THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS OF THE TRADE FACILITATION AGREEMENT IN THE PACIFIC ALLIANCE

Chile - 11 August 2017

The Pacific Alliance (PA) has become one of the main regional integration schemes in Latin America, with a discourse focused on actions, where trade facilitation is one of the most important elements in the work agenda. In this sense, the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), approved at the Ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference held in Bali in 2013, marks a point where, on the one hand, we can appreciate the commitment of member countries, and the Alliance with the WTO; on the other, their capacity to establish joint actions for shared objectives. This article reviews the implementation process of the Trade Facilitation Agreement in the countries of the Pacific Alliance, with the objective of analyze the existence of common actions among the four partners to carry out the process. We look out how Aid for Trade can help the implementation process of the TFA, and determine the convergence of trade facilitation policies and cooperation in this sub regional scheme, establishing, if in trade facilitation, the Pacific Alliance acts as a building block of the multilateral system.

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