APEC Initiative on Paperless Trade Youn Kyong KANG

APEC Initiative on Paperless Trade Youn. Kyong KANG Deputy Director, E-Business Policy Division Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy Republic of Korea

Contents What is APEC? APEC Initiative on Paperless Trade Benefits and Challenges Strategies to move forward 1

What is APEC? (1) Established in 1989 Membership : 21 economies in AP regions Goal : to enhance economic growth and prosperity for the region by - trade and investment liberalization - business facilitation - economic and technical cooperation 2

Structure Leaders’ Meeting APEC Business Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting Sectoral Ministerial Meetings Senior Officials Meeting(SOM) Committee on Trade and Investment Economic Committee SOM Committee on ECOTECH 3

Contents What is APEC? APEC Initiative on Paperless Trade Benefits and Challenges Strategies to move forward 4

Vision APEC Blueprint for Action on Electronic Commerce(1998) - Ministers agreed “that member economies should endeavor to reduce or eliminate the requirement for paper documents needed for customs and other cross-border trade administration and other documents and messages relevant to international sea, air and land transport, “Paperless Trading”, where possible, by 2005 for developed and 2010 for developing economies, or as soon as possible thereafter” The APEC Trade Facilitation Principles in 2002 5

SOM SCCP ATCWG ECSG (Electronic Commerce Steering Group) Paperless Trade Sub-Group Tel Privacy Sub-group 6

How APEC Move from Paper to Paperless Trading? - (1) IAP Paperless Trading IAP(Individual Action Plan) - The 11 th Ministerial Meeting in 1999 Auckland The Template of Paperless Trading Individual Action Plan 7

How APEC Move from Paper to Paperless Trading? - (2) Pathfinder Projects - e-C/O (electronic Certificate of Origin) - e-SPS (Electronic Sanitary and Phyto. Sanitary Certificate) 8

Pathfinder Project (1) Electronic Certificates of Origin Implications Between Singapore and Korea – Confidentiality, authenticity and nonrepudiation – Potential savings of $US 100/certificate (Crimsonlogic, Singapore) 9

Pathfinder Project (2) Electronic SPS Certificate Implications Between Australia and New Zealand - Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and New Zealand Food Safety Authority - especially with meat shipment 10

Contents What is APEC? APEC Initiative on Paperless Trade Benefits and Challenges Strategies to move forward 11

Benefits Savings to business – Communication cost reduction – Fewer errors – Lower interest payments on trade finance – Efficient supply chains Savings for government agencies, banks, insurers and shipping companies 12

Challenges (1) Lack of legal, institutional infrastructure - some economies lack of electronic transaction law - some economies lack of electronic signature law - lack of mutual recognition of electronic signature Reluctance to changes - too many stakeholders - banks 13

Challenges(2) Pathfinder Project - e-C/O(electronic Certificate of Origin) International message standard for e-C/O - e-SPS(electronic Sanitary and Phyto. Sanitary Certificate) lack of awareness 14

Contents What is APEC? APEC Initiative on Paperless Trade Benefits and Challenges APEC Strategies to move forward 15

Strategies to Move Forward(1) Initiating new pathfinders for other priority areas - harmonize customs declaration items among interested member economies(CTI/SCCP) - a new Pathfinder on cross-border electronic transmission of customs clearance data(CTI/SCCP) - discussing cross-recognition of PKI domains Intensifying capacity building activities - ECSG sponsors assessment and benchmarking of current practices in paperless trading - training program, workshop etc. 16

Strategies to Move Forward (2) Collaborating with other international organizations - especially with UN/CEFACT (the standards of e-SPS, e-C/O)GBDe Strengthening of public private partnership ABAC ECSG Asia PKI Forum PAA 17