Case Study: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) achieves faster cross-border trade and halves customs clearing times with Axway B2Bi

ASEAN supercharges trade in Southeast Asia with electronic transfer for key customs documents

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10‑member regional bloc, faced costly, error‑prone paper customs processes that slowed trade — shippers had to produce written proof of origin and documents were often couriers‑delivered and rekeyed across systems, sometimes holding containers at port for up to two weeks. To meet its ASEAN Community goals, the organization committed to an ASEAN Single Window (ASW) to enable resilient, secure electronic exchange of trade documents and reduce clearance times and costs.

With USAID support, ASEAN selected Axway B2Bi and partner EDII to pilot and then deploy the ASW, installing B2B gateways at each National Single Window and a regional hub in Jakarta. The digital platform now exchanges Certificates of Origin (900,000+ exchanged to date), cut cargo release times by half, reduced errors and costs, and is being expanded to additional document types and potential international gateways.

ASEAN

Rebecca Acuña

Economic Growth & Governance Team Lead