THE THE participation of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) in world trade has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated their already "fragile predicament," a new report by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Secretariat said on Monday.

The report assesses progress on the actions regarding multilateral trade recommended by the Vienna Programme of Action for LLDCs for 2014-2024, and includes data from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) trade monitor and analyses WTO members' notifications on COVID-19.

While the share of LLDCs' merchandise exports increased by 6 per cent between 2015 and 2019, their services exports have declined over the same period by almost 2 per cent and remain very low. Their export competitiveness is negatively affected by a lack of sea access, distance from international markets and high transit costs, with LLDCs continuing to depend on exports of a limited number of low value-added products. Additional challenges include weak healthcare systems, economic vulnerabilities and lack of financial resources.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated LLDCs' already fragile predicament, the report finds. "Trade-restrictive measures imposed by governments in response to the crisis have led to increased trading costs, delays for traded goods and additional technical barriers to trade," it added.

The report points to the importance of increasing LLDCs' global share of exports to boost revenue from trade and to help fulfil the United Nations SDG target 17.11, which aims to significantly increase least-developed countries' share of global exports.

"One way of achieving this is to further lower tariffs for LLDCs' exports to developed nations and generalise duty-free market access," they recommend.

The WTO Secretariat highlights the importance of fully implementing the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) to advance LLDCs' integration into the multilateral trading system. To date, LLDCs have implemented 50.7 per cent of all requirements for notifying commitments.

A WTO-led survey of trade-related government agencies and private sector partners conducted between March and May 2020 showed that release and clearance of goods and freedom of transit have become more challenging for LLDCs while access to trade-related information has become easier.

The report also explores the role of the WTO-led Aid for Trade initiative in helping LLDCs build the trade infrastructure necessary to complement efforts on trade facilitation.

A total of 32 countries fall into the LLDC category, of which 26 are WTO members and six are observers. As a whole, LLDCs represent 1.105 per cent of world trade as of 2019. rom peer international organisations and private financial institutions.