Taiwan has become the 15th member of the World Trade Organization to ratify the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
Officials say that if it goes into effect, the TFA will help improve customs procedures, speed up customs clearance, and reduce global trade costs by between 10% and 15%.
So far only about a tenth of the WTO’s 161 member countries have ratified the TFA. Two-thirds of the member countries need to formally accept the agreement in order for it to go into effect.
The WTO secretariat has urged member countries to ratify the agreement ahead of the tenth WTO Ministerial Conference, which will take place in Nairobi, Kenya in December.
A foreign ministry official in Taipei said that the reason why so many members have yet to ratify the TFA, has to do with their domestic legislative procedures. He said he hoped that countries could work to ratify the agreement quickly. He said it would enable Taiwanese businesses to reduce trade costs and that it would have a positive effect on Taiwan’s overall economic development.