Globalization and digitalization have driven massive change in trade - most notably in the volume and frequency of shipments. However, the trade data infrastructure has not kept up with the pace, leading to the slew of breakdowns throughout global supply chains and bottlenecks at land and sea ports, seen in headlines regularly. North American companies and regulators alike, are taking a radically new approach to modernize how trade data is created and managed by developing open standards-based technologies like “Verifiable Credentials” that anyone, anywhere can use. 

The panel “Trust and Transparency in Trade: A Verifiably Digital Disruption” addressed how Verifiable Credentials, a new digital data format that uses cryptography to prove legitimacy and enable critical trade information, flows seamlessly across existing system silos - without sacrificing security, privacy, or competitiveness.