WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/264
21 July 1999
(99-3041)
General Council Original:  English
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Negotiations on Trade Facilitation
Communication from Switzerland
The following communication, dated 20 July 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Switzerland.
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Proposal
1. Negotiations shall aim to set up an effective and adequate multilateral framework of
guidelines, rules and disciplines based on the existing WTO fundamental principles, in order tooptimize the trade benefits achieved by lowering customs duties and to reduce the distortions and
impediments to international trade generated by diverging and less efficient procedures and
requirements in trade in goods and related services.  Such negotiations shall duly take into account the
work already undertaken on trade facilitation in relevant WTO bodies and in other international fora.
Background
2. The different customs procedures and regulations applied at importation and exportation,
combined with the extreme diversity of the transpor t, insurance, payment, etc. modalities linked with
trade transactions, result in international trade operations being unnecessarily complicated and
cumbersome.  The simplification and harmonization of these procedures and regulations, particularly
at the frontier, will help to make trade transactions considerably more efficient and, consequently,
much less expensive, both for government services and for the economic operators.  The workundertaken at the WTO since 1996 has demonstrated, on the basis of numerous concrete examples,
the advantages of trade facilitation for developing countries, in particular thanks to recourse to new
transmission and information technologies which make it possible not only to improve resource
allocation but also to increase revenue from the collection of customs duties.
3. The work done so far in the various WTO bodies has also shown that there is a real need to
facilitate international trade transactions.  The existing instruments developed by the WTO and other
international agencies are already a first step.  Switzerland is of the opinion that the process should be
taken further by formalizing everything within a multilateral framework which would have to be
defined in the coming negotiations.  The result would be greater security and greater predictability for
exporters and importers.  Moreover, combined with tariff reductions, multilateral trade facilitationrules would have the effect of improving market access for goods and promoting trade in services.
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