Subsequent measures by the Hong Kong Ministry have not moved at the expected speed. It was not until December 2009 that the “consolidated draft negotiating text” was put into circulation. This project consisted of about 1,700 hooks, which highlighted the main opposing opinions. These brackets eventually expanded to about 2200, until they began to decline. The president decided to appoint several organizers to try to reduce the number of brackets. Finally, more than 14 groups of moderators worked in parallel on the themes and negotiations. [2] Currently, the cost of international trade is about $2 trillion. [4] This situation is due to a number of factors, including unnecessary customs procedures, marginal taxes and unnecessary duplication. [4] The economic benefits of the Trade Facilitation Agreement are not yet fully discernible and measured. However, estimates of the economic benefits resulting from the agreement are widespread. Estimates range from about $68 billion to nearly $1 trillion per year. According to the OECD, the Trade Facilitation Agreement has the capacity to reduce trade costs by 14.1% for low-income countries, 12.9% for middle-income countries and 12.9% for middle-income countries by 14.1%. This would indicate a series of gains of about $9 to $133 per year per person on the planet.
These large margins indicate that there are still some uncertainties related to the trade agreement. [5] Work on the Trade Facilitation Agreement continued after the Singapore Summit. [2] The main objective of these discussions was to gain a first understanding of the scope of the agreement. The definition of a clearly defined role for the WTO has become a priority. The role of the WTO has been relatively broad. The first proposal stated that the WTO would have jurisdiction over payments, insurance and other financial requirements in the area of international trade. [2] In the late 1990s, efforts by a number of countries to make WTO rules binding and unassponed provoked a response to narrow the scope and focus on some aspects of the GATT. The two main products of interest were GATT Articles VIII and X. [2] As the trade facilitation agreement has been pushed to be a non-binding document and rather a number of incentives for the industry and development-oriented countries that should follow, it has left many developing and least developed countries with doubts that the most prosperous countries will respect their commitment to support.