The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has launched the Digital Trade Standards Initiative (DSI) – a collaborative cross-industry effort to enable the standardization of digital trade. 

The ICC DSI will build on work done by various like-minded initiatives, many of which aim to digitise trade, notably through the development of open trade and technology standards to promote interoperability.

The ICC DSI will promote greater economic inclusion through the development of open trade standards. This will facilitate technical interoperability among the variety of blockchain-based networks and technology platforms that have entered the trade space over the past two years.

“Universal standards will connect existing digital islands and enable market forces to improve customer experience,” said ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO. “As a leading and neutral voice in the industry, it made sense to bring this project under the umbrella of ICC. This will allow the ICC DSI to lead and coordinate efforts in developing standards and protocols to digitise trade.”

The ICC DSI is unique among trade digitisation initiatives due to its collective nature. Too often, digitisation is enacted through bilateral agreements between institutions that require members to run on the same platform. This has resulted in siloed data and bespoke trade and trade finance processes.

“The ICC DSI seeks to coordinate all parties in the standardisation of data formats and processes, rather than duplicate existing efforts. In turn, membership will be open to all organisations across industries and geographies supporting the project’s core mandate, Including existing industry associations and initiatives,” explained Steven Beck, Head of Trade Finance at the Asian Development Bank.

The ICC DSI will be supported by seed-funding committed by the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Singapore, in addition to ICC’s support. The ICC DSI will be run as an independent entity out of the recently-established ICC Centre for Future Trade.

“We have seen the tremendous impact of technology in growing businesses and facilitating international trade,” said Gina Lim, Director of Financing Ecosystem Development at Enterprise Singapore. “The ICC DSI will promote greater adoption of technology within the trade ecosystem and facilitate greater inclusiveness for small businesses. We are excited for the establishment of the ICC DSI office in Singapore and look forward to working with our global partners across geographies and sectors.”

ICC anticipates the implementation of a full-time management team and a global and diverse steering committee to provide guidance and set priorities for the project’s development.

ICC has opened the recruitment process to hire a managing director to lead operations within the ICC DSI, with an official launch event to follow once this first process completed.