Nextrade CEO Kati Suominen presented her chapter for the WTO's Aid for Trade review book of 2017 - on private sector views on ecommerce development. She drew on a Nextrade's recent surveys of merchants both globally and in Latin America, and proposed 4 specific ways for public and private sector to work better together to power and co-finance ecommerce development. See her PPT here.

For governments seeking to harness the promise of ecommerce to catalyze entrepreneurship, small business exports, and job-creation in their economies, unburdening small online sellers from arcane customs procedures and duties should be a top priority. The quick-fix is to raise de minimis levels – the maximum value of an import that is exempt from customs duties, taxes, and formal customs procedures. High de minimis is pure free trade for small business. Yet despite countless