IATA outlines benefits to air transport from WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement

IATA manager cargo border management and claims Tarcisio Hardman, in the IATA World Cargo Symposium Daily Report, outlined (16-Mar-2017) the following reasons why the entry into force of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) is particularly relevant to the air transport industry:

• Economic impact: The TFA has the potential to:
• • Increase global merchandise exports by up to USD1 trillion, due to an average 14.3% reduction in trade costs, which are expected to be particularly beneficial to developing countries;
  • Reduce the time to import goods by more than 1.5 days and reduce export times by almost two days;
  • Increase industry airfreight volumes by 1.4% to 4.4%;
• Value creation: The time and reliability of air transport can be significantly reduced by increasing the transparency and efficiency of border procedures. Trade facilitation increases the value proposition of air cargo by making the transport of goods by air faster, more predictable and reliable;
• Digitisation: By encouraging parties to digitalise certain procedures, the TFA serves as a trigger to a coordinated approach for the exchange of electronic messages between transport operators and regulators, which will enable electronic supply chain systems and single-windows initiatives. The agreement is also an opportunity to make use of the Cargo-XML electronic communication standard;
• Efficiency: Generating reliable data to measure the efficiency of border processing procedures may provide additional benefits for the industry by enabling data-driven decision making. [more - original PR]