Selected Relevant Publications and Online Resources Reports by UN-OHRLLS

This report provides a summary of the transport infrastructure challenges that Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) face and the trends in financing of transport infrastructure of LLDCs, and gives guidance on the available opportunities of funding and financing for meeting their infrastructure challenges.

  • Global Report –  Improving transit cooperation, trade and trade facilitation for the benefit of the landlocked developing countries: Current status and policy implications (UN-OHRLLS 2017)

    This report reviews the status of transit cooperation, trade and trade facilitation for the benefit of the Landlocked Developing Countries. It identifies key achievements and constraints and suggests solutions required to address transit issues and scale up trade facilitation for the successful participation of the LLDCs in international trade and for their overall development. From the findings, it is clear that enhanced cooperation between the LLDCs and the transit countries is key to better integration of the LLDCs into the global markets. Such cooperation will create a win-win situation, since it is through multifaceted cooperation and smooth regional connectivity that they will be able to improve transit systems and transport infrastructure, enhance trade and government revenue and overall sustainable development

  • Improving Cooperation on Transit, Trade Facilitation and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN-OHRLLS 2017)

    This is a summary Report of the High-level Euro-Asia Regional Meeting that was held in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, 7-9, March 2017. The reports highlights areas of how to improve cooperation between the LLDCs and the transit countries to increase their trade potential and achievement of the SDGs. It has a compilation of the lessons learnt, good practices, future policies, programmes and initiatives on how to improve transit cooperation, connectivity, trade and trade facilitation and strengthen the linkages between the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that the participants shared at the meeting. The report has key recommendations to enhance cooperation between the LLDCs and transit countries. 

  • Accelerating Sustainable Energy for All in Landlocked Developing Countries through Innovative Partnerships  (UN-OHRLLS 2017)

    This report has two parts: A report of the Senior Official’s Meeting on Accelerating Sustainable Energy for All in Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) through Innovative Partnerships that was held in Vienna, Austria on 24 and 25 October 2016; and the Background report that was prepared for the Senior Official’s meeting. The report highlights the need to scale up access to sustainable energy; close the rural-urban disparities in access to energy in LLDCs; increase the population that has access to clean and modern cooking energy; and promote greater use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. To achieve this, the report underscores that the LLDCs need to ensure that national sustainable energy policies and regulatory frameworks are strengthened to establish an enabling environment to encourage investment into the sector. Strengthened partnerships between all stakeholders are necessary to provide technology, financial and capacity building support, and knowledge and sharing of best practices and lessons learned. The report contains important Conclusions and Recommendations that were adopted at the end of the meeting in Vienna.

This is a report of the Fifth Meeting of Trade Ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries held in Geneva, Switzerland from 23 to 24 June 2016. The publication is a compilation of written statements and summaries of PowerPoint presentations delivered during the Meeting. The Meeting stressed the importance of physical infrastructure development, structural economic transformation, the service sector, and enhanced international support. The Meeting resulted in the adoption of a Declaration that raises the issues crucial for successfully harnessing the trade potential of LLDCs to implement the VPoA and the 2030 Agenda.

This report identifies the persistent common challenges that the 32 landlocked developing countries face in their ambition to enhance economic growth, overcome poverty, and achieve sustainable development through greater international trade and business cooperation. This report highlights the importance of improved transport infrastructure and services in achieving these goals.

This is a report of the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development Follow-up side event on Enhancing the Role of the Private Sector in the Implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report has two parts: a summary report of the side event held on 23 May 2017 at the UN Headquarters in New York, United States of America and the background report that was prepared for the Meeting.

This publication highlights the things to know and do to enhance the development prospects of the LLDCs.

This is a report of the 15th Annual Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Group of LLDCs held on 22 September 2016 at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA in the sidelines of the 71st session of the General Assembly’s high-level general debate. The meeting was centered on the theme, “Harnessing Coherence in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Vienna Programme of Action.“

This report reviews the transit cooperation, transport infrastructure and trade facilitation issues facing LLDCs in the Latin America Region. The report identifies key achievements, remaining challenges and policy recommendations to address the transit related issues and challenges for the successful implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action as well as for the international trade facilitation and overall development of Latin American LLDCs.

This report reviews the status of transit issues in the region under four key thematic areas (i) the legal framework for transit cooperation, (ii) transit infrastructure development, (iii) international trade, trade facilitation, customs and border crossing procedures, and (iv) means of implementation. The report also identifies key successful cases and constraints and provides recommendations to address transit issues for the successful participation of the LLDCs in international trade and for their overall development.

This report examines the current status of Asian LLDCs in terms of the hardware (infrastructure development) and software (legal framework, customs and border procedures etc) elements of the transit cooperation system. It reviews the state of LLDCs’ participation in international trade and the role of improved transit and trade facilitation in expanding trade between the LLDCs and their trading partners. It also looks at the constraints and challenges faced by the LLDCs in increasing their participation in international trade. The report analyses the key implementation constraints faced by the LLDCs including financing infrastructure development. The report provides recommendations and policy options for the greater integration of the LLDCs into regional and global growth processes.

This is a report of Botswana national consultations on mainstreaming of the Vienna Programme of Action. The report has two parts: a report of the National Stakeholder Sensitization Workshop on the VPoA held in Gaborone, Botswana, 27-29 October 2015 and the background document on mainstreaming of the Vienna Programme of Action that was prepared for the national consultations.

This is a report of the High-Level Interactive Panel on Financing for Infrastructure Development and Regional Integration for the LLDCs that was held on 15 July 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the margins of The Third International Conference on Financing for Development. The purpose of the meeting was to raise awareness on Vienna Programme of Action (VPoA) for the LLDCs, in particular the key priority areas of infrastructure development and regional integration; discuss ways of enhancing resource mobilization for the LLDCs; share experiences and identify recommendations to accelerate the implementation of the VPoA. The presentations and discussions held in the meeting reviewed in depth the importance of increased infrastructure development and enhanced regional integration for the successful development of the LLDCs.

This booklet provides statistical country profiles of the 32 LLDCs using data from the UNCTAD, the UNDP Human Development Report, and the World Bank.

This study identifies LLDCs’ priority areas on climate change, land degradation and desertification that could be included in their new development agenda. In order to achieve this objective, the study provides a comprehensive review of the impact of climate change, desertification and land degradation on LLDCs; reviews national, regional and international interventions which have been implemented in LLDCs; identifies best practices, lessons learnt and emerging opportunities; and proffers recommendations for inclusion in a new development agenda for LLDCs which will assist them to ameliorate the negative impacts of climate change, desertification and land degradation.

This publication is composed of two parts. The first is the report of the High-Level International Workshop on the “WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation: Implications for LLDCs” held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2-3 June 2014. The second part of this publication is a background report prepared for the workshop entitled Assessment of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation: Implications for the LLDCs.

This report provides a detailed description of the main pillars of the productive capacity building framework for enhancing structural transformation in LLDCs and discusses how building capacity along these pillars will help address the structural challenges associated with LLDCs’ geography. The report also provides policy suggestions on how to structurally change the economy in the context of multiple competing priorities and limited resources.

Report of a Brainstorming Meeting held as part of the preparatory process for the Comprehensive 10 Year Review of the Implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action United Nations Headquarters, New York 20–21 March 2013.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of landlockedness on the development prospects of LLDCs. In particular the study assesses the impact of landlockedness on the overall development performance of LLDCs on a large number of economic, institutional, and social indicators; empirically estimates the development cost of being landlocked using an econometric approach; and based on the findings, proposes recommendations that can provide a more holistic strategy to the development of LLDCs.

Joint World Bank-United Nations report in preparation for the 2nd United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries. The publication provides a comprehensive ten year review of the Almaty Programme of Action in order to assess the progress made in improving access of LLDCs to global markets, identify the remaining challenges faced by LLDCs, and present improved and innovative ways to overcome them.

Compilation of statements and presentations delivered at the High-Level Global Thematic Meeting on International Trade, Trade Facilitation and Aid for Trade.

This paper explores the likely challenges that the financial and economic crises pose for landlocked developing countries; the nature of these countries’ vulnerabilities to the crises; the response of relevant global and regional institutions to the crises; and the policy options open to these countries at the domestic level. In that respect, the critical importance of securing and improving access to the sea and the quality, cost and reliability of transportation networks generally , as emphasized by the Almaty Programme of Action, is a persistent theme.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action as contribution to its midterm review.

  • Landlocked countries in South America: transit transport challenges (UN-OHRLLS/ECLAC, 2008) English – Spanish

Links to the Reports of Our Partners

The report identifies and analyzes the drivers, enablers and policy levers for strengthening linkages between industrialization and urbanization. It shows that industrialization requires better functioning cities and systems of cities, which in turn require better performing industrialization processes. It stresses that African countries, under the right policy frameworks anchored in national development planning, can leverage the momentum of urbanization to accelerate industrialization for a more prosperous and equitable future.

This report is part of a series of reports aimed to discuss macroeconomic developments in Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, and Niger. The first section shares the common characteristics and similar set of challenges the three countries faced.  The second section discusses the unique development challenges as well as opportunities to accelerate economic growth, poverty reduction and shared prosperity. The last section discusses the impact of public investment volatility on its quality in Chad, Mali and Niger, and explores possible options in terms of macroeconomic and public financial management to smooth public investment budget execution.

The handbook is aimed at introducing policy makers in LLDCs to prepare for multilateral trade negotiations by providing a background on different negotiation topics in the World Trade Organisation, which are relevant to LLDCs.The handbook provides an introduction and mapping of existing handbooks and guidelines on multilateral trade and negotiations produced by the relevant UN system organizations and other international organizations.

Cost-effective and high quality transport systems are key to modern logistics, and therefore it is essential for economic development. This Guide is organized in four broad sections. The first three set out the role of road transport in modern economies and the supply chains that characterize them, the principles of reform, and how to gather data and information to conduct a diagnostic and target those reforms. The fourth section offers options and possible paths available to agencies driving the reform process.

This book presents the Country Development Diagnostics Post-2015 framework, developed by the World Bank Group to assess the country-level implications of the post-2015 global agenda, as well as brief, “at-a-glance” applications of the framework to ten countries.

Trade facilitation reforms improve a country’s trade competitiveness and the effectiveness of border agencies. This present study conducted by UNCTAD identifies policies to help reap the full development-related benefits from trade facilitation reforms.

Despite experiencing a decade of rapid economic and export growth, Asian land-locked developing countries (LLDCs) are still in a difficult position with regard to integration with the rest of the region and the global economy. This report examines the changes in trade structure and performance of Asian LLDCs. It also underscores the importance of global and regional cooperation efforts to assist those countries in enacting sound trade policies and strategies that put structural economic transformation at the centre of such efforts.

The 2016 World Trade Report examines the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in international trade, how the international trade landscape is changing for SMEs, and what the multilateral trading system does and can do to encourage more widespread and inclusive SME participation in global markets

This issue of the FALL Bulletin analyses natural resources logistics chains in Paraguay and the Plurinational State of Bolivia in the light of the Vienna Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.The ECLAC also provides policy recommendations to convert both natural resources and logistics into levers for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean regions.

The 2016 High Level Meeting reviewed progress in modernising the Development Assistance Committee‘s statistical system, drawing on the results of the Addis Ababa Third International Conference and the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. It also agreed on a number of outstanding issues, including the measurement in official development assistance (ODA) of peace and security expenditures and the donor effort involved in using private sector instruments.

This report outlined the importance and development solution of industry policy for African countries.  It reviewed the past experiences and theories of industry policy in Africa and suggested the new industry policy in a global context for African countries

Country Profiles is a series published annually by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The aim of the series is to disseminate country- and region-specific policy analyses and recommendations for economic transformation, with an emphasis on promoting sustainable growth and social development, strengthening regional integration and facilitating development planning and economic governance. The present series is the result of the close collaboration of the subregional offices of ECA and the African Centre for Statistics. Specific contributions were provided by relevant programme areas of ECA, in particular, the Macroeconomic Policy Division, the Regional Integration and Trade Division, and the Social Development and Policy Division.

Africa’s Regional Integration Index is an action tool measuring the progress of how African countries are performing in integrating trade, regional infrastructure, mobility of persons and goods, finance and production. The Africa Regional Integration Index seeks to give answers by scoring and rating the performance of African countries and regional economic communities. The Index is based on five dimensions: Trade integration, Productive integration, Free movement of people, Financial and macroeconomic integration, and Regional infrastructure.

This report examines how the three elements of regional integration, innovation and competitiveness are interlinked. It explores the prospects for harnessing them within the framework of Africa’s normative regional integration development model oriented to foster structural change.

This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Landlocked Economies. It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the comparator regions.

This report examines some of the major policy issues that underlie Africa’s services’ sector and provides policy guidance on how services could contribute to Africa’s regional integration and generate inclusive growth and employment.

The question in this UNCTAD report is, to what extent does the state of being landlocked keep LLDCs in the production and export of primary commodities? The present study argues that despite the challenges, the case for diversification and structural economic transformation remains more persuasive for LLDCs today than ever before. Empirical and historical evidence suggests that diversification, value addition and retention are key to attaining overall development objectives.

This report reviews recent trends in the global economy and focuses on ways to reform the international financial architecture. It warns that with a tepid recovery in developed countries and headwinds in many developing and transition economies, the global crisis is not over, and the risk of a prolonged stagnation persists.

This publication features the results of the 2015 UNRCs Joint Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade implementation for the Asia-Pacific region and incorporates this information into an econometric analysis, estimating the impact of trade facilitation on trade costs.

The 2015 World Trade Report is the first detailed study of the potential impacts of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) based on a full analysis of the final agreement text. The Report’s findings are consistent with existing studies on the scale of potential benefits from trade facilitation, but it goes further by identifying and examining in detail a range of other benefits from the TFA.

This yearly report by UNCTAD aims to inform global debates on the future of the international policy environment for cross-border investment. The report covers all aspects of Foreign Direct Investment, including details on the trends and statistics of FDI inflows to LLDCs.

This paper examines the growing role played by developing countries in climate negotiations. By applying a cluster analysis, this paper attempts to investigate the role played by heterogeneity in specific characteristics of developing countries in forming bargaining coalitions in climate negotiations. They find that in order to maximize the likelihood of a successful climate agreement in the short term, it will be necessary to design differentiated supporting actions according to countries’ specific interests and weaknesses in order to equalize costs and benefits of mitigation policies and vulnerability to climate change.

The objective of this study is to examine the rights conferred on landlocked states by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 and the role of negotiating bilateral and multilateral agreements in the practical realization of those rights. The study delves into the condition of all land-locked states of the world in general, and looks into relevant legal provisions in the Convention and other pertinent secondary sources/literatures.

This paper examines the determinants of economic growth in developing countries within the standard growth regression framework, with special attention being paid to the experience of landlocked developing countries (LLDCs). The results confirm that landlockedness hampers economic growth, but the magnitude of negative impact is sensitive to alternative estimation methods. However, the analysis suggests that good governance, trade openness and coordinating infrastructure development with neighbours explain the significant aspect of the inter-country differences in growth rates among LLDCs. The results also suggest that African landlocked countries are not different from the other LLDCs. Contrary to the “resource curse” hypothesis natural resources seem to contribute to economic growth of LLDCs.

This report describes how process-based corridor performance measurement and monitoring (CPMM) methodology captures data on the time and cost of moving freight within the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) region, particularly at border crossing points (BCPs), to spur operating efficiency, reduce bottlenecks along the CAREC corridors, and thus improve international and regional trade flows. Despite the challenges of measuring corridor performance in the CAREC context, efforts are being made to provide accurate and reliable indicators. The depth of data and the richness of information provided by CPMM—which has been used to measure CAREC corridor performance since 2009—will contribute to detailed and well-grounded policy making and implementation.

This publication was prepared as part of UNCTAD’s contribution to the Second United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries in Vienna. It presents key economic, social and trade information on all 32 LLDCs with the aim of underpinning the dimension of their development challenges with facts and figures.

This paper examines how Aid for Trade could be an important tool to improving the trade of LLDCs and through this, promote more sustainable regional development. The authors determine that regional integration is a process that should continue to be strengthened and in which landlocked countries can and should play a more active role.

Logistics Performance Index (LPI) measures the on-the-ground efficiency of trade supply chains, or logistics performance. The LPI and its components help countries understand the challenges that they and their trading partners face in making their national logistics perform strongly.

This toolkit provides information and guidance on how to design, determine the components to include, and analyse the likely impact of corridor projects. It presents in a succinct form the experiences of the World Bank and other development agencies in assessing, designing, implementing, and evaluating the impact of trade and transport corridor projects.

This report focuses on how the relationship between trade and development has changed since the start of the millennium, identifying four key trends which have altered the way that trade affects development outcomes. The four trends are accelerated economic growth in developing countries since the new millennium, the expansion of global value chains, the surge in agricultural and natural resource prices over the last decade, and the increasingly global nature of macroeconomic shocks. This report finds that while some developing economies have made significant progress in recent years, much still needs to be done to close the gap for many poor economies.

This report examines data from both the WTO and the OECD, revealing trends in infrastructure, customs and border crossing procedures, private services and regulation, red tape, and governance. This report finds a clear case for donor countries, partner countries, and the private sector to continue to work together to improve the transport and logistics value chain, and help bring about the positive economic and social development outcomes it can support.

This Transit Handbook deals with various aspects of the operation of Customs transit procedures, and is accordingly intended to serve as a practical guide to assist WCO Members to develop a more functional and effective transit system which may contribute to the enhancement of economic competitiveness and secure their revenue. The Transit Handbook provides information on: the importance of transit; legal frameworks, including the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC); relevant WCO tools and instruments, such as the SAFE Framework of Standards; and the practices and experiences of WCO Members.

A discussion of trade facilitation in the context of enhancing trading links between South and Southeast Asia, in a manner understandable to the non-specialist. Paper identifies the scope of trade facilitation and profiles the current overall situation in the two regions.

This publication reviews the legal instruments in Africa that facilitate transport and trade flows between countries and regions. This updated study, which finds 145 legal instruments in 2014 (up from 121 in 2004), was motivated for three reasons.  First, African countries are increasingly cooperating, especially in the area of corridors, to achieve full connectivity, mobility and accessibility. Second, this new edition has been extended to cover the whole of the African continent, including the Maghreb, which was not in the previous inventory. Finally, air transport and associated agreements and conventions were added at the request of countries.

This paper assesses the Trade Policy Review of Nepal 2012. In doing so, the paper summarizes the report, updates some of its analysis to 2012/13, highlights its key findings, and points out some of the policy issues that deserve further attention.

This work looks at selected East African transit corridors which provide access to seaports as gateways to link LLDCs with overseas trading partners and suggests complementary courses of action to improve transit transport efficiency and sustainability.

The publication proposes methodologies for identifying the defining characteristics of regional road transport agreements and the implications they may have on market integration. Its results identify general patterns about bilateral agreements on road freight transport and how they work in practice.

This guide explains the significance of the World Trade Organization (WTO), gives an overview of the main provisions of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, explains how it is intended to ease border controls for business, and how business can influence the way governments implement TFA obligations and commitments.

This report outlines the infrastructure deficit and challenges, highlights models for financing the continent’s ambitious projects, and provides a sector-by-sector guide to the main priority areas, namely energy, transport, water and ICTs.

Draws on experiences of more than 100 developing country negotiators and insights of leading academic studies and brings together practical advice and lessons on ways to negotiate effectively with larger parties, and avoid common pitfalls.

This paper presents an overview of support by development partners as well as financial instruments that are promoting private investment for Africa’s infrastructure. This paper is largely based on responses from a questionnaire that was developed by the secretariats of the DAC and Investment Committee and sent to DAC participants in November 2010, with the questions consisting of: Members’ strategies for infrastructure in Africa, including mobilizing private investment; special considerations for fragile states, environment, regional approaches, and lessons from other developing regions; specific project activities for the enabling environment; application of principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness; and domestic co-ordination and coherence for Africa’s infrastructure investment.

This online resource presents a variety of concepts, standards and recommendations that can simplify trade throughout the international supply chain, sets out implementation approaches and methodologies, and introduces the available instruments for applying the facilitation measures under discussion at the WTO.

This handbook provides concrete examples on how border crossing points can be made increasingly efficient and secure, and though it pays particular attention to road border crossing points, it also touches upon border crossing points along railways and at sea ports. The publication aims to compensate for the fact that the negative economic impact of inefficient border crossings is not always given the consideration it deserves, as cumbersome procedures at borders increase the costs of transport operations and hamper international trade and foreign investments.

This book aims to help the policymaker and development community in general to understand the nature of the problems and policy dilemmas that landlocked countries face to trade with the rest of the World. It presents an important contribution to the existing literature, by focusing on a new conceptual framework that challenges the previous paradigm based on physical infrastructure and state-led access solutions, embodied in many treaties. Suggesting that the main access problems for landlocked countries occur in the territory of the transit country, this volume provides a new approach to understand the set of incentives that drive the political economy and shape the institutions governing goods’ transit along corridors. Overall, the policy levers available to overcome these barriers are based on universally applied principles, recognizing the need for re-engineering current transit regimes which have been implemented with little success outside Europe. A risk-approach to border control and technology use, along with trust building between private operators and public agencies, all point toward the need to encourage and formally recognize higher-quality trucking companies. Meanwhile, other modes of transportation represent an alternative to road transit, but they also entail disadvantages, suggesting that their role is likely to remain limited to niche segments, specific commodities and exceptional market circumstances.

This paper shows that improved trade facilitation can help promote export diversification in developing countries. The authors find that 10 per cent reductions in the costs of international transport and domestic exporting costs (documentation, inland transport, port and customs charges) are associated with export diversification gains of 4 and 3 per cent, respectively, in a sample of 118 developing countries. Customs costs play a particularly important role in these results. Lower market entry costs can also promote diversification, but the effect is weaker (1 per cent). They also find evidence that trade facilitation has stronger effects on diversification in poorer countries. Results are highly robust to estimation using alternative dependent and independent variables, different country samples and alternative econometric techniques. The authors link these findings to recent advances in trade theory that emphasize firm heterogeneity, and trade growth at the extensive margin.

Trade facilitation helps countries achieve national development objectives. It makes them more competitive, allowing goods and services to be traded on time and at low transaction cost. But many developing countries will be unable to take advantage of international trade opportunities unless they can go beyond the traditional reform agenda—almost exclusively dedicated to customs reform and hard infrastructure—and invest in areas where trade is most constrained. Facilitating trade may require reforming and modernizing border management institutions, changing transport regulation policy, and investing in infrastructure. A trade supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Locating the weakest links and addressing them through targeted development interventions has therefore become a major element of the new trade facilitation and logistics agenda.

This study empirically investigates how the quality of trade facilitation (both on-the border and behind-the-border factors) in landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and in their transit countries impacts LLDC trade. The main contribution of this study is the consideration of trade facilitation environment in both LLDCs and transit countries. In the area of exports, an important policy implication flowing from the results of the study is that international assistance for improving the trade performance of LLDCs, as envisaged by the Almaty Programme of Action, endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly, should focus on improving the trade facilitation environment in both the LLDCs and their transit neighbours. In the area of imports, the policy implication is that LLDCs should rationalize their tariff structures, which will help bring about a more efficient resource allocation, leading to increased specialization and export competitiveness.

The Cost of Being Landlocked proposes a new analytical framework to interpret and model the constraints faced by logistics chains on international trade corridors. The plight of landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) has naturally received special attention for decades, leading to a specific set of development priorities based upon the concept of dependence on the transit state. Therefore, the standard approach used to tackle the cost of being landlocked has been predominantly aimed at developing regional transport infrastructure and ensuring freedom of transit through regional conventions. But without sufficient attention given to the performance of logistics service delivery to traders, the standard approach is unable to address key bottleneck concerns and the factors that contribute to the cost of being landlocked. Consequently, the impact of massive investment on trade corridors could not materialize to its full extent. Based on extensive data collection in several regions of the world, this book argues that although landlocked developing countries do face high logistics costs, these costs are not a result of poor road infrastructure, since transport prices largely depend on trucking market structure and implementation of transit processes. This book suggests that high logistics costs in LLDCs are a result of low logistics reliability and predictability, which stem from rent-seeking and governance issues. The Cost of Being Landlocked will serve as a useful guide for policy makers, supervisory authorities, and development agencies.

This study is part of the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic, a project designed to expand the world’s knowledge of physical infrastructure in Africa. This study goes over ten main findings that emerged as a result of extensive fieldwork in Africa, and gives key recommendations that address each of these findings, before going in-depth into each topic.

This paper starts out defining trade facilitation and provides an overview of trade facilitation in the literature. It then proceeds to define in more detail the evolution of trade facilitation in the WTO and provides an overview on the Doha Mandated, the Annex D Modalities and the negotiating process. The paper discusses the existing commitments and proposed amendments to the three GATT Articles and discusses other important issues such as Capacity Building and Special and Differential Treatment in the context of trade facilitation in the WTO. The paper concludes by providing an overview over where India stands.

This technical note provides background information on GATT Article V and then provides an overview on various implementation issues, including traffic and access rights, bilateral, regional and plurilateral agreements and transit corridor arrangements. It concludes by providing a number of references and tools available.

Maritime transport costs have a significant impact on the trade in agricultural goods. Maritime transport costs represent a high proportion of the imported value of agricultural products – 10% on average, which is a similar level of magnitude as agricultural tariffs. This study shows that a doubling in the cost of shipping is associated with a 42% drop in trade on average in agricultural goods overall. The tendency to source imports from countries with low transport costs is therefore strong. Trade in some products is particularly affected by changes in maritime transport costs, in particular cereals and oilseeds, which are shipped in bulk. Time spent in transit also has a strong effect on trade: an extra day spent at sea on an average sea voyage of 20 days implies a 4.5% drop in trade between a given pair of trading partners. Not only cost but also efficiency in getting agricultural goods to market are therefore important factors in explaining trade flows.

This practical tool identifies the obstacles to the fluidity of trade supply chains. Taking the perspective of service delivery to traders, the TTFA assessment is founded on facts and data collected through a series of meetings and interviews with the main public and private participants to these international supply chains. They include customs and other border agencies, transport regulators, freight forwarders, transport operators, ports, and others. The toolkit helps design plans of action to improve logistics performance among its three main dimensions: infrastructure, services, and procedures and processes. This new edition of the toolkit provides an opportunity not only to reflect the changes in the trade environment and the need for additional features in the toolkit, but also to benefit from the experiences of the assessments already undertaken based on the original edition. The toolkit is designed to help by providing a first cut at identifying the bottlenecks and break the ground for in-depth work. Its scope is very comprehensive, yet it is not an encyclopedia of trade and logistics, but rather a guidebook. Readers in need of more information in any of the specific sub-areas are invited to use specialized resources made available by various international sources. The World Bank is currently issuing toolkits for border management, port reform, supply chain security, and transit corridors. We are fully confident that this document will be a useful guide that will help implement this important agenda in an increasing number of countries.

Infrastructure is shown to be a cost-effective means of lowering trade costs and thereby promoting regional growth and integration. This book combines thematic and country studies, while breaking new ground in quantifying infrastructure’s impact on Asia’s trade costs. The contributors add to empirical estimates of Asia’s trade costs and infrastructure’s influence on those costs while also contributing to a better understanding of the region’s logistics challenges. The book includes interesting case studies of rapid growth and congestion (in China), inland transportation challenges (India), port competition in an archipelago (Indonesia) and transportation modal switching as value-added rises (Malaysia) that are policy- and project-relevant in their own right. The analysis and policy implications in this book will be of interest to trade and infrastructure policy-makers and academics at graduate and higher levels involved in economic development or Asian studies, as well as the broader development community.

This publication is the World Bank’s contribution to the midterm review of the Almaty Programme of Action.

The article provides an overview of trade facilitation and the relevant World Trade Organization (WTO) law. After introducing the subject, the article describes what trade facilitation entails and demonstrates its economic impact. The focus turns to the current WTO trade facilitation negotiations. In order to assess the potential for revision, related panel and Appellate Body reports are analyzed and the contents of the relevant GATT Articles – namely Articles V, VIII and X of the GATT – are clarified. Furthermore, other multilateral trade agreements are looked at. It is shown that they contain certain principles that are likely to set a trend for matters to be regulated by the WTO. Finally, the article looks at some of the Members’ proposals submitted to the WTO Secretariat and gives an outlook on the future of the negotiations.

Access to basic infrastructure services – roads, electricity, water, sanitation – and the efficient provision of the services, is a key challenge in the fight against poverty. Many of the poor (and particularly the extreme poor) in rural communities in Latin America live on average 5 kilometres or more from the nearest paved road, which is almost twice as far as non-poor rural households. There have been major improvements in access to water, sanitation, electricity, telecommunications, ports, and airports, but road coverage has not changed much, although some effort and resources have been invested to improve the quality of road networks. This paper focuses on the main determinants of logistics costs and physical access to services and, whenever possible, provides evidence of the effects of these determinants on competitiveness, growth, and poverty in Latin American economies. The analysis shows the impact of improving infrastructure and logistics costs on three fronts – macro (growth), micro (productivity at the firm level), and poverty (the earnings of poor/rural people). In addition, the paper provides recommendations and solutions that encompass a series of policies to reduce the prevalent high logistics costs and limited access to services in Latin America.

Annex D of the July 2004 Decision of the WTO General Council indicates that “the principle (of special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries) should extend beyond the granting of traditional transition periods for implementing commitments. In particular, the extent and the timing of entering into commitments shall be related to the implementation capacities of developing and least-developed Members.” The objective of this study is to offer reflections on how special and differential treatment for trade facilitation may be shaped by the cost implications of measures included in the future agreement. It is based on findings of OECD work on the costs of trade facilitation measures, which confirms that different countries – even at an equivalent level of development – face different situations and present differing implementation capacities, and points to the relative complexity of implementation of the different measures proposed for inclusion in a future trade facilitation agreement.

Contrary to the prevailing view that the Doha negotiations have achieved little, the authors find that on trade facilitation much progress has been made. This is particularly true in regard to action by development banks and bilateral development agencies to meet client demand for assistance in reform. Active private sector participation has been an important factor driving change. Many agencies have been involved in this work; the authors find that their roles have been consistent with their comparative advantages. As to how the international community can best support continued progress, the authors conclude in favour of a cautious approach to the imposition of new WTO obligations in the area of trade facilitation. On the whole, this is the approach the WTO has taken, e.g., by limiting its negotiations on trade facilitation to several specific provisions of the GATT. The WTO can continue to function as a catalyst for reform; it is perhaps uniquely placed to relate the trade facilitation agenda to the overall trade agenda. On design and construction of the relevant infrastructures and capacities to spur development, the development institutions, including bilateral agencies, should continue to lead. The authors find little evidence to support the need for a comprehensive new “platform” or mechanism to channel trade-related aid as part of implementation of any new agreement at the WTO on trade facilitation. They recommend, however, that an innovative approach to using the well established, but under utilized Trade Policy Review Mechanism be considered to increase transparency on where new aid is going over time and to expand understanding of where and how country-based progress has been achieved.