Blockchain opens tremendous opportunities for undoing inefficiencies and high coordination costs in world trade.  Nextrade CEO Kati Suominen was hired by the Inter-American Development Bank and World Economic Forum to coordinate a research project on the uses of blockchain in single windows, with two dozen global experts. The result is a report Windows of Opportunity: Facilitating Trade with Blockchain Technology. The report argues that blockchain has various value propositions in single windows, such as:

 

• Fuel interoperability among agencies making up a national single window and cross-border, among national single windows: improve visibility to manage risks, recognize patterns, conduct pre-arrival processing, share data and improve user experience;

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• Increase traceability: enable more complete data on shipments, supply chains and audit trails by bringing together single windows and/or private sector trade intermediaries on a common blockchain;

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• ​Automate processes: automate payments and reconciliation to accelerate revenue collection; and

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• Increase the trustworthiness of data: make data immutable and provide single-window users with unique identities, enabling them to apportion relevant parts of their identities to third-party service providers.

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To attain these gains, we present six key steps for operationalizing blockchain into single windows:

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• Create a grand vision and make the business case, ensuring high-level political support; 

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• Establish a governance structure, including for data, design and implementation; 

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• Build the technology architecture and integrate blockchain with existing systems;  

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• Manage user identities and data, by testing digital identifies for users;

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• Measure impact by developing and track Key Performance Indicators and report on the progress and results; and

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• Iterate and assess pilot results to further improve and scale.

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Suominen presented the report to policy and technology leaders from single windows and customs agencies across the Americas and Asia in Santiago, Chile, on 29 August. See PPT here.