Notes

1. Deep trade agreements (DTAs) refer to regional trade agreements (RTAs) or preferential trade agreements (PTAs) that are “deep” in terms of content and cover a broad range of behind-theborder policy areas. 2. The World Trade Organization (WTO) defines trade facilitation as the simplification, modernization, and harmonization of export and import processes. The WTO Trade Facilitation

Agreement (TFA) recognizes the central role of customs but, in article 8, also acknowledges other government agencies through the concept of border agency cooperation (Kieck 2020). 3. All data on the Doing Business trading across border scores are from the World Bank’s Doing

Business report: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/32436/97814648 14402.pdf. 4. An AEO is a party involved in the international movement of goods that has been approved by, or on behalf of, a national customs administration as complying with World Customs Organization (WCO) or equivalent supply chain security standards. 5. The SIECA TF strategy also contains three cross-cutting initiatives (development of the Central

American Digital Trade Platform, piloting and implementing bilateral solutions and borders, and strengthening the national TF committees) with seven medium-term measures focused on data interoperability and exchange of information, comprehensive risk management, trusted operators, quarantine control, integration of control procedures, infrastructure and equipment, and border community and security. 6. High-income countries committed to immediately implement the TFA upon its entry into force, while low- and middle-income countries were to apply only those substantive provisions of the agreement that they indicated they were able to do from the date of its entry into force. 7. This section provides a descriptive analysis of TF provisions in the region’s trade agreements, based on a new database of deep trade agreements (Mattoo, Rocha, and Ruta 2020). The dataset presents detailed data on the content of 18 policy areas that are most frequently covered in PTAs and that were in force and notified to the WTO by 2017. This entailed the coding of 937 provisions by experts in each area, of which 52 provisions are in the TF and customs policy area (annex 3A, table 3A.1). 8. “Separating release from clearance means that goods are released by Customs prior to the payment of duties and taxes in cases where final classification of the goods, assessment of value, and other transactions are pending. A security for the applicable duties and taxes in the form of a deposit or bond is usually required” (WCO and UNCTAD 2011). 9. Calculated by −0.0172 + 0.00334 + 0.0434 + (0.00661 * 0.661) = 0.0335721, based on coefficients available in annex 3A, table 3A.3. 10. Other provisions in DTAs may also have differential impacts on GVC firms. As a sensitivity analysis, we include additional interaction terms allowing the effect of PTAs and overall depth to vary across firm type. The positive and significant effect of TF provisions on GVC firms remain robust. The results are also robust to an alternative estimation using a Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML) model. See Lee, Rocha, and Ruta (2021) for more details. 11. Prearrival processing refers to procedures allowing for the submission of import documentation and other required information, including manifests, to begin processing before the arrival of goods with a view to expediting the release of goods upon arrival. 12. For exceptions to the free movement regime, the following circumstances are considered, among others, (a) goods contained in part II of the Central American Import Tariff, (b) goods subject to tariff quotas by preferential agreements, (c) goods subject to safeguards, (d) goods with a different phyto or sanitary zoo regime, and (e) goods subject to substantially different tax regimes. See the list of goods exempted from free movement at https://www.ua.sieca.int/FYDUCA/Pages /_ConsultaListados.aspx.