The United Nations Economic and Social Commission on Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), in collaboration with OECD and other partners, published a handbook on Indicators for Trade Facilitation on 4 May 2017. The handbook aims at providing a comprehensive source of information on publicly available cross-country databases and indicators relevant to trade facilitation in a format easy to use for both trainers and individual readers alike.

As governments continue their efforts to reduce trade costs by streamlining trade-related procedures and enhancing the quality of related infrastructure and services, it is important that officials in charge of developing future plans in this area be fully cognizant of the available data and indicators they may use to monitor progress. This handbook is expected to be a particularly useful resource at a time when many countries are establishing or revitalizing national committees on trade facilitation as part of implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.