WBG

The report presents the results of the 2021 United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation for 11 Pacific Islands Developing Economies (PIDEs), reviewing the progress of trade facilitation reforms and it presents a detailed analysis based on 58 trade facilitation measures covering both binding and non-binding WTO TFA measures, and measures beyond the scope of WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

The analysis presented in this report confirms that digital trade facilitation measures can result in significant benefits to the countries in the subregion. Full implementation of binding and non-binding WTO TFA measures could decrease trade costs by about 14.8%. In contrast, digital trade facilitation measures enabling the seamless electronic exchange of trade data and documents across borders will help significantly reduce trade costs by nearly 26% for PIDEs in a full implementation scenario.

In this regard, the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (CPTA) could support countries in gradually moving to “less-paper” and then to paperless and Cross-border paperless trade by providing a dedicated, inclusive and capacity-building focused intergovernmental platform.