25/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - India and Russia ratify WTO trade facilitation agreement. Four other members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO): the United Arab Emirates, Samoan Islands, India and Russia, submitted their trade facilitation agreement (TFA) ratification instruments to the WTO in the week of the 18-22 April. This therefore brings the number of countries that have ratified this agreement concluded during the ninth WTO ministerial conference in December 2013, to 77. The TFA contains a raft of rules for simplifying and reducing customs procedures and increasing the number of developing countries involved in world trade. The TFA will enter into force when two thirds of the WTO member countries (currently 162 of them, whilst waiting the next forthcoming official accessions of Afghanistan and Liberia) have ratified it. (EH)