WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION: ON THE FACILITATION OF CUSTOMS PROCEDURES FOR TRADE. PART I

INTRODUCTION. Considering close attention of the states to the work of the World Trade Organization, the interest is undoubtedly attracted by new agreements, adopted by it and based on current trends of trade development and aspiration of the states to conduct foreign economic activity more efficiently and without barriers. In particular, the article concerns Agreement on Trade Facilitation, adopted in 2014. MATERIALS AND METHODS. During the research the author has used international conventions, adopted within both the World Trade Organization, and World Customs Organization, modern doctrinal research of Russian and foreign authors. The methodological basis of the research consists of method of the systematical and logical analysis, dialectic method, legal-historical, comparative law and technical juridical methods. RESEARCH RESULTS. During the conducted research, the author, speaking about simplification of trade procedures, does not deny that the agreements adopted in this direction create a more effective mechanism on trade expenses decrease for business community. However, in the Agreement on Trade Facilitation rules from earlier adopted agreements and already applied in modern conditions by a large number of the countries repeat. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The author analyzes provisions of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (further – the Agreement) that was adopted in 2013 and entered into force in 2017, which is directly included in the Appendix 1A of the WTO Agreement, after the Agreement on Safeguards. The author compares and analyzes provisions of the Agreement, as well as provisions of other international conventions adopted on similar topics within another international organization – the World Customs Organization. The legal analysis of documents allows to draw a conclusion that provisions of the first section of the Agreement mostly aren’t innovative and probably will not lead to the expected actual trade development and simplification. There are a number of conventions, which consider questions of trade procedures simplification in more detail and member states of the World Trade Organization could refer to their continuity for members of this organization without signing the new Agreement. The result of the analysis of the second section of the Agreement concerning the special, differentiated mode for developing and least developed countries, will be considered by the author in the second part of the article.