To help more countries and users understand blockchain better, the IDB’s Integration and Trade Sector and its Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL) launched the report bodog casino Blockchain and International Trade: New Technologies for a Bigger and Better Latin America International Insertion” (available in Spanish). The publication analyzes blockchain’s benefits and challenges from different perspectives and examines its use at different stages in international trade.

Throughout six chapters, experts on different aspects of foreign trade^[1] introduce and discuss the opportunities that blockchain has opened up in cross-border flows of goods and the challenges it poses, with a particular focus on trade in LAC.

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Blockchain enables data to be recorded in a secure digital format by providing real-time information on transactions between different parties, be they corporations, supplier networks, investment pools, or an international supply chain.

It provides all parties with a record that is secure, encrypted, transparent, easy to access, and impossible to tamper with. Although blockchain emerged within the financial system with the launch of cryptocurrency Bitcoin, today it is used in a wide range of activities, including ones that are directly or indirectly related to foreign trade.

The long value chain tied to international trade includes vast, complex areas like logistics, transportation, customs administration, financing, and administrative procedures between firms, all of which could be streamlined by adopting this technology.

Blockchain optimizes processes, makes goods traceable, guarantees the security of payments and financing, facilitates the verification of digital quality and origin certifications, enables real-time sharing of information on the different stages of trade, and helps improve how related public and private services operate, among other benefits.

Blockchain provides solutions for trade operations by simplifying cross-border trade, contributing to competitive improvements, and reducing transaction costs. Although blockchain has been used within foreign trade for several years, its significance has increased since the start of the COVID-19 health crisis and it is expected to play an even more prominent role in the post-pandemic world.

A concrete example of how blockchain is being used today comes from French retailer Auchan, which has implemented an international food traceability system using blockchain throughout its supply chain. After piloting this solution bodog sportsbook review in Vietnam, it has applied this technology to track goods and services originating in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Senegal, working in partnership with Te-Food. The system enables the tracking of different products from farm to fork and the recording of food quality data (and related logistical information) via QR codes.

Six benefits of blockchain

In the publication, the authors highlight several ways in which trade can benefit from this new technology. Blockchain can be used to:

• facilitate the traceability of traded goods, which helps reduce logistics costs and safeguard operations from start to finish (chapter 2);
• contribute to the digitalization of the entire rules of origin process at every stage, which is key to streamlining certifications and customs clearance (chapter 5);
• address the challenges of cross-border data exchanges between public agencies or authorities and private companies. Through the CADENA initiative, which the IDB is facilitating as part of its LACChain^[2] program, eight customs authorities in LAC are now sharing data from firms that have been certified as Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs), as stipulated in their mutual recognition agreements (chapter 4);
• modernize Single Windows for Foreign Trade (VUCEs) to streamline operations and reduce transaction costs by increasing interoperability between players and facilitating access to information for all parties involved (chapter 3);
• transfer payments more quickly and cheaply than is currently possible through the SWIFT network. As well as reducing transaction times, blockchain commissions are lower and without maximum limits, which is especially advantageous for exporting SMEs (chapter 6);
• reduce the time needed to issue a letter of credit from seven to 10 days to as little as four hours (chapter 1).

Blockchain: the challenges facing governments

To make these benefits a reality, the governments of LAC countries need to tackle the challenges that implementing blockchain implies.

These challenges fall into three groups. The first concerns technical issues, which include the difficulties associated with developing technological infrastructure. The second relates to administration and governance, including the need for open standards and the creation of sector and business coalitions in different LAC countries to develop interoperability and economies of scale. The third issue is large-scale implementation, which includes data quality, the participation of all players involved in the transaction, the development of inclusive systems, and secure interfaces with legacy systems.

Through its Integration and Trade Sector, the IDB provides LAC countries with different technical and financial support programs to help spread blockchain technology and its use in international trade, drawing on the lessons learned from the development and implementation of the CADENA initiative.

This is a major new opportunity for international trade, one that is described in detail in “Blockchain and International Trade: New Technologies for a Bigger and Better Latin America International Insertion”. LAC cannot remain on the sidelines when it comes to increasing the quantity and quality of trade flows between countries in the region and with the rest of the world.

Magdalena Barafani is bodog poker review a consultant at the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL). She investigates issues related to 4.0 technologies adoption for productive development in the region and the relationship between gender and trade.

Pablo M. Garcia is a long-experienced development economist. He is currently Head of the Integration Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Ricardo Rozemberg, economista, especialista en comercio e integración. Desde principios de 2020 es Consultor del BID INTAL.

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As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office, trade policy may be primed to recede to the background. The incoming administration isn’t likely to continue waging many of the trade conflicts Trump has initiated—especially the trade spats targeting our allies—but neither will the liberalization locomotive be back in full gear: Today, neither party is especially enthusiastic about negotiating sweeping new trade agreements. As a pair of popular trade policy podcasters put it, Biden is primed to “Make Trade Boring Again.” And overall, that might be a good thing.

But there is at least one area where the incoming Biden administration should launch new, ambitious negotiations: digital trade. Digital trade is about goods and services being bought, sold, and delivered electronically. It’s a U.S. cybersecurity company helping protect a Finnish company’s networks; it’s a Brazilian farmer getting real-time insights on weather conditions and agricultural markets from a Japanese data analytics company; it’s a factory on the shores of Lake Erie sending streams of data around the world so that artificial intelligence can identify maintenance issues before anything breaks down. The United States is the world’s leading exporter of services—more and more of which are delivered digitally—so the commercial value of an open, global internet and a fair, global market for such services should be obvious.

A forward-looking digital trade agreement would guarantee that all these services and more can compete internationally—and that the data upon which they depend can flow freely across borders. Successfully negotiating such an agreement with a large group of trading partners would be a boon to U.S. businesses and workers, and there is every reason to believe it would be a political winner on both sides of the aisle.

What is more, it would also advance the geostrategic interests of the United States. An agreement that bodog online casino helps ensure the global digital economy defaults toward free commerce, the free exchange of ideas, and the free flow of data will help the United States and its allies confront and compete with China. At home, the Chinese government has implemented a top-down, repressive model for controlling the internet. And it has used negotiations, influence, and raw power to advocate this model overseas—seeking to build a coalition of countries with separate, sovereign internets characterized by greater government control over information—in order to validate its domestic approach and enhance its global influence.

The campaign is working: Governments around the world have followed China’s lead by restricting the free flow of information, blocking online services, and fragmenting the internet along national boundaries. Earlier this year, Freedom House documented a 10^th consecutive year of decline in global “internet freedom,” and the U.S. trade representative cataloged an ever-growing list of barriers to digital trade. It is not enough for the United States to play defense against these efforts—the Biden administration should advance a proactive strategy to ensure an open, global internet with rules that are rooted in democratic values.

One of the most effective ways the Biden administration can pursue this goal is by negotiating enforceable rules and commitments on digital trade that bind together a large group of countries with shared values and common interests. A digital trade agreement should be built around rules that guarantee the free flow of data, prohibit data localization requirements, and ban unfair policies that discriminate against foreign digital products and services.

The fruits of a digital trade agreement wouldn’t just accrue to giant tech companies: Digital trade is fundamentally about the cross-border movement of data, and businesses big and small, across a wide range of sectors need to move data across borders to reach customers, operate efficiently, and compete globally. To help ensure they benefit, a digital trade agreement should also include commitments by governments to allow service suppliers to access foreign markets and compete on a level playing field. Establishing a large open market for service suppliers would help counteract the unfair advantages China provides its own firms.

Over the past three years, a growing group at the World Trade Organization has been negotiating on digital trade. Many countries have engaged in good faith, but the participation of China, Russia, and other authoritarian governments makes a useful outcome unlikely. China, for one, has used the negotiation to advocate its “internet sovereignty” and oppose meaningful rules on core issues. This negotiation has, however, highlighted broad interest in defining rules to govern digital trade, including among many countries that share the United States’ democratic values.

A digital trade negotiation should be open to any government that shares a genuine interest in a free, fair, global digital economy and a willingness to abide by enforceable, high-standard rules. This inclusiveness will help ensure that the agreement expands the bloc of countries bodog casino committed to liberal digital governance, rather than ceding large swaths of the globe to China’s influence. The negotiation toward a “Trade in Services Agreement,” which stalled in 2016, could provide a useful foundation for negotiations and good starter list of countries that may be eager to engage.

While a digital trade negotiation would avoid some of the trickiest areas in trade, such as agriculture and intellectual property, the intersection between cross-border data flows and data privacy has proven contentious in previous negotiations, such as the discontinued Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations between the United States and European Union. But that is no reason to avoid the issue. In fact, negotiators should aim to go further than past agreements and set standards for the protection of consumers and their personal data. Ensuring effective and compatible data privacy regimes in participating countries would help assuage concerns about the free flow of information among them. Passing a federal data privacy law would make it much easier for the United States to negotiate data protection standards and help establish a democratic model for digital privacy.

Rules to govern the global digital economy will be written in the coming years. Who writes them—and whether they favor an open, global digital economy or one that is top-down and closed—will have an outsize impact on power and politics in the 21^st century. The Biden administration shouldn’t wait to begin negotiating toward an open digital future.

Sam duPont is the deputy director of GMF Digital at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He previously served as director for digital trade at the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

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In reality, gold is also a great example to illustrate the complexity of global supply chains (GVCs) and the importance of trust between various players. Consider the journey that a gold nugget must take along its supply chain from the mine all the way to you, the end consumer, embedded deeply in your electronic products, for instance. Gold moves along several industries and countries, each having legal, regulatory, financial, manufacturing requirements bodog online casino and compliance standards. Unlike our movie, in the real world global supply chains require complex interactions between multiple players (private companies, government agencies, third party independent labs, etc.).

While invoices along GVCs are settled in euros or in dollars, the real underlying currency of a well-functioning global supply chain is trust. Therefore, the blockchain technology, whose middle name is “trust”, offers great potential for international trade. Each player in the system has already tried to put in place its own due diligence and control systems. However, individually, they are all vulnerable to hacking, fraud, errors and misinterpretations. Like in the movie, one geologist can tamper with the lab samples and mislead tens of thousands of investors and millions of consumers worldwide.

The hope is that with blockchain technology, there is no scope for such deceiving practices. Decentralisation, multiple authentication layers and the immutability of blockchain records, guarantee complete trust for each producer involved in a supply chain. Anyone 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 potential, 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 blockchain potential for various aspects of international trade facilitation.

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, alongside other partners, has stepped in with great ambition in this area (e.g. the European Blockchain Forum). The latest addition to this portfolio of pilot projects is the #EUBlockchain4Trade, recently launched by DG TRADE in partnership with everis.

The estimated benefits from the adoption of blockchain technology are considerable. A 2018 WTO report concluded that the blockchain applications could significantly transform international trade in respect to a number of areas, such as trade finance, customs formalities, conformity assessment and certification processes, logistics, etc. For EU exporters, conformity assessment and technical barriers to trade (TBTs) is a particular area where costly procedural obstacles are most often cited: roughly 50% of all barriers encountered by EU exporters abroad were TBT-related. Many of these unnecessary barriers are not the regulatory requirements and standards themselves, but inefficient and burdensome procedures to prove compliance. The #EUBlockchain4Trade will not just be useful for the EU companies. According to the World Economic Forum, the reduction of trade costs thanks to blockchain solutions could result in more than 1 trillion dollars of new bodog poker review trade in the next decade.

The #EUBlockchain4Trade becomes even more important in the current context of the severe Covid-19 crisis and its double-digit, negative impact on EU trade. An EU-backed blockchain trade solution that would support all EU traders as well as their clients and suppliers worldwide would be a powerful element in the trade recovery package. Such a global public good would be most useful for the over 600 000 EU exporting SMEs, by promoting paperless trade and reducing the costs of participating in global supply chains, at a critical moment when a V-shaped recovery is needed more than ever.

Back to our movie now. Will a #EUBlockchain4Trade prevent a fake lab certificate or conformity assessment from becoming the next “black swan” with devastating implications for certain sectors or GVCs? Well, it depends. To deliver on its trade promises, blockchain technology must bring in the regulatory agencies and be combined with other emerging technologies and backed by due diligence practices in line with existing international standards. Blockchain trade solutions should be combined with other new technologies (IoT, sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning) and be run in parallel with traditional risk assessments along all nodes of the supply chain. To paraphrase an old saying: in blockchain we trust, but let’s still verify the quality of the underlying data.

Lucian Cernat is the Head of Global Regulatory Cooperation and International Procurement Negotiation at the European Commission. Until 2008, he held various positions at the United Nations in Geneva dealing with trade and development issues. 

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