Foreword by the WTO Director-General

When WTO members concluded their negotiations on the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in Bali in December 2013, they created the first multilateral agreement since the WTO was founded nearly two decades earlier. It demonstrated how global rule-making was functioning effectively to address impediments to today’s global commerce. As much as efforts to further liberalize trade policies, the streamlining, speeding up, and coordinating of trade processes are contributing to the expansion of world trade and helping developing and least-developed countries (LDCs) integrate into today’s global economy.