Assessing the Impact of the Trade Facilitation Agreement on Agri‐Food Global Value Chain Integration

ABSTRACT This article assesses the relationship between the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and agri‐food global value chain (GVC) integration. While the TFA aims to improve cross‐border trade by lowering trade costs, our findings suggest that higher levels of joint TFA implementation are associated with reduced agri‐food GVC flows. Only three of the 12 TFA articles have a positive relationship with agri‐food GVC integration, highlighting substantial variation in the impact of specific trade facilitation measures. Five articles show a negative association, likely reflecting the high costs of TFA implementation. Lasso regularised regressions indicate that the positive relationships observed may be confounded by joint WTO membership. These results emphasise the challenges of implementing trade facilitation measures and provide important considerations for policymakers in future trade negotiations.