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Preface
This publication brings together the main research outputs produced by the
Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT) and its members on the
need for and cost of trade facilitation measures related to GATT Articles V, VIII and X
between April 2005 and April 2006. Research in this area was undertaken following
approval of the ARTNeT Research Programme by participants to the First ARTNeT
Consultative Meeting of Policymakers and Research Institutions on 29 October 2004.
The research was conducted by a regional team of researchers from five research
institutions in the region, including two institutions in least developed countries. Participating
researchers and research institutions were selected based on the twin ARTNeT objectives
of building national and regional trade research capacity and of delivering quality analysis
to policymakers from the region.
This publication is divided into two parts. Part I features a synthesis of country
studies conducted in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Nepal by Debapriya
Bhattacharya and Syed S. Hossain, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD, Bangladesh),
Chen Wenjing and Li Wei, Chinese Academy for International Trade and Economic
Cooperation (CAITEC, China), Sachin Chaturvedi, Research and Information System for
the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (RIS, India), Yoze Rizal Damuri, Centre
for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS, Indonesia) and Pushpa Raj Rajkarnikar,
Nephil M. Maskay and Shiva R. Adhikari, Institute for Policy Research and Development
(IPRAD, Nepal), respectively. It also includes the main results of an international trade
facilitation expert survey on the cost of implementation, prioritization and sequencing of
trade facilitation measures conducted by Yann Duval, Trade and Investment Division,
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (TID, ESCAP).
Part II consists of the individual summaries of the six ARTNeT studies on which the
synthesis is based, complemented by a CD-ROM featuring the full text of the background
studies as well as related studies by ARTNeT members and partners and templates of
the survey instruments developed as part of these studies. All six ARTNeT studies
were earlier released as ARTNeT Working Papers No. 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 (see
www.artnetontrade.org) following presentation of preliminary results during the Second
ARTNeT Consultative Meeting of Policymakers and Research Institutions held in Macao,
China in October 2005. Results and policy implications of these studies were also presented
at the OECD Global Forum on Trade Facilitation held in Colombo in October 2005 and at
the UNDP/ESCAP ARTNeT Consultative Meeting on Trade Facilitation and Regional
Integration held in Bangkok in August 2006.