Quantifying the effect that aid for trade facilitation has on customs clearance in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of time and cost

Abstract

There is an international trend emerging for governments of donor countries to publicly account for the implementation and effectiveness of their Official Development Assistance. This also applies to the assistance provided by donors to customs administrations in developing countries. This study aims to quantify the effect of the much needed assistance provided to customs administrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, using recent panel data. It finds that aid for trade facilitation reduces the time needed for customs clearance and also that the costs of customs clearance (as derived from the World Bank's Doing Business series) do not provide an appropriate indicator of the capacity of customs administrations.