A series of successful real-world trade digitalisation pilots, led by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), have shown the potential to significantly reduce processing times for key trade documents.
The evidence from the three pilot case studies, carried out with companies trading between the UK and Japan, are presented in a report. The findings highlight various benefits of digital trade, including significant cuts in exporters’ processing times, with steps that often take days getting completed in an hour under pilot conditions.
Under the pilot, documentary credit checks performed by banks which commonly take up to 10 days were reduced to just one hour, paving the way for wider rollouts of the technology and complementing the UK’s digital trade corridor programme also under way with France and Germany.
Minister for the Digital Economy, Liz Lloyd, said: “By working closely with partners in Japan, and complementing our promising digital trade corridors with France and Germany, the UK is demonstrating global leadership in making trade cheaper, faster and more secure through innovation.”
UK businesses taking part in the trial saw cost savings from eliminating paper-based shipping documents, reduced administrative burdens through faster, automated processes and, the Minister concluded, greater efficiency across their supply chains.
Titled Digital Trade That Delivers: Scaling the UK-Japan Corridor, the full report can be found here.
