ICC Digital Standards Initiative

Newsletter | May 2026

Dear colleagues, members and partners,

In this issue, we highlight progress on our work to address fragmentation from digital islands, while advancing legal reform and capacity building in countries at the start of their digital trade journeys. Geographically, this month we cover North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle Corridor (Caucasus), and Asia.     

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Standards

Infrastructure and the road to interoperability. Following a week of DSI-ADB collaborative meetings with IT infrastructure providers and industry players in Singapore, DSI moved to London where we partnered with Trade Treasury Payments to host a small roundtable with fintechs, banks and trade practitioners. Participants unpacked three core challenges: the technical architecture for standards convergence, the business case for ERP and IT infrastructure providers to take action, and the practical steps to unlock scale. The conversation confirmed what DSI has long held: legal reform, technical standards and industry buy-in must advance together. 

Following its spring meeting, the ICC Banking Commission’s Commercialisation Working Group and KTDDE (Bank Defined Dataset) Working Group have now merged into the Digital Trade Finance Standards Adoption (DTFSA) Working Group. Under the leadership of Merlin Dowse of CGI, the group aims to advance adoption of key standards including eUCP, as well as workstreams on digital and hybrid document presentation, digital identity and trust frameworks.

ICC Digital Trade Navigator. Introduced to National Committees on 28 April, this member‑only learning and enablement platform supports companies preparing for digital trade adoption. ICC will host onboarding sessions on 28 May at 09:00 and 16:00 CET. Organisations interested in joining can contact Elizabete Kalnozola at digitalstandardsinitiative@iccwbo.org. 

Digital Trade Readiness Assessment: Initial phase completed. The initial phase closed on 15 April 2026, with 20 organisations participating. The 48-question self-assessment covers management systems, data management and cybersecurity across three maturity levels (emerging, established, advanced). Early insights indicate stronger cybersecurity readiness, with gaps in management systems and variation across regions, sectors and organisation sizes. Detailed findings, including tailored recommendations for participants and next steps, will be shared at a webinar in late May. Contact us at digitalstandardsinitiative@iccwbo.org to register. 

Legal

APEC, ASEAN and UNESCAP. DSI continues to engage in regional initiatives in Asia, including APEC, where DSI will address an eBL workshop convened by MOFCOM in Suzhou on 20 May 2026, following the 1 May Maritime Code revision. In Peru, the ETR reform assessment initiated following APEC 2024 has progressed to legal gap analysis.  Engagement also continues across regional workstreams, including the UK Economic Integration Programme supporting the ten ASEAN economies on implementation of DEFA.  Lastly, we are looking ahead to UNESCAP Paperless Trade Week where we will co-host one workshop on the Negotiable Cargo Documents Convention, participate in another session on digitalisation, as well as address the plenary session within the Officials' Meeting. More information about the event is available here. 

Engagement Updates

Armenia, Georgia and Tunisia. As part of DSI's collaboration with EBRD, we delivered a series of workshops to support practical adoption of digital trade and trade finance:

• Armenia (Yerevan, 14 April): In coordination with ICC Armenia, we led high-level workshops with government stakeholders to advance digital trade readiness. Discussions covered legal and institutional frameworks, barriers to paperless trade (including customs and trade finance), and priority gaps. DSI and EBRD outlined next steps to support Armenia's digital trade ecosystem in line with international standards.
• Georgia (Tbilisi, 16–17 April): Together with ADB, ICC Georgia and Bank of Georgia, we convened 170 stakeholders to discuss legal reform (including the UNCITRAL Model Laws), trusted digital infrastructure and AI‑enabled trade finance. The workshop brought together banks, industry and policymakers to accelerate adoption across the Middle Corridor. Watch the interview highlights and read the full update here.
• Tunisia (Tunis, 7 May): In collaboration with ICC Tunisia, we convened over 150 public and private sector participants to build capability on trade finance digitalisation and initiate a roadmap towards end‑to‑end supply chain digitalisation. The workshop covered legal and regulatory enablers, supply chain integration and implementation pathways, with next steps now underway. 

Nigeria and the AfCFTA digital trade protocol. ICC Nigeria and DSI collaborated to host a joint seminar supporting AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol implementation, with attendance from Nigerian Customs, and the leadership of ICC Nigeria including its banking and customs commissions. We will now continue to work with Bunmi Osuntuyi and the ICC Nigeria team on how to drive forward the case for legal reform and additional capacity building locally.

Kind Regards,

The ICC Digital Standards Initiative Team