Trade facilitation underpins global supply chains, reducing the time and cost of moving goods around the world and promoting more inclusive trade. Trade facilitation measures at the border have supported supply chains in delivering goods where they were needed during the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, global supply chains continue to experience disruptions, including those triggered by COVID-19 and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. These events have profoundly affected regional and global trade patterns, disrupted global supply chains, and transformed trade routes – placing logistics under further stress – and increasing uncertainty around trade costs in Central Asia. The Northern Corridor, bringing goods from China to Europe through Russia, has seen a significant reduction in traffic following international sanctions. As traffic and attention shift to the Middle Corridor traversing Central Asia as an alternative transit route, its multimodal and border-crossing nature puts it at a structural disadvantage compared to other routes. Trade facilitation measures remain key in offsetting some of the time and cost increases experienced by firms and by consumers in this and other routes and in enhancing regional integration.
To help governments improve their border procedures, reduce trade costs, boost trade flows, and reap greater benefits from international trade, the OECD has developed a set of Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFIs) that identify areas for action and enable the potential impact of trade facilitation reforms to be assessed. The OECD TFIs help track the specific areas where trade facilitation progress has been made and help identify where further reforms are needed. Their key value added lies in identifying changes in both the regulatory frameworks for trade facilitation measures and their implementation in practice.
The OECD collected data and consulted with stakeholders through five online public-private workshops in 2023 – one each for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – to support the analytical work and design relevant policy recommendations for trade facilitation in Central Asia. The note was developed in close co-operation with the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD and in consultation with the governments in Central Asia. The note assesses the performance of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan on the OECD’s TFI indicators, highlights outstanding challenges, and provides recommendations.