A Study on Cross-Border E-Commerce Framework of Standards – focusing on Trade Facilitation

Over the past decade, the growing trade in cross-border electronic commerce (E-Commerce) in physical goods has generated enormous opportunities for the global economy, providing new growth engines, entailing the development of new business models, driving new consumption trends and creating new jobs. This unprecedented growth has revolutionized the way businesses and consumers market, sell, and purchase goods, providing wider choices and innovative shipping, payment and delivery options. It has also opened up global economic opportunities to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in terms of wider access to overseas markets by lowering entry barriers and reduced costs. In this context, a new standard on data quality was included in the E-Commerce FoS and reinforcing language was applied to the wording of the existing standards on risk management for facilitation and control and on advanced technologies and innovation. The technical specifications for these standards were also enhanced, while practices and experiences shared by Members fed into certain annexes to the Technical Specifications. WCO Members and stakeholders are encouraged to sustain their efforts to implement the E-Commerce FoS in a coordinated and harmonized manner, as well as to continue sharing their experiences and best practices with the WCO to feed into future updates of the E-Commerce FoS. This will maintain the momentum for further improving border management and enhancing trade facilitation.