In our latest quarterly issue: Recent industry reports highlight digital trade challenges and achievements alongside actionable recommendations, key developments around legal recognition of digital title documents in trade & trade finance, digitalization use cases in practice + much more! + SUBSCRIBE

Industry News & Views

France joins MLETR club, recognising ‘Titre Transférable Électronique’: France officially became the latest major economy to legally recognize digital title documents such as electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs), recently adopting its own MLETR-aligned law (source: TFG). + READ MORE

Freshly adopted model law may spur warehouse receipt financing: UN bodies UNIDROIT & UNCITRAL recently adopted a model law governing warehouse receipts, potentially opening up new financing sources for commodity players in developing countries (source: GTR). + READ MORE

ICC launches complete framework for supply chain digitalization, releases final KTDDE report: ICC Digital Standards Initiative (DSI) released its final Key Trade Documents and Data Elements (KTDDE) report, providing an analysis of 36 key trade docs (source: ICC). + READ MORE

Study on the Digitalization of the Certificate of Origin: World Customs Organization explores the current state, challenges, and success factors related to implementing digital CO systems, incl. findings from survey responses from 84 customs administrations (source: WCO). + READ MORE

Trade Digitalization Index 2024: Five UN Regional Commissions recently launched the Trade Digitalization Index (TDI), aimed at providing governments a way to assess digital progress, pinpoint weaknesses and assist in identifying areas requiring support (source: UNESCAP). + READ MORE

Putting an End to the Trade Digitisation Waiting Game: Terry Hubert, Global Trade Strategist, Swift, shares his views on the unique challenges and way forward for digitising global trade to drive a frictionless and inclusive digital trade economy (source: Finextra). + READ MORE

Overcoming legal & regulatory barriers to eBL adoption: Recent report by the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) sheds light on the current status of rules, regulations and procedures impacting eBL uptake in 15 key legal jurisdictions (source: DCSA). + READ MORE

VIDEO | Corporate & bank perspective on adopting ETDA – Use case /w Trafigura: TFG's Deepesh Patel recently joined Trafigura's Shobhit Singh & ITFA's André Casterman to discuss ETDA's impact plus highlights from Trafigura’s successful adoption of eBLs (source: TFG). + READ MORE

HSBC leads digital transformation in trade finance: HSBC Bahrain recently announced it facilitated a digitized import transaction using ICE CargoDocs for its client Bahrain Steel, a leading producer and global supplier of high-grade iron ore pellets (source: ZAWYA). + READ MORE

Can Trade Prosper without Digitisation?: ICE Digital Trade Co-Head, Marina Comninos, contributes to ICC UK’s latest issue of ‘Trade for Prosperity’, exploring the hurdles to digitising trade and key collaborative steps needed to accelerate adoption (source: IDT via ICC UK). + READ MORE

Colombia adopts ePhyto: Colombia’s phytosanitary authority announced it is adopting ePhyto certificates, informing supply chain participants that paper certs will be phased out by 30th April and that it will integrate /w IPPC ePhyto Hub (source: Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation). + READ MORE

New global dataset reveals hidden costs of international trade & transport: Findings from a dataset developed by UNCTAD & the World Bank, detailing the value & volume of physical trade incl. costs and transport effort for import/export across 170+ countries (source: UNCTAD). + READ MORE

National Hydrogen Strategies & Roadmap Tracker: As low-carbon hydrogen emerges as a key element of the net zero transition, a recently published tracker collates all national hydrogen strategies announced by 60+ governments (source: Center on Global Energy Policy). + READ MORE

Digital Trade Gap Assessment: Gap Assessment prepared by the World Bank provides an analysis of the technology frameworks across the seven Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI) countries, identifying areas requiring technical & financial support (source: HoAI Secretariat). + READ MORE

Global supply chains at risk without new rules for digital trade: ICC Secretary General, John Denton, on why the fragile global trade recovery intensifies the need for WTO reform and mutual int'l trade rules which address 21st century challenges (source: East Asia Forum). + READ MORE

WTO Global Trade Outlook and Statistics Report: Latest WTO trade outlook predicts promising rebound for global trade in 2024, projecting 2.6% growth in merchandise trade volume despite downside risks such as geopolitical tensions and rising protectionism (source: WTO). + READ MORE

“Wake-up call” – LEIs could cut trade costs by US$100bn, industry argues: Influential industry groups are urging governments to push adoption of the G20-led Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) system, arguing wider uptake could cut trade costs by US$100bn (source: GTR). + READ MORE

PIL joins DCSA to proceed with shipping digitalisation standards: Singapore-headquartered container line, PIL, joins DCSA to collaborate on the development, alignment, and validation of digital standards for container shipping (source: Container News). + READ MORE

ICE Digital Trade News

ExxonMobil Guyana selects ICE Digital Trade for Energy (DT4E) to digitize its cargo operations processes: Having concluded an RFP to find a solution that improves data visibility & management, digitizes the crude lifting process, and enables digital cargo docs. + READ MORE

ICE Digital Trade in Numbers