers earlier this year, the ICC indicated that trade facilitation reforms would enable many companies to trade internationally for the first time, particularly as the Internet opened up new market opportunities for SMEs to connect with customers across borders. The ICC’s research suggests that improved border and customs measures could trigger a 60% to 80% increase in cross-border SME sales in some economies.
The ICC has pledged its commitment to a strong, rules-based multilateral trading system embodied by the WTO, and is dedicated to ensuring that global business plays an active and constructive role in working with WTO members to help strengthen WTO rules and adapt them to the needs of twenty- first-century trading.

2014 WTO Young Economists Essay Award Winners
On September 11, the WTO announced that the winners of the 2014 WTO Essay Award for Young Economists are Jonathan Dingel and Claudia Steinwender. The announcement was made at the yearly meeting of the European Trade Study Group, in Munich. The selection panel praised the high quality of the papers submitted and highlighted the important trade policy implications of the winning articles.

The article by Dingel, entitled ‘The determinants of quality specialisation’, looks at two possible reasons why higher-income countries tend to export higher-quality (skill-intensive) products, that is, producers in higher per-capita-income countries have access to bigger markets (home market effect) for higher-quality goods, and higher per-capita-income countries tend to be relatively more skill-abundant. Dingel finds that more than half of the variation observed in the data is explained by the home market effect. The WTO selection panel comments: “This paper addresses a central question in trade theory in an extremely competent way and has potentially important trade policy implications.”

The article by Steinwender, entitled ‘Information frictions and the law of one price: When the States and the kingdom became united’, studies the effect of better transmission of information on market efficiency and trade. The paper finds substantial welfare gains from reducing information frictions. The WTO selection panel comments: “This is a masterly paper, both in terms of the question it poses and its execution. Further, this article represents an important contribution in understanding the role that WTO transparency provisions play in fostering trade and efficiency.”
The first edition of the WTO Essay Award was launched in April 2009.

Fighting Illicit Tobacco Trade
On September 12, newly appointed head of the secretariat of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Dr Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva and World Customs Organisation secretary-general Dr Kunio Mikuriya met in Geneva, Switzerland. The aim of the meeting was to continue developing cooperation in the fight against illicit trade in tobacco products, and followed on the signing of a statement of intent between the two organisations in March 2014.

2015 Customs Tariffs
On September 17, following a notification published on September 10, the South African Revenue Service republished the draft customs tariff phase-downs for 2015 in terms of Schedule No 1, Part 1, of the Customs and Excise Act (ordinary customs duty), and proposed amendments to Schedule No 2 of the Act (trade remedies: antidumping duties, countervailing duties and safeguards), Schedule No 3 of the Act (industrial rebates of customs duties) and Schedule No 4 of the Act (general rebates of customs duties, fuel levy and environmental levy). Comments are due by October 8.

Export-Readiness Training

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has extended an invitation to exporters to participate in its Introduction to Exporting training sessions, which aim to prepare SMEs for the successful expansion of their businesses into international markets. The four-day sessions form part of the DTI’s export development programme and is the next step in the export-readiness process, following on the export awareness workshops.

The programme will cover aspects such as the international trading environment, international commercial terms (incoterms), the principles and fundamentals of foreign market research and the concept of export cultural barriers. The aim is to capacitate companies to be export ready, preparing them to meaningfully exploit export opportunities. There is no cost to participate in the programme, but only those companies with export potential will be selected. Fifty suitable companies will be accommodated on a first come, first served basis. The training is scheduled to take place in five locations across South Africa.