TradeTrust Newsletter July 2025

GUUD, a technology company offering platforms for issuing electronic Certificates of Origin (eCO), recently integrated TradeTrust’s open-source components and internationally recognised standards into its solution.

This enhancement enables GUUD to provide clients with an efficient way to verify the authenticity of eCOs across borders, reduce operational costs, and strengthen compliance with global trade requirements. In this edition, we hear from Mr. Viboon, Product and Technology Director of GUUD on how TradeTrust has shaped their digital trade offering and where he sees the future headed:

How has adopting TradeTrust enhanced your platform and service?

"By adopting the TradeTrust framework and libraries, we were able to enhance our product features quickly. This shortened our development time. TradeTrust, being blockchain-enabled and MLETR compliant, also allows us to offer new solutions such as e-Bill of Lading and Fintech platforms."

Where do you see the greatest opportunities for broader application and impact of GUUD’s platform across the trade ecosystem? And how do you envision digital trade evolving in the next few years?

"I see a lot of opportunities in the digital trade space today. Many countries that implemented trade facilitation solutions before or after the Bali Package (in 2013) have systems that are now due for a technology refresh. This, coupled with the emergence of the Digital Economy and AI, allows companies like GUUD a chance to dream up and offer something new and unique to governments and businesses."

We are proud to share a significant milestone for TradeTrust - after a 7-month evaluation process, TradeTrust has been officially recognised as a Digital Public Good (DPG) and added to the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) Registry, a United Nations-endorsed initiative.

The DPGA promotes open-source digital solutions that advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To be recognised as a DPG, a solution must meet the DPG Standard, which includes criteria such as open licensing, platform independence, adoption of open standards, and a commitment to privacy, security, and inclusion.

TradeTrust’s listing underscores Singapore’s commitment to building trusted and open digital infrastructure for the global community. It is IMDA’s flagship contribution to the global trade ecosystem - enabling trusted, interoperable trade across borders through open-source frameworks.

This recognition reinforces TradeTrust’s neutrality and relevance in today’s fragmented digital trade landscape. Incorporating technologies such as public blockchain and W3C verifiable credentials and aligned with international legal frameworks like the United Nations Commission On International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), TradeTrust gives industry the confidence to adopt, integrate, and scale digital trade solutions globally.

This recognition as a digital public good further strengthens TradeTrust’s role in advancing inclusive, open digital ecosystems, building on successful pilot collaborations with partners such as those in China, India, France, Abu Dhabi and Australia.

For enquiries on the DPGA, reach out to hello@digitalpublicgoods.net

TradeTrust was recently featured in the June 2025 edition of World Customs Organization (WCO) News, in an article titled “Scaling Digital Trade: TradeTrust’s Journey Since 2021.”

The article highlights TradeTrust’s progression from pilot initiatives to powering live, cross-border trade and finance transactions - helping bridge legal and technical gaps in digital trade documentation.

Key takeaways include:

This feature affirms growing international support for open, MLETR-aligned infrastructure that enables trusted, cross-platform exchange of trade documents.

CMA CGM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CargoX, eTEU, ICE, and SGTraDex to collaborate on enabling seamless interoperability of electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs) across various platforms using the TradeTrust framework.

This collaboration aims to tackle existing fragmentation in the digital trade ecosystem by enabling the secure exchange of eBLs across various platforms. The MoU outlines joint workstreams to focus on legal and technical alignment, assess business feasibility, and meet compliance requirements. The goal is to establish a trusted foundation for scalable, cross-platform interoperability.

What this means for TradeTrust

This industry collaboration marks a step forward in the adoption of TradeTrust as a common, open framework that enables interoperability without requiring all parties to be on the same platform. Built to align with W3C Verifiable Credentials specifications and the United Nations Commission On International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), TradeTrust allows documents to be digitally signed, tamper-evident, independently verifiable, and legally enforceable across borders.

For carriers and platforms, this represents progress towards a more interconnected digital trade environment. TradeTrust enables co-operation amongst systems through ensuring document integrity, provenance, and legal recognition across them. The MoU reinforces TradeTrust’s role as a neutral enabler that bridges systems and stakeholders - supporting collaboration across the ecosystem instead of fragmentation.

Tech Updates

We’ve added features to make document creation and verification more developer-friendly and interoperable:

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