Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation in TPP: The Missing Development Agenda

Abstract

This chapter provides a critique of customs administration and trade facilitation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), suggesting that, at best, trade facilitation was an afterthought to the negotiation process. While this is not in itself problematic, the drafting of the customs administration and trade facilitation chapter of TPP, which remains functionally intact in TPP11, was reflective not only of insouciance toward how trade facilitation might apply in this megaregional agreement, but also toward how trade facilitation has developed in a legal context, as it fails to acknowledge the developments enshrined in the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). In light of recent global criticism of trade liberalization, addressing development concerns in its text would have made TPP more attractive to non-members. Future megaregional agreements would benefit from including a strong development agenda in their negotiations.