Nextrade at World Trade Symposium on ways to power interoperability in trade through technology
Nextrade CEO Kati Suominen joined a fast-moving panel at World Trade Symposium on how blockchain, AI, ecommerce, and next generation event-based payments will power world trade and interoperability among players in the trade ecosystem, with Michael White, CEO of Tradelens, Michael Farlekas, CEO of E2open, and Christopher Clague, Managing Editor, Economist. Group's broad agreement was:
Paper-based manual processes and duplication of efforts among the many players in the trade ecosystem -- exporters, freight forwarders, shipping lines, ports, customs, banks, importers, customs brokers, etc. - add a 20% surcharge on products that are traded.
Lowering these costs through digitizing and automating invoicing, payments, regulatory filings, logistics bookings, and so on to be triggered by the movement of the shipment from country A to county B will result trillions of dollars in savings for governments businesses and consumers.
To realize these gains, we need smart governance mechanisms among players that share data, and align governments' digital regulations behind cross-border flow of data. Regulations need to critically also interoperate across countries lest they fragment the global digital economy by national regulations.
