Trade facilitation seeks to improve procedures and controls in merchandise trade across national borders by reducing associated cost burdens and maximizing efficiency, while safeguarding legitimate regulatory objectives. Recent developments, such as the challenge of bringing trade facilitation in line with growing safety and security concerns, as well as rising concerns about the use/misuse of trade procedures as trade policy tools, have heightened the political profile of trade facilitation.
The EFTA Committee on Trade Facilitation, established by the EFTA Council, follows EFTA’s trade negotiations and is continuously analysing the developments of trade facilitation within other international organisations, such as the World Trade Organization and notably the WTO-Trade Facilitation Agreement which entered into force in 2017, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Customs Organization. The Committee meets approximately once or twice a year.