The Guide to enhancing Trade Information Portals proposes a governance framework and guidelines that can be used as an assessment and improvement roadmap, especially for assessing the current or as-is conditions of an existing Trade Information Portals (TIPs), and then generating recommendations for further enhancing its quality and impacts. The readers of this guide will learn how to evaluate and generate recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness and the sustainability of TIPs.

Readers of the Guide are recommended to take the online course on enhancing Trade Information Portals (TIPs). The online course is available HERE.

The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has hit international trade worldwide and in Asia and the Pacific, underscoring the importance of maintaining trade connectivity not only for the immediate pandemic response, but also for the subsequent recovery efforts in order to build resilience to future disruptions. The report first describes, in the section II, the initial developments and lessons learnt in trade and transport facilitation practices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Section III presents the results of a Survey on trade facilitation in times of crisis and pandemic in the Asia and the Pacific region. Finally, Section IV discusses the ways forward for trade facilitation measures to support a sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and how the Asia-Pacific region can be better equipped to build back better. 

“Coordination, digitalization, harmonization and partnership” could remain as guiding principles of the trade and transport response during the pandemic and in its aftermath. The existing cooperation mechanisms for trade and transport connectivity in Asia and the Pacific should be mobilized to provide stronger momentum for facilitation, harmonization and digitalization of cross-border trade and transport procedures. This includes the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, and the intergovernmental agreements on the Asian Highway and the Trans-Asian Railway Networks. Complementing this, regional coordination in times of crises can also be institutionalized in future negotiations of relevant regional, subregional and bilateral trade and transport agreements.

The paper indicates that the SSWA countries have achieved remarkable progress in trade facilitation, especially as the COVID-19 crisis progressed. Although the policy responses in the initial months of the outbreak appeared to be fragmented and lacked coherence, countries in SSWA have shown convergence toward simplification of trade procedures, and enhanced transport and logistics and digital trade facilitation. While these measures have helped the SSWA countries secure supply of essential goods and services, some have simultaneously enforced stringent protection measures which represent a risk. The responses to the COVID-19 crisis suggest a greater scope of regional cooperation in the subregion. Digitalizing the trade processes in SSWA, including by signing on to the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, would be the next step toward the needed paperless trade environment.

Facilitating trade and the transport of goods has become more important than ever, to avoid logistics obstacles that lead to shortages of necessary supplies.