TCB Category Definitions

Trade Facilitation is generally defined as assistance in lowering the costs of engaging in, or eliminating obstacles to international trade flows. Trade facilitation (for 2002-2004) is a sum of these six sub-categories:

Customs Operation & Administration includes assistance to help countries modernize and improve their customs offices.

 

E-commerce Development & Information Technologies (IT) includes assistance to help countries acquire and use IT to promote trade by creating business networks and disseminating market information.

 

Export Promotion includes assistance to increase market opportunities for developing country and transition economy producers.

 

Business Services & Training includes support to improve the associations and networks in the business sector, as well as to enhance the skills of business people engaged in trade.

 

Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) includes assistance to an RTA or to an individual country that increases the ability of the RTA to facilitate trade. It can also include assistance to a potential member of an RTA that improves the analytical capacity of the country's government with respect to RTA issues. (NOTE: It does not include TCB assistance in a specific area that is being provided to countries through an RTA. For example, technical assistance to help RTA member countries comply with SPS standards was reported as Trade-Related Agricultural Development or the WTO Agreement on SPS Measures.)

 

Other Trade Facilitation includes support to increase trade flows that is not categorized in one of the other five Trade Facilitation sub-categories.

Human Resources and Labor Standards is assistance to support the enforcement of labor standards and worker rights, development of trade unions and dispute resolution mechanisms, strategies for workforce development and worker training, and the elimination of child labor.

Physical Infrastructure Development is assistance to establish trade-related telecoms, transport, ports, airports, power, water, and industrial zones.

Trade-Related Agricultural Development is support for trade-related aspects of the agriculture and agribusiness sectors. (NOTE: Support that is specifically intended to help countries participate in the WTO Agreements on Agriculture or SPS Measures are not included in this category.)

Environmental Sector Trade & Standards is assistance to establish environmental standard or to promote environmental technology.

Governance/Transparency & Inter-Agency Coordination includes support for legal and institutional reform to improve governance and make policies more transparent, as well as assistance to help the different agencies of a host country government function more effectively in the trade policy arena.

Financial Sector Development & Good Governance is support for financial sector work, monetary and fiscal policy, exchange rates, commodity markets, and capital markets.

Competition Policy & Foreign Investment is support for the design and implementation of antitrust laws, as well as of laws and regulations related to investment and investor protections.

Services Trade Development includes support to help developing countries and transition economies increase their flows of trade in services. Services Trade Development is a sum of the two sub-categories:

Tourism Sector Development is assistance to help countries expand their international tourism sectors, including eco-tourism.

 

Other Services Development is assistance to help countries develop trade in services in all sectors other than tourism, including financial services, energy, transportation, and education.

 

WTO Awareness & Accession is the sum of assistance in two sub categories:

WTO Awareness & Participation is assistance to help governments and private sector institutions benefit from membership in the WTO, or to understand fully the benefits of membership.

 

WTO Accession is assistance to help countries in the WTO Accession process meet the requirements of accession.

 

Specific WTO Agreements includes assistance that enables countries to better participate in, and benefit from, particular WTO Agreements. This is a sum of all the individual agreements that are listed below. (NOTE: For definitions and detailed explanations regarding the specific WTO Agreements, please visit the World Trade Organization's (WTO) web site at www.wto.org.)

Agreements on Trade in Goods

Agreement on Agriculture

Agreement on Sanitary & Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) Measures

Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)

Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)

Agreement on Anti-Dumping

Agreement on Customs Valuation Methods

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

Agreement on Rules of Origin

Agreement on Subsidies & Countervailing Measures (CVM)

Agreement on Government Procurement

Agreement on WTO Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM)

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)

Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures

Agreement on Safeguards

Agreement on Disputes Settlement

Other Specific WTO Agreements

Other Trade Capacity Building
A small number of TCB activities did not fit in any of the above categories, including some activities of a cross-cutting nature. These were categorized as "Other Trade Capacity Building."