Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation in ASEAN Countries

The pandemic exposed weaknesses in the global trade system, making it clear that climate actions are the priority in the recovery. International organizations are urging countries to seize this opportunity and integrate climate-friendly trade and investment rules to promote sustainable development. Trade is recognized as a powerful tool for tackling climate change, offering economies ways to both reduce emissions and adapt to environmental changes. In this paper, we investigate the digital and sustainable trade facilitation measures implemented in ASEAN countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. We use a well-established trade model, the gravity model, to assess the impacts of trade facilitation efforts, particularly those that leverage digital technologies and promote sustainability. The data for this analysis comes from the UN Global Survey on digital and sustainable trade facilitation in 2017, 2019, and 2021. The results show that trade facilitation measures are crucial to increasing trade among the ASEAN countries. Measures of transparency of trade procedures, trade formality alleviation, and cross-border paperless trade have significant positive impacts on bilateral trade between ASEAN countries.