Prof. Xue presented at UNNExT Advisory Committee Meeting

The 10th Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum (APTFF) co-organized by ADB and UNESCAP with Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry was held on 29 August to 1 September 2020 in Singapore. The Forum focused on how trade facilitation should evolve to enhance the resilience of international supply chains in times of pandemic and to better support sustainable economic recovery and development in the Asia-Pacific region. The Forum explored how trade digitalization and emerging technologies can be used to ensure that new generation trade facilitation measures are inclusive and sustainable, enabling effective participation of SMEs and less developed economies in international trade. As the leading regional platform for the exchange of good practices and knowledge on trade facilitation, the Forum attracted over 250 on-site participants from over 30 countries and hundreds of remote participants.

At the end of the Forum, the UNESCAP held the UNNExT Advisory Committee Meeting to discuss the future development of the Forum and the other recommendations and plans on trade facilitation. The experts from China, Korea, India, Philippines, Azerbaijan, etc. joined the meeting and presented their views. Prof. Xue as one of the founding experts of the Committee emphasized the importance of promoting the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific that has been effective since 2020 and 8 Member States by August 2022. Prof. Xue also introduced the new Model Law on ID management and trust service developed by UNCITRAL and its potential impacts on digital trade identity as an international legal mechanism. Although the COVID pandemic still disables international travels in some parts of the world, everyone believed that the digital trade facilitation would benefit the Asia-Pacific trade that was largely robust and growing.

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