Enabling Trade: Valuing Growth Opportunities ( a new report released by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Bain & Company and the World Bank) finds that if all countries reduce supply chain barriers halfway to global best practice, global GDP could increase by 4.7% and world trade by 14.5%, far outweighing the benefits from the elimination of all import tariffs. Some examples from the 18 country and sector case studies in the report include the following: In Brazil, managing customs paperwork for exports of agricultural commodities can take 12 times longer than in the European Union (a full day versus a couple of hours). Poor quality infrastructure services can increase the input material costs of consumer goods by up to 200% in certain African countries. Obtaining licenses and lack of coordination among regulatory agencies in the US lead to delays in up to 30% of chemical shipments for one company – each late shipment costs US$ 60,000 per...