07/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Georgia and Lesotho ratify WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. On Monday 4 January, Georgia and Lesotho submitted their ratification instruments for the Trade Facilitation Agreement to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), bringing the number of member countries which have ratified this agreement, concluded at the 9th ministerial conference in December 2013, to 65. The TFA contains a set of rules to simplify and streamline customs procedures and increase the developing countries' participation in global trade. The TFA will enter into force once two thirds of WTO member countries (currently 162 in all) have ratified it. The Secretary General of the WTO received six ratifications of the TFA - from Burma/Myanmar, Norway, Vietnam, Swaziland, Ukraine and Zambia - on the sidelines of the 10th ministerial conference of the WTO in Nairobi, in late December 2015 (see EUROPE 11457). (EH)