This work evaluates the effects of trade facilitation, defined as the simplification of border procedures, upon bilateral trade for a set of 43 countries, including Brazil and some of the country's major trade partners. For that purpose, two indexes related to simplification of border procedures were constructed for the selected countries: an index about simplification of export procedures and other about simplification of import procedures. A gravity model is used to estimate the relationship between these indexes and the trade pattern between the countries. The results suggest that improvements in trade facilitation lead to higher indexes of trade simplification indexes which may stimulate bilateral trade within the countries.
Trade Facilitation; simplification; gravity model
