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At the G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial Meeting, held in Jaipur on August 24-25, 2023, a significant step towards the digitization of global trade was taken. 10 key principles to govern the digitization of trade documents have been identified.
Global trade, despite its vast scope and perpetual evolution, is still largely dependent on paper documentation. Traditional processes, which have underpinned the sector for centuries, are now being called into question.
Since COVID and the many problems brought to light by the crisis, this way of doing things has proved increasingly slow, labor-intensive, prone to errors and delays.
For some years now, hope has been on the horizon with the development of digital technology, mainly around documentation. This trend promises greater process efficiency, as well as easier access to international trade, particularly for SMEs and developing economies.
The UK was one of the first G7 members to legally adopt digital business documentation. On August 24 and 25, the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers lent their support to the subject, proposing 10 key principles to govern the digitization of commercial documents.
At the event, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined the importance of these principles, saying:
"Current global challenges, from the pandemic to geopolitical tensions, have put the world economy to the test. As the G20, it is our duty to restore confidence in international trade and investment.
We need to build strong, inclusive value chains that can withstand future shocks." In this context, India has proposed the creation of the"High-Level Principles for the Digitization of Trade Documents".
The G20 ministers have established 10 key principles to guide the digitization of documents in the global trade sector:
Business document digitization initiatives must remain impartial to any specific technology. They must guarantee data immutability for seamless communication between various systems.
Data security for electronic business documents must be a top priority. The technologies used must implement robust encryption protocols to protect data and infrastructure from physical and security threats.
The technologies and frameworks chosen must be based on transparent rules and procedures to establish trust, responsibility and authentication when generating and exchanging electronic documents.
Technologies and their associated infrastructure must support interoperability and the seamless exchange of electronic documents and data between stakeholders, using different systems and standards.
The technologies used must respect privacy by sharing only the data essential to the generation and exchange of electronic business documents, in compliance with data protection regulations.
Technologies must guarantee the authenticity, immutability and validity of electronic business documents.
The sharing of electronic documents and associated data must be voluntary, with the informed consent of economic players, limited to what is strictly necessary and in compliance with national rules and regulations.
Technologies must offer adequate flexibility so that governments, competent authorities, financial institutions, technology stakeholders and other players can refer to the same documents.
Technologies must enable full traceability of transactions in accordance with national regulations.
Technologies for the exchange of electronic business documents must be adaptable to growth, changing business conditions and new technological advances.
In an ever-changing world, the boundaries of international trade need to be redrawn. The rise of tech is opening up new opportunities to radically transform the way trade is conducted, both nationally and internationally. The digitization of trade documents is emerging as a central pillar of this revolution.