Extending PAA Partnership to the Pakistan

May 31st 2023

The Pan-Asian E-Commerce Alliance (PAA) had its 67th Steering Committee meeting in Auckland New Zealand on May 16 2023, hosted by TradeWindow, the leading customs and trade service provider of New Zealand. The meeting was chaired by InterCommercer President Francis Norman Lopez.

In the 67th Steering Committee meeting, PAA welcomed their latest associate member Pakistan Single Window Company from Pakistan, making PAA a global digital trade alliance of 18 members around the world. PAA is the first regional e-Commerce alliance in Asia that aims to promote and provide secured, trusted and reliable value-added IT infrastructure and facilities for efficient global trade and logistics services. PAA has expanded it’s membership from Asia, to Oceania, Europe, Middle East and the Africa region.

The CEO of TradeWindow Mr. AJ Smith welcomed the PAA members and said that, “We absolutely need a ‘network of networks’ because no one single network canshoulder the task of connecting the regional or global trade system.” He further added, “In our case at TradeWindow, we have particularly valued our collaborative work with our partners Trade-Van in Taiwan and TradeWaltz in Japan.”

“In the last few decades, trade has been the rising tide that has lifted all the boats - there are a few exceptions but that is the bigger picture”, observed the Hon Tim Groser, NZ Minister of Trade 2008-15 and now Strategic Adviser to Trade Window on the welcome dinner. "This is not just about economic efficiency”, Mr Groser said, “stakeholders today demand that trade be consistent with a wider agenda of concerns that cover everything from anti-money laundering through to measuring embedded carbon in goods crossing international frontiers.”

During the meeting, the members shared their respective initiatives on further facilitating trade and logistics, the collaboration with the ASEAN and the African Alliance on Electronic Commerce (AAEC), updates on cross border data exchange thru interoperable, interconnected blockchains of TradeWindow, Trade-Van and CrimsonLogic, and the proposal on the having the PAA Digital Trade Platform.

In a special session, the Steering Committee welcomed the participation of representatives of Trade Regulatory Agencies (TRGAs) from Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines and Thailand, for an open discussion to foster closer collaboration to facilitate trade and improve compliance to import requirements. With possible B2B2G and B2G data exchange projects raised, the Steering Committee agreed to have a regular session with TRGAs as an agenda in its subsequent meetings.