How much of international trade costs can be mitigated through implementation of trade facilitation measures and policies? What measures and policies affect trade costs the most? This paper presents findings from an initial analysis of new non-tariff trade cost estimates and their determinants, based on a bilateral database of comprehensive trade cost maintained by ESCAP. Although trade costs consist for the most part of non-tariff trade costs, tariff cuts accounted for a very significant portion of trade costs reduction between 1996-99 and 2004-07. That said, most countries are found to have reduced their non-tariff policy-related trade costs between 1996 and 2007. Among the top trade facilitating economies are Malaysia, the United States, China, Republic of Korea and Thailand, with Japan and Germany following closely. The dominance of Asian countries in the ranking is fully consistent with the trade-led growth strategies of these economies and their emphasis on reducing international trade costs…