Reducing trade costs is essential for economies to effectively use trade as an engine of growth and sustainable development. Trade facilitation plays a pivotal role in reducing trade costs, on top of existing efforts to dismantle tariff and non-tariff barriers and enhance physical connectivity. In the Asia–Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2017, the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) found that moderate region-wide improvements in trade facilitation in Asia and the Pacific could lift gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.32% annually between 2015 and 2030, which is equivalent to nearly $87 billion per year—14 times more than under the tariff liberalization scenario considered in the same study. In addition, if bigger and more ambitious steps are made in putting all the Asia-Pacific region’s trade-related paperwork online, digital trade facilitation could slash the time it takes to export goods by up to 44%, cut the cost of doing so by up to 31%, and boost exports by as much as $257 billion a year.
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