During the COVID-19 crisis, trade facilitation has emerged as a key factor for promoting international trade efficiency and ensuring the unobstructed flow of goods in a period where restrictions on the movement of persons and goods have escalated for health-protection and disease prevention reasons. Mechanisms adopted to maintain the flow of safe cross border trade are being used as key policy tools by all the nations worldwide to address the challenges brought by the current global pandemic. The World Trade Organisation in 2014 created the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility (TFAF) at the request of developing countries (DCs) and least-developed countries (LDCs), to facilitate the receipt of assistance they need to effectively implement and reap the full benefits of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, approved by WTO members at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference and entered into force on 22 February 2017 following its ratification by two-thirds of the WTO membership. Operational since 27 November 2014, the TFAF has supported so far many DCs and LDCs to assess their specific needs and to identify possible development partners to help them meet those needs.

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The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) released on 14 May 2020 a Policy Brief which provides a preliminary analysis, from an African perspective, of the limits of international trade law in times of crisis, and offers policy recommendations for African policy makers to consider. Following a brief analysis of the law of international trade as it applies to the movement of Covid-19-essential goods, the brief concludes that, in times of real emergency such as now, the role of law in assuring access to essential medical supplies on the international market is highly diminished. An example is the export ban of protective equipment and life-saving medical supplies (such as face masks and respirators) recently adopted by Germany also towards the other EU countries, a measure that clearly contradicts the principle of free movement of goods within the EU, one of the main pillars of the EU single market, as highlighted in Article 3(3)(g) and Article 4 of the EC Treaty.

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