India scores over 90 per cent in a Global trade survey

India has scored 90.32 per cent in United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific, UNESCAP’s latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. The survey hails this as a remarkable jump from 78.49 per cent in 2019. Finance Ministry said, there is significant improvement in India’s score in United Nation’s Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation. India has achieved a 100 per cent score for the Transparency index and 66 per cent in the Women in trade component.The survey notes that India is the best performing country when compared to South and South West Asia region and Asia Pacific region. The overall score of India has also been found to be greater than many OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries including France, UK, Canada, Norway and Finland and the overall score is greater than the average score of EU.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, CBIC, has been at forefront of path breaking reforms under the umbrella of ‘Turant’ Customs to usher in a Faceless, Paperless and Contactless Customs by way of a series of reforms. The Ministry said, this has had a direct impact in terms of the improvement in the UNESCAP rankings on digital and sustainable trade facilitation.The Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation is conducted every two years by UNESCAP. The 2021 survey includes an assessment of 58 trade facilitation measures covered by the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.