New tracker shines light on global progress towards paperless trade

The tracker gives governments, businesses and international bodies their clearest view yet of how the world is moving – or not – towards a landmark treaty that could make paper cargo documents history.

The Negotiable Cargo Documents (NCD) Convention Tracker maps how individual economies are progressing towards becoming parties to the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents – adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2025.

The convention addresses a persistent bottleneck in global trade – paper documents. Traditionally, paper documents need to be physically transferred between banks, traders and logistics providers. This is slow, expensive and prone to error and fraud. UNCITRAL’s NCD Convention creates a harmonised legal basis for cargo documents to be issued, transferred and enforced electronically across borders.

Yet, for the convention to come into force, 10 countries must sign it. The tracker follows each country along a six-stage pathway – from initial awareness to entry into force – bringing transparency into a process that traditionally is difficult to observe from the outside.

The early picture is encouraging. Initial tracking indicates that 28 economies are already engaging with the convention, among them eight in Asia and seven in Africa – regions where the gains from trade digitalisation are potentially the largest.

The tracker builds on a model that has already proven its worth. Its predecessor, the MLETR Tracker – which monitors adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records – demonstrated that bringing transparency to the ratification process can accelerate it. When governments can see which of their trading partners are moving, and businesses can see which markets remain legally uncertain, the case for action becomes harder to ignore.

The NCD Convention Tracker is designed not only to track progress but also to help generate momentum for reform and the wider adoption of digital trade practices.

“We have learned from the creation and launch of the MLETR tracker that visibility on states’ adoption of policy can drive business interest and commitment to adopt digital trade practices. It’s our hope that the NCD – being a ‘fast track’ to MLETR alignment – can provide transparency on the consideration by states of the NCD – and thus inject momentum to the movement to digitalise trade processes worldwide.” — Pamela Mar, Managing Director, ICC Digital Standards Initiative

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“A UN convention achieves its purpose when it is widely adopted and used by states. By tracking engagement with the NCD Convention from the earliest stages through joining the convention, the NCD Tracker offers a practical tool for monitoring progress, fostering dialogue with States, and supporting efforts towards broad participation in this important new instrument.” – Anna Joubin-Bret, Madam Secretary UNCITRAL

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“ESCAP Transport Division has been consistently working, along with our mandate, on adjusting legal frameworks to the changing operational environment and challenges for multimodal transport. We believe that the adoption of the NCD Convention is an important landmark in strengthening legal environment for multimodal transport operations, including in the Asia and the Pacific region. We look forward to its quick entry into force and believe that the NCD Tracker, which we helped to develop, is a useful practical tool for assessing the progress of the countries towards becoming the Parties to that convention …” — Fedor Kormilitsyn, Economic Affairs Officer, ESCAP Transport Division