About the Survey

The United Nations Regional Commissions, including ECA, ECE, ECLAC, ESCAP and ESCWA, and UNCTAD have been conducting the Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation (formerly known as the UN Global Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade Implementation) since 2015 to review the progress of trade facilitation reforms in their respective Member States. The initiative, led and coordinated by ESCAP, supports the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, as well as emerging regional and global initiatives on paperless trade or e-trade, such as the recent Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (CPTA). Cooperation among the UN Regional Commissions and other UN and relevant regional and sub-regional organizations is key to the success of the Global Surveys. UNCTAD, who collaborated with UN Regional Commissions in past surveys, has become a full partner of the initiative and will be part of the core team of organizations conducting the UN Global Survey from 2023 onward. Sub-regional collaboration has also been strengthened, e.g. with ASEAN in the Asia-Pacific region. Interested organizations, industry associations, academia, research institutes and other stakeholders, are very welcome to join the initiative.

Scope and Methodology

The survey covers a WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)+ set of 60 trade facilitation measures categorized into eleven sub-groups, namely: Transparency; Formalities; Institutional arrangement and cooperation; Transit facilitation; Paperless trade; Cross-border paperless trade;  Trade facilitation for SMEs; Agricultural trade facilitation; Women in trade facilitation; Trade finance for trade facilitation; and Trade facilitation in times of crisis , plus two measures pilot-tested in 2023, namely Trade facilitation for e-commerce; and Wildlife trade facilitation.

The survey is fact-based rather than perception-based. A three-step approach to data collection and validation is generally followed, implemented over a 6-month period every 2 years: Step (1) Open data collection from experts; Step (2) Data verification by UN Regional Commission Secretariats; and Step (3) Data validation by national governments. For more details on the methodology, please refer to the 2023 Survey Methodology and methodology section of global and regional reports. The 2023 Survey questionnaire is available here:

 

Regional Contacts for the Survey

Navigate to the contact page or use the contact details below to reach out to us.

  • Economic Commission for Africa (ECA): Brendah Phiri-Mundia, brendah.mundia@un.org
  • Economic Commission for Europe (ECE): Jie Wei, weij@un.org
  • Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC): Sebastian Herreros, sebastian.herreros@cepal.org
  • Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP): Soo Hyun Kim, kim51@un.org and Yann Duval, duvaly@un.org and Silvère Dernouh, silvere.dernouh@un.org
  • Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA): Adel Alghaberi, al-ghaberi@un.org