WCO Immediate Release Guidelines: State of Application in the Eve of the ATF Adoption - Journal of World Trade View WCO Immediate Release Guidelines: State of Application in the Eve of the ATF Adoption by - Journal of World Trade WCO Immediate Release Guidelines: State of Application in the Eve of the ATF Adoption 49 3

This article aims to research the current state of application of the WCO Guidelines for the Immediate Release of Consignments by Customs (the Guidelines) in the light of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (the ATF) with a view to provide for an initial step into the trade facilitation mapping exercise. Through use of the Guidelines as a reference for comparison of trade facilitation measures existing in the WCO Member Countries, it allows for stock taking of topics, which are crucial for the assessment of the country or territory alignment with the Guidelines and - consequently - large portion of the ATF. Covering 160 countries and territories of the world, it shows that the Guidelines are actually applied in the countries and territories covered by the research to a limited extent. The average score of the world comparing to the 'Ideal WCO Member' (ideal from the point of view of such express operator like DHL Express) is only 47% on average. This provides for a tangible information on how far the given country or territory deviates from the target WCO Member Country and how much - in terms of trade facilitation - is still to be achieved there.

Journal of World Trade