G/TBT/W/758  
 
15 June 2021  
(21-4902) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
PROPOSAL ON DIGITALISATION OF PRODUCT INFORMATION  
NINTH TRIENNIAL REVIEW  
Submission from the European Union  
The following submission, dated 15 June 2021, is being circulated at the request of the delegation 
of the European Union . 
 
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1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  International trade transactions involve a multitude of actors and continue to rely extensively 
on paper . In 2014, shipping company Maersk followed  a container from Kenya to the Netherlands to 
document the maze of physical processes and paperwork that impact every shipment. The numbers 
speak for themselves: they found that around 30 actors and more than 100 people were involved 
throughout the journey, with the number of interactions exceeding 200. The shipment took about 
34 days to go from the farm to the retailers, including 10 days waiting for documents to be 
processed.1 A large number documents have to be  issued, certified submitted, validated and 
accepted by various players in multiple countries in the context of international trade. Certificates 
of conformity is one of the most important trade documents to ensure that a product or service 
meets the techn ical and safety requirements in the country of importation.  
1.2.  An increasing number of governments have started to explore or are developing paperless 
trade platform s. Among the various solutions, many are considering the use of blockchain technology 
to faci litate trade and improve compliance, making it easier for both market operators and public 
authorities to determine the provenance of products, traceability and compliance with norms and 
mandatory requirements, thus reducing red tape, customs -related fraud , safety concerns and 
improve the efficiency of market surveillance efforts. However, t he move to digital certificates and 
trade documents has raised new issues , such as interoperability, acceptance of electronic signatures, 
legal governance, and the need for regulatory cooperation between various competent authorities 
in trading partners.   
1.3.  New technologies (blockchain, smart sensors, Internet of Things) makes the adoption of digital 
trade certificates less costly and available on a large scale). With its d ecentralized nature , multiple 
authentication layers and the immutability of its records, the blockchain technology guarantee a high 
level of  trust for each producer involved in a supply chain. Blockchain participants along the 
distribution chain can see how, when and where a particular product has been brought to the market, 
check the underlying data guaranteeing the validity of conformity certificates, and see who was 
involved every step of the way. Enthused by this p otential, numerous blockchain initiatives, mostly 
private, have emerged worldwide (e.g. the IBM -Maersk TradeLens, NTT -led TradeWaltz, or the 
we.trade platform, to name just a few). These initiatives are at various stages of development, 
testing the blockch ain potential for various aspects of international trade facilitation.  
 
1 Park, T. (2018), "Blockchain Is About to Revolutionize the Shipping Industry", Bloomberg, 18 April  
2018. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018 -04-18/drowning -in-a-sea-of-
paper -world -s-biggest -ships-seek-a-way-out on 20 April 2018 . G/TBT/W/758  
 
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  1.4.  However, for a blockchain solution to work in the area of  international trade, it requires the 
buy-in and expertise of public agencies involved in trade policy making. Hence the need for public 
authorities to get involved in the design and testing of possible blockchain solutions. The European 
Commission, alongs ide other partners, has stepped in with great ambition in this area (e.g. the 
European Blockchain Forum). Many WTO members have been actively pursuing several pilot scheme 
using blockchain for trade documents.  DG TRADE also launched recently a pilot projec t 
(#EUBlockchain4Trade) to map the possible applications of such technologies, including for 
certificates of conformity.  
2  PROPOSAL  
2.1.  The European Union  proposes a thematic session that would explore the current landscape of 
Member and stakeholder views and ac tions with regard to digital solutions for conformity certificates  
with a view to (1)  understand current national attempts to promote the digitalisation of trade 
processes in general, and notably of conformity certificates  and (2) to promote the applicatio n of 
digital regulatory approaches in accordance with core TBT principles and good regulatory practice to 
minimize trade costs while achieving the legitimate policy objectives . Topics and areas of focus could 
include:  
a. A short stocktaking presentation of t he legal and technological developments that can be 
leveraged in support of greater use of digital certificates (e.g. blockchain, Single Window, 
legal approaches for regional and international e -transferrable records, etc .); 
b. Presentations by WTO Members th at are currently developing standards for electronic 
certificates of conformity and other digital solutions for trade facilitation involving customs 
authorities, market surveillance authorities and other market operators along the supply 
chain (exporters, importers, conformity assessment bodies, ports, shippers, distributors, 
etc.). The aim is to promote  the use of new and innovative approaches and identify best 
practices for trade facilitation and conformity assessment.  
c. Presentations by interested stakehol ders, including Members, industry, international 
organizations, or non -government organizations, that are currently developing or have 
developed concrete applications for digital certificates along their supply chains, with a 
view to identify the necessary  prerequisites for their further development, the potential 
for interoperability and possible implementation challenges . 
 
 
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