The World Economic Forum (WEF) has made public its Global Enabling Trade Report 2012, Reducing Supply Chain Barriers.
This report was first introduced by WEF in 2008, and has become a reference to many countries as to identify the areas where they need to concentrate their efforts to increase trade and also has served as a guide to many companies in their investment decisions.
The Enabling Trade Index (ETI) "measures the extent to which individual economies have developed institutions, policies, and services facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to destination", as is explained in the report. The ETI has been structured in four main enablers of trade (A, B, C, and D) and nine pillars as follows:
A. Market access.
Pillar 1: Domestic and foreign market access
B. Border administration
Pillar 2: Efficiency of customs administration
Pillar 3: Efficiency of import-export procedures
Pillar 4: Transparency of border administration
C. Transport and communications infrastructure
Pillar 5: Availability and quality of transport infrastructure
Pillar 6: Availability and quality of transport services
Pillar 7: Availability and use of ICTs
D. Business environment
Pillar 8: Regulatory environment
Pillar 9: Physical security
Each of the pillars has at the same time a number of individual variables.
A total of 132 countries have been analyzed for the 2012 index, seven more than in 2010.
Costa Rica´s Economy Profile
In this year´s world ranking, Costa Rica proudly occupies the third place among Latin American and Caribbean countries (position number 43 in the world), just one behind the second place (Uruguay, position 42). Chile is on the first place (position 14).
Costa Rica has been set as an example of best practices, and the report even includes a chapter entitled "Benefits of Trade Facilitation: The case of Costa Rica", which we strongly recommend you to read, pages 91 to 93 of the report.
The complete report as well as an Executive Summary can be found and downloaded from the WEF´s website, click on this link to do so.
