ICC joins Singapore and major firms to digitalise trade
TradeTrust is part of S'pore's effort to establish clear, harmonised international rules
The adoption of digital technologies in trade and commerce has taken another step forward with the signing of a landmark agreement yesterday.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and 17 major companies from key industries have agreed to develop TradeTrust - a framework to shift world trade from a paper-based system to a digitally enabled one.
Pioneered by Singapore, it establishes the fundamentals to foster trust in the digitalisation of trade while making sure new rules work in conjunction with the multilateral trading system.
The initiative aims to cut back on paper needed when goods are transported internationally. The paper trail invariably makes logistics a slow, inefficient and complex process.
"We believe we must forge new ways to enable trade in the digital era," Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said at the ICC Trade Digitalisation Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr Iswaran said the TradeTrust initiative is part of Singapore's broader efforts to digitalise trade while establishing clear and harmonised international rules that allow data to flow freely between countries with appropriate safeguards.
Those efforts include the substantial conclusion of the first Digital Economy Agreement with Chile and New Zealand announced on Tuesday and ongoing talks with Australia and other countries on similar pacts, he said.
Singapore is also the co-convener of the World Trade Organisation initiative to develop baseline digital trade rules.
The TradeTrust framework will provide a range of features, including ways to validate digital trade documents, an accreditation structure to certify technical solutions and open source codes that can easily integrate back-end solutions to the TradeTrust network.
One of the first platforms built on the TradeTrust framework is the ICC TradeFlow - co-developed by the ICC with trade tech company Perlin and in collaboration with Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority, commodities trader Trafigura and DBS Bank.
The ICC's 45 million members worldwide could be among the first to conduct trade more efficiently while still managing risks and having legal certainty and confidence in the trading process, Mr Iswaran said.
He noted a pilot TradeTrust transaction involving an iron ore shipment reduced documentation time from 45 to 20 days.
ICC secretary-general John Denton said: "Digital platforms will lower existing barriers to international trade in the coming years and enable many more businesses to participate in the new global economy."
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
