The Impact Of Trade Facilitation On Exports In Developing Countries

The concept of trade facilitation is gaining grounds in recent years as measures to expedite the movement of goods is essential in expanding trade and benefit from globalization.This research is significant in that policymakers will understand and explore new factors and opportunities that can improve the export capacity of a country.Literature analysis,observation studies and case study methods are the three major methods used in this study.This work purposes to investigate the impact of selected trade facilitation indicators on exports in Cameroon.By using firm level data of 725 enterprises from the World Bank’s enterprise survey(2009 and 2016),three trade facilitation indices are constructed to analyze the impact of trade facilitation on exports.On the basis of previous empirical studies and related theories,a simple econometric model is formed and a zero inflated poisson estimator is employed to investigate the impact of infrastructure,efficiency of border administration and efficiency of institutions on exports in Cameroon.The study reveals that all selected variables are statistically significant and have a positive impact on exports at a 95% confidence interval.Drawing from the findings,Cameroon like other developing countries where exporters are faced with huge trade costs constraints,bureaucratic delays,cumbersome trade procedures and other challenges are recommended to integrate and make trade facilitation measures a focal point of trade policies.The findings suggest that effective trade facilitation measures targeted at improving infrastructure,efficiency of border administration and efficiency of institutions should be put in place to boost exports.