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rade facilitation remains a substantial challenge to global trade, as no significant improvement has been made since the Bali agreement, business leaders from the world'€™s 20 largest economies have said in a Business 20 (B20) Summit forum.

According to B20 Summit chair Richard Goyder, none of the Group of Twenty (G20) members had passed legislation in their respective countries to enable implementation of the agreement.

The agreement was made last December during the ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Bali.

At the time, the 160 WTO members '€” including the G20 countries '€” agreed to produce a global trade reform deal, which covered agricultural issues, trade facilitation and developing and least-developed countries (LDCs).

Global leaders cited the Bali outcome as a historic moment because the WTO had not produced deal since the breakdown of the Doha Round of talks, which began in 2001.

'€œHowever, since Bali, or last year'€™s G20, we have seen that 550 measures have been put in place by G20 countries, creating more barriers to trade,'€ Goyder, who is also the managing director and CEO of Australia'€™s Wesfarmers Ltd., said on Wednesday.

Goyder insisted that trade facilitation should become a central issue in the summit'€™s discussions, as G20 countries accounted for 80 percent of the world'€™s gross domestic product (GDP).

Business leaders from G20 countries are gathered in Sydney from July 17 to 18 for the B20 Summit, which was officially opened by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

They will produce recommendations to be discussed further at the G20 Leaders Summit '€” to be held in Brisbane in November '€” to spur business and trade activities as well as to boost economic growth.

Earlier this year, finance ministers from the G20 member countries accepted a common goal of realizing 2 percent global economic growth within the next five years.

But Andrew Mackenzie, CEO of the Melbourne-based mining company, BHP Billiton, who chairs the B20 Summit'€™s task force on trade, said the slow progress after Bali could hamper the realization of the global growth target.

'€œThe success and rapid implementation of the agreement is critical. We estimate that 30 percent of globally traded food is lost in transit, mainly because of inadequate customs procedures,'€ he said.

Under the trade facilitation agreement, countries are required to improve their trade systems, including by applying common customs procedures and uniform documentation requirements.

The improvements are expected to reduce red tape and ensure the smooth flow of goods.

He added that the task force would also address protectionist measures applied by member countries.

When asked whether or not Indonesia'€™s ban on raw mineral exports was considered a threat to global trade, Mackenzie said the move highlighted an understandable concern from a rich-resource country.

The Indonesian government implemented the ban in 2014 as part of its efforts to increase the value of mineral exports and develop the country'€™s downstream industry, with miners required to construct smelters to process the raw minerals.

Meanwhile, commenting on the slow progress post-Bali, Indonesia'€™s deputy trade minister, Bayu Krisnamurthi, said that so far, developed economies were still putting too much emphasis on trade facilitation at the expense of agriculture and issues concerning LDCs.

'€œBy having India, Brazil, Indonesia and China in the G20, we hope that the talks and the implementation of the Bali package will be smoother and more equal,'€ he said in a text message.

Developed countries'€™ emphasis on trade facilitation was highlighted even more when the World Bank announced on Thursday that it was launching a support program to help developing countries implement the trade facilitation agreement.

In a statement, the World Bank said it would be making US$30 million available for the assistance and that the program was supported by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.