Philippines sees huge boost in trade facilitation

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s move to streamline trade procedures earned it a huge boost in global trade facilitation despite challenges due to the pandemic.

Based on the latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation of the United Nations, the Philippines scored 86.02 percent this year, up from 80.65 percent in 2019. The survey is produced biennially.

This is significantly higher than the global average implementation rate of trade facilitation and paperless trade measures at 65 percent. It is also better than the 74.29 percent average in the whole of Southeast Asia.

To generate a score, five categories are taken into account including cross-border paperless trade, paperless trade, institutional arrangement and cooperation, formalities, and transparency.

Of these, the Philippines maintained its perfect 100 percent score in both transparency and formalities categories.

The country saw the biggest boost in institutional arrangement and cooperation at 77.78 percent from just 55.56 percent in 2019.

In the cross-border paperless trade category, the Philippines got a score of 61.11 percent this year from 55.56 percent.

The Philippines’ score also rose to 85.19 percent from 77.78 percent in the paperless trade category.

Covering 143 countries, the UN survey looks at the trade facilitation measures in the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement, as well as digital trade facilitation measures associated with the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, a UN treaty which entered into force earlier this year.

It also considers sectors and groups with special needs, such as the agricultural sector, small and medium enterprises and women traders. A new module on trade facilitation during the pandemic was integrated this year.

The survey showed that countries are continuing to move toward a seamless and efficient trading environment, within and beyond national borders.

This is done by simplifying and digitizing formalities in international trading, helping to sustain international trade despite the disruption caused by the pandemic.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines had a better trade facilitation score than neighbors Indonesia (85 percent), Brunei Darussalam and Cambodia (78 percent), Vietnam (67 percent), Myanmar (66 percent), Laos (63 percent), and Timor Leste (25 percent). It shared the same score with Malaysia at 86.02 percent.

The Philippines, however, was behind Thailand which got 87 percent and Singapore which scored 96 percent.

“Implementation of cross-border paperless trade remains a challenge everywhere, even though the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how useful it can be to exchange documents electronically to reduce physical contacts and the spread of the virus,” the UN said.

The UN aims to help countries benchmark and reduce the time and cost of trading across borders.

It also seeks to provide information for policy makers to take advantage of trade in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which aims to put an end to poverty.