The enormous costs arising from the exchange of billions of trade-related documents, as well as the complexity of international trade documents and procedures, are a huge burden on businesses, and a major disincentive to many small firms for participating in international trade.
[2] Switching from paper documents would increase security and transparency in supply chains and provide governments and the private sector with higher revenues.
[3] Paperless trade aims to making cross-border business transactions more convenient and transparent while ensuring regulatory compliance.
It points out that the advance exchange of information and the automated analysis of trade data enable governments and enterprises to react faster on events and take appropriate measures to reduce costs and risks.
[8] For example, in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, access to and use of the Internet for Electronic Commerce could be found in the chapter of E-commerce, which requires parties to "recognise the benefits of consumers in their territories having the ability to: (a) access and use services and applications of a consumer's choice available on the Internet, subject to reasonable network management; (b) connect the end-user devices of a consumer's choice to the Internet, provided that such devices do not harm the network; (c) access information on the network management practices of a consumer's Internet access service supplier.