1.06 — National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF)

India has ratified the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) in April 2016. To facilitate coordination and implementation of the TFA provisions, an inter-ministerial body i.e. National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF) has been constituted.

TFA emanates from the following four pillars:

• i. Transparency: focus on improved access to accurate and complete information.

• ii. Technology: development and use of digital and detection technologies to ease out trade bottlenecks and improve efficiency.

  • Assessments: simplified, uniform and harmonised procedures with increased adoption of a risk based management approach.

• iv. Infrastructure Augmentation: enhancement of infrastructure, particularly the road and rail infrastructure leading to ports and the infrastructure within ports, airports, ICDs, Land Customs Stations is a major enabler for growth in trade that cuts across all stakeholders.

National Trade Facilitation Action Plan aims to achieve : -

• Improvement in Ease of Doing Business through reduction in transaction cost and time

• Reduction in cargo release time

• A paperless regulatory environment

• A transparent and predictable legal regime

• Improved investment climate through better infrastructure