In moving forward in the area of trade facilitation and paperless trade, legal and technical readiness assessments for cross-border paperless trade have been conducted, under an ESCAP project entitled “Facilitating Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Least Developed Countries for Regional Integration and Sustainable Development (Phase I)”, with the support from Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF). National consultations on facilitating cross-border paperless trade will be held, to review the preliminary findings from this work, consolidate and validate the results and develop recommendations and an action plan. For more information please click Bangladesh or Nepal. 

The Forum will focus on how digital and sustainable trade facilitation measures and practices can bring prosperity to the Asia-Pacific region. The Forum will investigate opportunities from trade digitalization for sustainable development and challenges ahead in materializing such opportunities. It will feature panel discussions, interactive and informative sessions allowing participants to share experiences and perspectives on different aspects of trade facilitation, including trade finance, cross-border e-commerce, paperless trade and innovative application of emerging technologies, among others. The Forum will bring relevant regional initiatives and implementation cases to each session to make it a unique opportunity to share knowledge and practical lessons. More...

The Forum will highlight keynote on selected sub-themes including business and human rights, rural economic and community-based development, aviation industry, entrepreneurship, trades and investment. There will be parallel sessions to present applied research papers. The Forum strives to feature the identification of and proposals for bridging inter- and intra-regional development gaps in the ASEAN region, to contribute to policy making that looks at holistic and bottom-up approach within the region, to promote meaningful discourse on AEC that goes beyond economic imperatives and to highlight the importance of social forces in promoting ASEAN community. More...

Opened by ESCAP Deputy Executive Secretary Dr. Hongjoo Hahm, the seminar presented by Dr Mari Pangestu was successfully concluded. With over 60 participants around the region, the discussions were insightful and stimulating. The roles of unilateral reforms, regional economic integration and multilateral trading system have been discussed to unleash the potential benefits of international trade for developing countries. 
Webcast, presentation and more information can be found here.  

This APTIR expert group meeting exchanged and discussed the emerging trends on the use of non-tariff measures in the region, their potential impacts on trade and investment, and good practices in the region. ARTNeT advisor John Gilbert, Utah State University was sharing estimates of the existing costs associated with NTMs, impacts of NTMs on trade and FDI, estimated potential impacts from a reduction in the costs of compliance with NTMs on sustainable development in the session. More...