INF/MSME/R/15  
 
29 June 2020  
(20-4501) Page: 1/2 
 Original: English  
 
 
INFORMAL WORKING GRO UP ON MSMES  
18 JUNE 2020 WEBINAR ON MSMES AND PAPERLE SS TRADE  
Summary of discussions  
Paperless trade, or the digitization of trade -related documents and data exchange, could significantly 
ease the cost and burden of trading for MSMEs.  Estimates are that technology such as blockchain 
could increase trade by USD 35 billion globally , at the minimum , and could significantly reduce the 
cost of importing a single container,  adding up to major  savings for traders. Internatio nal trade , 
unlike many other commercial spheres,  remains a transaction area that still relies on analogue 
processes, such as  hard-copy documents and is only at the beginning of transitioning to online, 
integrated systems.  
 
In order to promote the adoption of paperless trade, there is a need to harmonize trade -related 
datasets and standards . It will also require an inclusive, end -to-end digital pipeline f rom document 
origination in one economy to the ability to accept and process the imports in another. Furt her, there 
is a strong need to recognize the legal authority of digital trade documents through legislation that 
transposes the UNCITRAL's Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR).  Finally, it was 
recommended that the TFA could adopt a more str ingent approach to digitalization  to speed up this 
transition . 
 
1. Lisa McAuley, CEO of the GTPA , highlighted the benefits that paperless trade holds for MSMEs 
in terms of facilitating trade and reducing costs, as well as the fact that digital services and 
e-commerce are creating more opportunities for firms to go global. However, she stressed that 
governments were lagging in the transition to paperless trade and further noted that MSMEs need 
government support to keep up with digital innovation s. To advance paperless trade, Lisa McAuley 
noted there is a need to harmonize datasets and trade standards across economies; develop new 
documentation requirements for  trade finance, bills of lading and other necessary trade information; 
and finally incre ase capacity building for MSMEs to trade.  
 
2. Tejo Kusuma of the WCO  began by describing how paperless trade can facilitate trade 
procedures by allowing for e -payments, non -intrusive inspections, and tracking of shipment s 
through digital ledger technology (DL T). The WCO has a number of initiatives to support paperless 
trade, including their compendium of Single Windows. He noted that for paperless trade to function, 
economies must invest in ICT systems; they also need the political will by decisionmakers to 
integrate all divisions involved with trade; cooperate domestically and internationally to establish 
compatibility between different systems; and develop a legal framework that can recognize the 
validity of e -documents  and e -signatures . Similar to the GTPA, Tejo Kusuma underscored the need 
for international standards so that all economies have the same dataset when it comes to trade 
documentation. He also stressed the need to avoid re -creating data by allowing for the re -use of 
data that firms have already in put to automatically fill out other necessary trade documents.   
 
3. Raoul Renard opened with a description of how the ICC has responded to the COVID -19 crisis 
to support MSMEs  through their Save Our SMEs (SOS) campaign . He went on to describe how actions 
in Morocco to implement its ePhyto program for agricultural imports has reduced the amount of 
fraud and increased cost savings by reducing release ti mes and administrative burdens . 
Raoul  Renard noted that the Covid -19 lockdowns made the processing of physical documents take 
even longer than usual  and he called on governments to avoid blocking the use of e -documents, 
including taking emergency measures to void the legal requirement for paper -based trade 
documentation . Finally , he encouraged governments to rapidly adopt the UNCITRAL MLETR.  INF/MSME/R/15  
 
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4. Finally, Luca Castellani, a legal officer of UNCITRAL , noted that "digital trade is the business 
of all business," regardless of size. There is more and more interest in the legal aspect of digital 
trade in FTAs and RTAs and the Digital Economic Partnership Agreement (DEPA) between Chile, 
New Zealand and Singa pore includes specific language on MSMEs.  The UNCITRAL has thus far 
produced three  model laws and one treaty enabling the use of electronic transactions  (see pictures 
below). The MLETR is the most recent one (2017) and aims at enabling the legal recognition of 
electronic transferable documents, that is, commercial  documents and instruments, which 
incorporate the right to delivery of goods or payment of sums of money (e.g. letter of credit, bills of 
exchange , letters of credit, promissory not es, warehouse receipts) . The MLETR is a step towards 
implementation of Electronic Single Windows (eSW)  and trade digitalization . For the time being,  the 
legal framework for paperless and digital t rade is still convoluted. Commercial operators may be 
asked to use specific formats and technologies  because eSW  technical and legal standards are not 
uniform across States.  
 
 
 
 
 
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