Trade facilitation has formed a part of the WTO work program since 1996, though no significant progress has yet been made in launching negotiations, mainly due to the opposition of a number of developing countries. Following the failed Cancun meeting in 2003, WTO members formally agreed to commence negotiations on trade facilitation. The main aim of the trade facilitation negotiations is to clarify and improve the provisions of three GATT 1994 articles on freedom of transit, on fees and formalities connected with importation and exportation, and on the publication and administration of trade regulations with a view to expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods through customs. The negotiations also aim at providing technical assistance to developing and least developed countries with a view to strengthening their technical capacities for the application of innovative techniques and methods in the clearance of goods, and for the gradual acceptance of the obligations and new rules that may be adopted in the Doha Round. This book provides background information and identifies the points that may need further examination by the negotiating parties. It also contains suggestions on how the negotiating approaches adopted under other WTO Agreements (such as the Agreement on Customs Valuation, Rules of Origin, Technical Barriers to Trade and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures), could be taken into account while developing new rules in this area."