Facilitating Paperless International Trade: A Survey of Law and Policy in Asia

摘要

Paperless documentation and processing of international trade in goods is essential, as it offers economy-wide benefits in time and cost savings, efficiency and convenience for business and government. Both business and government recognize this, and have been working for the past few decades to facilitate paperless trade (PT). However, efforts to move to PT have to-date faced serious operational and legal barriers, leading to a slower than anticipated progress. Asian economies, and those in the Pacific region, are making particularly concerted efforts to facilitate PT, and are progressing rapidly. This article discusses the barriers to PT generally, and how Asian economies have tackled them. It gives an overview of the situation in some 11 economies. It concludes that the concerted approach in the region enhances harmonization of systems and procedures, which is necessary for straight-through PT processes.