The Impact of COVID-19 Mobility Restrictions on Trade Facilitation at Borders in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region

This paper investigates the impact of COVID-19 mobility restrictions on the time taken for cargo to clear borders in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) area. The findings suggest that cargo processing time could increase by up to 70% when the most stringent level of mobility restrictions was imposed. The results also suggest that outbound border-crossing points were more affected by measures than inbound points, but were more resilient in that impact was short-lived. The study found that both inbound and outbound times increased when mobility restrictions in a trading partner tightened.