The impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related response measures have resulted in significant operational disruptions and delays across global networks with important implications for the performance of international commercial contracts. Much of global commodities’ trade is conducted on international sale of goods on shipment terms notably CIF and FOB. Contractual devices for commercial risk allocation and loss prevention can play an important role in addressing the commercial law implications of the pandemic and reduce the need for costly litigation. The purpose of this report is to provide contracting parties with some general guidance and advice on how contracts for the sale and purchase of goods and commodities on CIF and FOB terms could cater for the risk of COVID-related events during the ongoing pandemic and in respect of possible future events of this nature. The report takes a practical approach and focuses on possible contractual solutions which by allocating and distributing at the outset the potential risks and cost arising from a pandemic outbreak allow the parties to a contract may it be on a spot or long-term basis to contain the adverse implications of an outbreak for the performance of legal contractual obligations and/or distribute related commercial risks fairly between the parties.

The report is an output produced under a project led by ESCAP in collaboration with UNCTAD and financed by the Government of China. The project aims at improving the quality of maritime and port connectivity policies and related regional cooperation in the maritime sector in ASEAN and Pacific SIDS contributing to greater resilience of the Asia-Pacific position in global supply chains in the context of COVID-19. This report assesses maritime connectivity in two regions namely ASEAN countries and in Pacific SIDS.

The present publication “Roadmap for Building a National Trade Information Portal” sets out the importance of placing the trader at the center as the primary customer and how a Trade Information Portal's system should be structured to ensure that the needed trade information is packaged and delivered and received in a manner that is always easy to follow. The guidance set out in this document reaffirms that a central repository for trade information is the most effective way of complying with article 1 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and that step-by-step guides to procedures are key to ensure transparency and work on making trade-related procedures more efficient.

National Trade Facilitation Committees (NTFCs) have been transformed from being largely unknown institutional bodies to leading governments’ trade facilitation efforts and policy agendas for cross border trade. Yet so much remains to be done to adequately position these committees as the drivers of trade facilitation measures and harness their multistakeholder potential for trade facilitation reforms. Various Trade Facilitation Bodies had been formed since the 1970s but it was not until the negotiations and entry into force of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) that common challenges of institutional setups for trade efforts in many countries became apparent. This created urgency for the strengthening of NTFCs across the world as leading coordination mechanism for coherent and all-inclusive trade facilitation policy reforms. UNCTAD has been an implementing partner of many countries on trade facilitation measures over the years. This study updates builds and expands upon previous UNCTAD studies.