Belarus : Enhancing Border-Crossing Time Release Studies to Support Trade Facilitation Reforms

Belarus is a member of Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), bordering three European Union (EU) countries (Poland,Lithuania and Latvia), Ukraine and Russia. As such, the country is strategically located for international transit trade. With the aim of boosting the country’s transit role, the government of Belarus is undertaking several infrastructure development projects and regulatory reforms aimed at trade facilitation. Government undertook a Two agencies at the border reform with the goal of reducing the number of agencies at the border to only two, namely Customs and the Border Police. Belarus’s efforts were supported by the World Bank Group (WBG), including the World Bank’s Transit Corridor Improvement Project (TCIP), which is financing the modernization of the transit Corridor-M6 Minsk-Grodno, and the Belarus Business Regulation and National Quality Infrastructure Advisory Project of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with the aim of improving trade procedures. Border-crossing time release studies are powerful tools for analyzing trade logistics and measuring the performance of border agencies. Insights from a border-crossing study can help in designing and accelerating trade facilitation reforms. Preparing and carrying out an effective study is a challenging exercise in itself, as it involves sensitive data, and complex multi-agency and cross-country relationships. The border-crossing time release study for commercial cargo undertaken by the World Bank Group’s (WBG's) Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice team in Belarus in 2015 is an example that provides important lessons that may be useful for other countries. In this context, the border crossing time release study (BCTR study) was designed by the two WBG project teams, and implemented in close cooperation with the State Customs Committee of Belarus