Better Borders for Trade, Traceability and Enforcement

6. Conclusions and forward-looking observations

Abstract

This chapter synthesises the main findings of the report and outlines key considerations for the future. It highlights the importance of ensuring coherence between trade facilitation and traceability systems, strengthening digital readiness, and supporting effective and efficient compliance mechanisms. The chapter identifies areas for further analysis and co-operation, with a view to supporting resilient, transparent, and environmentally performing supply chains in an ever more complex global trade environment.

6.1. Preparing trade facilitation systems for new requirements

This report has examined how traceability is becoming more central to trade, not as a standalone policy objective, but as part of a broader shift in the way governments, firms and border authorities manage more complex requirements. Trade policy is becoming in practice more data intensive. Regulatory requirements linked to social and environmental performance, forced labour, responsible sourcing, circularity, product safety, supply chain resilience and economic security depend gradually more on information about how goods are produced, sourced, moved and verified and are also increasingly enforced at the border. The intersection between policy design and implementation in practice is therefore becoming key to trade facilitation systems.

A key lesson is that the design of new requirements cannot be separated from the systems that will implement them. Requirements that pursue legitimate policy objectives can create implementation challenges in practice if they are not translated into clear procedures, usable data requirements and operational processes at the border. Conversely, trade facilitation tools can help ensure that more complex requirements are implemented in ways that remain predictable, proportionate and efficient. The challenge is therefore not whether traceability should be strengthened, but how it can be embedded into trade processes without creating parallel systems, duplicative obligations or avoidable costs and delays.

The growing volume and granularity of traceability-related information also raise a more operational challenge: whether data systems, Single Windows, electronic documents, digital product identifiers and platforms are able to allow for the transmission, verification and reuse of information securely and efficiently. Without this technical layer, even well-designed regulatory co-operation arrangements may be difficult to implement at scale.

Customs authorities are at the forefront of this transformation, but they cannot manage it alone. Traceability-related requirements have advanced to involve environmental agencies, market surveillance authorities, standards bodies, conformity assessment entities, sector regulators, certifiers and private assurance schemes. The quality infrastructure underpinning testing, inspection, certification, accreditation and standards is therefore becoming more closely connected to border processes. This makes inter-agency co-operation and trust in information central to the border clearance process. The issue is no longer only how customs processes declarations, but how different authorities and actors can work together to assess risks, verify information and facilitate compliant trade.

6.2. Key considerations

More strategic use of traceability-related information enhances authorities’ ability to trust information and target controls where risks are greatest.

A first consideration is to make greater use of existing trade facilitation tools to enable information to be reused across systems wherever appropriate. A key objective could be to make traceability data reusable. The same information on a product, producer, facility, shipment or supply chain may be relevant to several regulations, border agencies and export markets. Where data can be submitted once and subsequently reused – subject to appropriate governance, confidentiality and access arrangements – it has the potential to support compliance with multiple requirements without imposing repeated data collection, verification and reporting costs.

Allowing data elements to be transmitted and reused between public systems, private platforms and jurisdictions could therefore reduce burdens for firms and authorities while improving data quality, consistency and operational efficiency. Conversely, requiring similar information repeatedly in different formats risks multiplying compliance costs without necessarily strengthening enforcement. Rather than creating parallel reporting systems, future reforms could seek to build on existing digital infrastructure for trade facilitation so that information can flow efficiently across processes while remaining fit for different regulatory purposes. At the same time, the value of traceability depends not only on data availability but also on the broader compliance and enforcement in which it operates.

A second consideration concerns a more strategic use of traceability-related information to strengthen risk management while preserving efficient border processes. As traceability-related requirements expand, more information could support smarter, more targeted border management by helping authorities identify higher-risk consignments, products, operators and supply chains while facilitating compliant trade.

This consideration is particularly timely given the broad wave of customs and border reforms under way worldwide. Governments are modernising Single Windows, customs data environments, risk management systems and trusted trader programmes, while also reconsidering how border authorities contribute to supply chain resilience and economic security. These reforms provide an opportunity to integrate traceability-related information into existing trade facilitation systems rather than creating separate compliance structures. Digitalisation, automation and risk management can therefore help preserve the speed, predictability and efficiency of border procedures as regulatory requirements become more information intensive.

A third consideration is to deepen co-operation within governments, across border agencies and regulators, between public authorities and private actors, and across jurisdictions. Traceability-related requirements progressively involve customs authorities alongside environmental agencies, market surveillance bodies, standards organisations, conformity assessment institutions and sector regulators. Effective implementation therefore depends on co-ordinated institutional arrangements and trusted information flows.

Domestically, greater co-operation can help align data requirements, clarify responsibilities and embed traceability-related information into Single Windows, risk management systems and other existing trade facilitation tools. Internationally, closer collaboration can reduce unnecessary duplication, improve compatibility between regulatory approaches and strengthen trust in information accompanying traded goods. Sectoral co-operation will also become important where requirements are technically complex and firms rely on standards, certification or conformity assessment bodies to generate and verify information.

6.3. Forward-looking observations

The importance of these issues is likely to increase. Requirements related to social and environmental performance, including those linked to NPR-PPMs, are becoming more prominent. Policies supporting a more circular economy will require additional information on product composition, reparability, reuse, recycling and waste status. Strategic sectors – including critical minerals, medical goods, advanced technology products and agri-food – are also likely to face growing traceability demands linked to supply continuity, product safety, responsible sourcing and economic security. For businesses, the ability to generate, manage and transmit reliable product and supply chain information will therefore become important for market access, supplier diversification, compliance planning and competitiveness, while border systems will need to process ever more granular and diverse information without compromising speed, predictability or proportionality.

Understanding the role of verification arrangements in practice will also become prominent. These arrangements may include verification by competent public authorities, accredited conformity assessment bodies, certification schemes, recognised assurance providers, audit-based systems, trusted trader arrangements, digital attestations or combinations of these approaches. At the same time, verification arrangements represent only one component of a broader compliance architecture. Their use will depend on the policy objective, sector, risk profile and institutional preferences of governments, while continuing to raise important questions regarding credibility, transparency, accountability, accessibility and alignment with public policy objectives.

Emerging initiatives also point to the closer links between traceability, verification and supply chain governance. For example, OECD work on Free Trade Zones (FTZs) has highlighted the role that certification frameworks, due diligence processes and traceability systems can play in strengthening transparency and trust across trade and logistics networks (OECD, 2025[1]). These experiences suggest that future approaches may combine progressively more traceability data with verification, certification and governance mechanisms designed to support both compliance and trade facilitation.

The central message of this report is that traceability will support trade only if it is designed and implemented with trade facilitation in mind. Better information can strengthen regulatory compliance, improve risk management and support more resilient supply chains. It can also be important for the functioning of standards-based approaches in strategic sectors, including critical minerals, where reliable information on origin, production and movement can help ensure that market claims are credible and that goods are assessed consistently against relevant requirements. Yet fragmented requirements, poorly co-ordinated processes and systems disconnected from border operations risk becoming new sources of trade friction. The policy challenge is therefore not simply to collect more information, but to make that information usable: clear enough for firms to comply with, reliable enough for authorities to trust, interoperable and reusable across systems and jurisdictions, and proportionate enough to preserve the efficiency and predictability of international trade.

Trade facilitation and traceability are becoming intertwined. Trade facilitation provides the procedural, institutional and digital foundations through which traceability becomes operational at the border, while traceability provides the information needed to implement public policy objectives that are growing in complexity. Greater operational integration between the two enables traceability systems to build on existing trade facilitation infrastructure for the transmission, verification and reuse of information, reducing duplication, lowering compliance costs and strengthening confidence in regulatory compliance. In doing so, it allows ever more information-intensive trade requirements to support resilience, economic security and broader public policy objectives without undermining the efficiency and predictability on which international trade depends.

References

[1] OECD (2025), “Report on the Implementation of the OECD Recommendation on Countering Illicit Trade: Enhancing Transparency in Free Trade Zones”, C(2025)49, https://one.oecd.org/document/C(2025)49/en/pdf.