In our latest quarterly issue: UK to enact law legally recognizing eBLs and other negotiable instruments, digital trade standards & interoperability continue to shape the TradeTech agenda, blockchain trade & trade finance platforms shutter operations + much more. + SUBSCRIBE

Industry News & Views

A small step to a big change – electronic bills of lading in the UK: Outlining the significance of the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Bill, giving legal recognition to eBLs & other trade docs and expected to come into force by end 2022 (source: Kennedys). + READ MORE

Trade digitalisation gets boost in UK with launch of dedicated centre: The Centre for Digital Trade and Innovation (C4DTI) brings together experts from industry and government to accelerate digital trade standards, interoperability and legal reform (source: GTR). + READ MORE

Singapore officially launches digital platform to ease supply chain data flow: Singapore announces the launch of SGTraDex, a public-private initiative described as a ‘centralized platform that streamlines data flows across fragmented supply chains’ (source: ZDNet). + READ MORE

Cross-border Paperless Trade Toolkit Launched: Expanding on its Standards Toolkit from Q1 2022, the WTO released a comprehensive Paperless Trade Toolkit, building on legal & technical checklists developed by an intergovernmental group of 30 countries (source: WTO). + READ MORE

IMO makes Single Windows for ship data exchange mandatory: IMO’s Facilitation Committee has adopted amendments to the Facilitation (FAL) Convention making a ‘Single Window’ for ship data exchange mandatory in ports around the world (source: SMN). + READ MORE

Africa e-trade platform to connect 22 countries: Kenya Trade Network Agency (KenTrade) has launched the Africa e-trade platform, to handle the exchange of docs such as Certificates of Origin and Phyto Certificates between 2022 African countries (source: ZAWYA). + READ MORE

Two Million ePhytos Exchanged as Demand Soars: IPPC recently announced that its ePhyto platform has exchanged over 2M ePhyto Certificates since its inception up until March 2022, averaging 100k certificates exchanged per month (source: IPPC). + READ MORE

The promise of TradeTech – Policy approaches to harness trade digitalization: Analyzing the building blocks for TradeTech policy adoption, including data transmission & liability frameworks, eDocs legal recognition, interoperability + more (source: WEF). + READ MORE

Video – API vs EDI: DCSA video explores the difference between API and EDI as methods of data exchange, and presents three great reasons for the industry to make the switch to API-based communications (source: DSCA via Vimeo). + READ MORE

Two new digital trade services launched in the origin area: ICC expands and modernizes its digital trade services in the origin space with a new online certifying tool and a revamped Certificate of Origin (CO) verification website (source: ICC). + READ MORE

Fast-tracking implementation of eTrade Readiness Assessments – 2nd edition: UNCTAD releases its latest eTrade Readiness Guide, documenting best practices, policy impacts and lessons learned to pave the way for further digital trade development (source: UNCTAD). + READ MORE

Data standards – A key to a truly sustainable trade: Insights from Standard Chartered, on how an industry-wide model for ESG data will unlock the true power of trade as a force for good – as long as everyone adopts it (source: Standard Chartered). + READ MORE

State of Digital Standards in Trade: Hannah Nguyen from the ICC Digital Standards Initiative (DSI) shares insights into the current state of digital trade standards, plus challenges & opportunities that lie ahead (source: Shipping and Freight Resource). + READ MORE

What supply chain disruptions mean for developing countries: UNCTAD’s Jan Hoffmann shares his views on the impact of supply chain disruptions to developing nations, particularly with regard to energy dependency and food security (source: IPS Journal). + READ MORE

Bank-backed blockchain consortium we.trade files for insolvency: We.trade – one of the earliest blockchain trade finance consortia/platforms – is entering insolvency, after it failed to raise additional capital from its shareholders to continue operations (source: Finextra). + READ MORE

Kudos to the we.trade team – what we can learn: An excellent ‘post-mortem’ analysis of the recent implosion of we.trade, including key lessons to be learned when embarking on ambitious digital trade finance initiatives (source: Enno-Burghard Weitzel via Linkedin). + READ MORE

HSBC shutters Hong Kong-based trade start-up Serai: Serai, HSBC’s wholly-owned B2B platform for SME trade based out of Hong Kong, is shutting down due to what it cites as ‘difficulties in building a commercially viable business’ (source: CNBC). + READ MORE

MonetaGo ditches blockchain amid scalability concerns: MonetaGo, a trade finance deduplication & fraud prevention solution, announced it will switch from blockchain to cloud, citing that cloud provides more scalability as volumes ramp up (source: MonetaGo). + READ MORE

Maritime Trade Disrupted – The war in Ukraine: A recent UNCTAD report on the war’s impact on maritime trade & logistics, including key facts and figures on how the conflict has impacted freight rates, global grain supply and more (source: UNCTAD). + READ MORE

Highlights from UNESCAP-WCO-ICC-ADB Webinar ‘Digitalizing Certificates of Origin – Trends & challenges for Advancing Paperless Trade’: Featuring updates on electronic certificate of origin (eCO) adoption, key initiatives, case studies and more (source: essCert). + READ MORE

essDOCS News

ExxonMobil Chemical Asia Pacific & CEAT Tyres complete first ever eDocs transaction for chemicals import into India: Involving ICICI Bank as the banker to CEAT Tyres and ONE as the carrier for cargo shipped ex-Singapore. + READ MORE

essDOCS is now part of ICE: As part of ICE (NYSE: ICE), we will be able to accelerate our development plans for essDOCS to realize our goal of paperless global trade management. + READ MORE

essDOCS in Numbers