Dhaka signs UN paperless trade agreement tomorrow

Bangladesh is going to sign a multilateral framework agreement on cross-border paperless trade tomorrow (Tuesday), which aims at reducing cost of doing business and making trading activities hassle-free, officials said.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed is scheduled to ink the deal in Bangkok, Thailand, on the day after a high-level dialogue on enhancing regional trade through effective participation in the digital economy, they added.
"Signing of the treaty will help cut cost of doing business and make trading easier," Ministry of Commerce (MoC) deputy secretary A H M Shafiquzzaman told the FE on Sunday.
He said the trading activities will see a significant boost in terms of cost and time once the paperless trading system starts functioning.
Earlier, MoC got approval from the cabinet to be a party of the UN-sponsored treaty, as various stakeholders concerned opined in favour of signing it.
They opined that Bangladesh can be benefited by many ways through signing the agreement. The country needs capacity building, for which technical and financial assistance will be available after signing the accord.
Some of the stakeholders also opined that signing of the deal can even play an important role in boosting intra-country trade alongside simplifying external trade.
The Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific was adopted by the UN ESCAP in 2012. It aimed at conducting trade activities on the basis of electronic documents rather than paper documents.
Once started, the parties will use electronic customs declaration, electronic certificate of origin, and other documents in soft format instead of paper format.
ESCAP estimated that the cross-border paperless trade will reduce export time by 24 per cent to 44 per cent and trading cost by 17 per cent to 31 per cent. Subsequently, regional direct cost savings across all trade will be US$1.0 billion to $7.0 billion annually.
The treaty has been made available for signing since last October, and will remain open until this September. Countries like Korea, China and Singapore have already confirmed that they will also sign the agreement.
The treaty will come into force, once the five member-states of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) sign or get access to it.
Officials said as part of the government's initiatives to promote paperless trade Bangladesh has been working on establishing a national single window (NSW) by mid-2019.
National Board of Revenue (NBR) will implement NSW with financial and technical supports from World Bank, which will facilitate electronic communications between traders and the relevant government agencies.
Once established, NSW will allow the parties involved in export-import activities to place standardised information and documents with a single entry point instead of submitting paper-based documents.
Officials said NBR, the central bank, Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, banks, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and other service-providing agencies will remain connected among each other through the trade superhighway.
Welcoming the government's decision to sign the treaty director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) Dr Ahsan H Mansur earlier told the FE: "It will cut down trading cost and time. Time is money as well."
He suggested that all the parties of the treaty should opt for same standard of documentation, which will further simplify their trading system.
syful-islam@outlook.com