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In today’s blog we will talk about the UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. We will discuss what this survey is, why it is conducted, India’s ranking in the survey and other significant facts related to it.
What is this survey?
The UN Regional Commissions jointly conducts the UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. The survey currently includes 143 economies around the globe and 58 measures related to the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
Additionally, emerging regional and global initiatives on e-trade such as the recent Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (CPTA) is also covered. UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific) conducted the survey every two years since 2015.
Why is it done?
It is done to help countries benchmark and reduce the time and cost of trading across borders. The survey leads to a production of a Global Report and five Regional Reports. The report aims to provide information for policy makers to harness trade as a key means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
India’s Performance
India scored 90.32% in United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific’s latest survey. This is a remarkable jump from 78.49% in 2019.
An improvement in the scores is highlighted on all 5 key indicators:
| Indicators | 2021 | 2019 |
| Transparency | 100% | 93.33% |
| Formalities | 95.83% | 87.5% |
| Institutional Arrangement and Cooperation | 88.89% | 66.67% |
| Paperless Trade | 96.73% | 81.48% |
| Cross-Border Paperless Trade | 66.67% | 55.56% |
India is the best-performing country as compared to the South and South-West Asia region (63.12%) and the Asia Pacific region (68.85%)
Score of India has been found to be greater than many OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries including France, Canada, Finland, UK, Norway etc.
India achieved 110% score for transparency index and 66% in the “Women in trade” component.
Other countries
Other developed countries including New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Netherlands and Belgium scored more than 93%.
In south-Asia Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were behind India with a score of 64.5% and 60.2% respectively.
Initiatives taken by India
Through a series of changes, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) have been at the center of ground-breaking reforms under the name of ‘Turant’ Customs to usher in Faceless, Paperless, and Contactless Customs. This had a direct impact in improving India’s ranking.
A single devoted window On the CBIC website, the Covid-19 24/7 help desk for EXIM commerce was built. It helped importers resolve issues quickly.
A higher score for a country helps it in investment decisions. For Indian policy makers the survey results comes a boost in improving the country’s attractiveness as a business destination. It will further help to capture a large portion in the global supply chain of goods and services.
About UNESCAP
Founded – 28 March 1947
Headquarter – Bangkok, Thailand
With this we come to the end of this blog. We covered all the major points stated in the survey. We also mentioned about the major initiatives taken by India which impacted its ranking this year.
Keep reading and stay tuned with hranker.com for more such detailed and informative blogs.
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