A number of countries have introduced orare considering the introduction of a trade informationportal as a means of facilitating trade and increasingtransparency. For World Trade Organization (WTO) members orcountries in the process of acceding to the WTO, a tradeinformation portal will assist in complying with newcommitments currently being negotiated as part of the DohaDevelopment Round. The negotiations aim to strengthen theprovisions of Article X of General Agreement on Tariffs andTrade (GATT) which currently requires that all regulatorytrade related information "shall be published promptlyin such a manner as to enable governments and traders tobecome acquainted with them". In many developingnations, government agency specific websites may not existand even when they do they are often incomplete, out ofdate, or the content may not cover the entire spectrum ofinformation that a trader may wish to obtain to ensurecompliance with import, export, or transit requirements. Itis therefore desirable to create a single platform where allthe information relating to trade from all the variousagencies is aggregated under one roof and is readilyavailable for searching and viewing. This guide discussesthe issues and challenges that developing nations are likelyto face when implementing a trade information portal andprovides a checklist of practical guidelines for the stepsthat might be required in order to achieve effective implementation.
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