Article: WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement: Has the Trade Facilitation Agreement Improved Aspects of GATT Article VIII? - Global Trade and Customs Journal View Article: WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement: Has the Trade Facilitation Agreement Improved Aspects of GATT Article VIII? by - Global Trade and Customs Journal Article: WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement: Has the Trade Facilitation Agreement Improved Aspects of GATT Article VIII? 19 5 GATT Article VIII deals with fees and formalities connected with importation and exportation. Fees and formalities imposed by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members have an impact on international trade, and if left unchecked, can be a barrier to trade. The paper investigates how the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the WTO (TFA) has clarified or improved aspects of Article VIII of GATT 1994. This was a desk study and a comparative analysis whose main sources of data were the legal instruments of the WTO and a review of published literature. The paper found that the TFA is a comprehensive international agreement that has made significant clarifications to Article VIII and will have a positive effect on trade by WTO Members. The improvements by the TFA to the legal texts of Article VIII involved some additional and modern measures that would make the international trade supply chain more transparent, predictable, and cost-effective. The result is that the TFA has added some value to Article VIII, and this will further expedite the movement of goods from the supplier to the buyer.
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