Trade Facilitation in Seaports

Trade liberalisation has brought in its wake an unprecedented explosion in the volume of world trade. The advent of information technology coupled with containerisation equally contributed and continues to fuel an upsurge in international cargo traffic. Over the last 3 decades the importance of trade facilitation has increased dramatically; with the need to reduce transaction and administration cost as well as expedite cargo movement forming the core elements. In this treatise, the author argues that there are myriads of endogenous and exogenous variables which militate against trade facilitation in seaports and other legally approved points of entry and exit in a country. The most important, yet often neglected factor is human resources (customs, port labour, freight forwarders). Countries tend to focus on infrastructural development instead of diverting resources towards the training of people engaged in the port business. This is often synonymous with developing countries where bribery and corruption is a major setback to trade facilitation efforts.