Performance of India on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation

• 23 Jul 2021

• The United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific's (UNESCAP) has released its latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. India performed remarkably in this survey and jumped from 78.49% in 2019 to 90.32% in 2021.
• The Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation is conducted every two years by UNESCAP. The 2021 Survey evaluated 143 economies including an assessment of 58 trade facilitation measures covered by the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.

India Specific Findings

• The Survey has highlighted India's significant improvement in the scores on all 5 key indicators, as follows:

1. Transparency: 100% in 2021 (from 93.33% in 2019)
2. Formalities: 95.83% in 2021 (from 87.5% in 2019)
3. Institutional Arrangement and Cooperation: 88.89% in 2021 (from 66.67% in 2019)
4. Paperless Trade: 96.3% in 2021 (from 81.48% in 2019)
5. Cross-Border Paperless Trade: 66.67% in 2021 (from 55.56% in 2019)

• The Survey notes that India is the best performing country when compared to South and South West Asia region (63.12%) and Asia Pacific region (65.85%).
• The overall score of India has also been found to be greater than many OECD countries including France, UK, Canada, Norway, Finland, etc. and the overall score is greater than the average score of EU.
• India has achieved a 100% score for the Transparency index and 66% in the “Women in trade” component.

Factors behind India’s Improvement

• 'Turant' Customs: CBIC has been at forefront of path breaking reforms under the umbrella of 'Turant' Customs to usher in a Faceless, Paperless and Contactless Customs by way of a series of reforms. This has had a direct impact in terms of the improvement in the UNESCAP rankings on digital and sustainable trade facilitation.
• COVID-19 24*7 helpdesk for EXIM trade: Further, during the Covid19 pandemic, Customs formations have made all efforts to expedite Covid related imports such as Oxygen related equipments, life-saving medicines, vaccines etc. A dedicated single window COVID-19 24*7 helpdesk for EXIM trade was created on the CBIC website to facilitate quick resolution of issue(s) faced by importers.

About WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement

• WTO members concluded negotiations at the 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference on the landmark Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which entered into force on 22 February 2017 following its ratification by two-thirds of the WTO membership.
• The TFA contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit.
• It also sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues. It further contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building in this area.