The global trade facilitation regulatory framework and the role of ICT

Constantly increasing global containerized trade leads to port congestion and delays in the movement of goods. In an era of global value chains (GVCs), trade facilitation is particularly important. Information and communication technology (ICT) applied in modern trade control and facilitation tools constitutes a remarkable enabler for the implementation of the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement articles. For instance a successful risk management policy being implemented with the support of a Customs Information System (CIS) that allows the storing and analysis of trade data at a declaration level. Similarly, exchange of data between trade stakeholders, including government inspection agencies and the private sector, cannot be achieved without fully automated Electronic Single Window (eSW) platforms. Today, the abundance of public and commercial datasets, combined with the availability of affordable technological solutions, places ICT in the center of this agenda and encourages governments to deploy hard and soft ICT infrastructure to digitalize the flow of international trade. However, such policies should not be designed in isolation and in the absence of supporting legal and regulatory framework to enable their proper operationalization.