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ICC and WTO issue guidelines on Standards for digitalisation of cross-border trade

Sunday, 10 April 2022 05:22

Trading across borders is a notoriously complex process and highly dependent on paper documents, in spite of decades long efforts to digitalise. A cross-border transaction involves multiple actors and on average requires the exchange of 36 documents and 240 copies. However, currently, less than one percent of trade documents are fully digitised. Although the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation, the lack of adoption of data standards and of a common format for data exchange significantly hinders the seamless data flow from one end of the supply chain to the other. Standards adoption also remains limited in large part due to the complexity and fragmentation of the standards landscape.

Democratic Republic of Congo officially becomes the 7th Partner State of the East African Community

Friday, 08 April 2022 13:59

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) officially became on 8^th April 2022 the seventh Partner State of the East African Community by signing the Treaty of accession to the EAC (read the official communiqué).

SADC Regional Customs Transit Guarantee starts pilot test along the North-South Corridor

Tuesday, 05 April 2022 08:07

In developing countries, cases where trucks or containers are offloaded in a transit country without these operations being recorded are very frequent. Transit operations carry a high revenue risk for customs administrations, especially when goods are subject to high duty or tax rates and this is why Customs usually put in place strict measures to protect their financial interests against the risk of illegal diversion of goods to their markets while in transit through their territory. One of these measures is represented by the request of an insurance bond or a bank guarantee that makes possible for the administration to recover more easily duties owed in case of irregular discharge of the transit procedure or when acts of fraud take place.

COMESA report analyses policy developments in 7 member states related to informal economy and informal cross-border trade

Monday, 04 April 2022 05:42

A new report published by COMESA examines the informal economy in 7 COMESA Member States (DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe), where government authorities are seeking ways not only to guide the development of the informal economy, but also to increase formal small-scale cross-border trade flows leading to higher revenue, as well as greater security and higher incomes for small-scale cross-border traders.

The role of advanced technologies in cross-border trade: A customs perspective

Thursday, 31 March 2022 06:25

A joint publication of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) explores how the application of blockchain, distributed ledger technology (DLT), the internet of things (IoT), big data, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can promote trade facilitation and assist customs administrations in fulfilling their objectives of ensuring safety, security and fair revenue collection.

News

ICC and WTO issue guidelines on Standards for digitalisation of cross-border trade

Democratic Republic of Congo officially becomes the 7th Partner State of the East African Community

SADC Regional Customs Transit Guarantee starts pilot test along the North-South Corridor

COMESA report analyses policy developments in 7 member states related to informal economy and informal cross-border trade

The role of advanced technologies in cross-border trade: A customs perspective

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