Canada Border Agency to Pilot IBM-Maersk TradeLens Blockchain Platform

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has become the latest entity to trial a blockchain shipping solution developed by IBM and Maersk, a press release confirmed Thursday, Oct. 25.

TradeLens, which creators unveiled in August this year after a 2017 pilot, aims to simplify logistics processes.

The first such border agency to investigate the platform, CBSA will now “determine what role the platform could play in its business processes,” the release explains.

“TradeLens could create a singular, trusted digital supply chain for all shipments entering Canada. The TradeLens pilot gives us an opportunity to not only find process efficiencies and gain analytical insights, but improve data providence, accuracy and targeting capabilities,” CBSA president John Ossowski commented, adding:

“The end result may be a faster and more reliable national supply chain, which could positively impact Canada's economic output.”

The CBSA has also partnered with the Montreal Port Authority to use TradeLens for shipping and handling.

As Cointelegraph has reported, the further use of smart contracts on blockchain allows swaths of the distribution and trade process to become automated, cutting out middlemen and decreasing cost and margin for error.

After its official release, TradeLens client CEVA praised the tool, saying it constituted a “big step forward toward establishing a market standard for blockchain solutions.”

The U.S. has also recently confirmed it is planning to use blockchain in a similar border capacity.

Last week, the National Bank of Canada announced it was piloting a blockchain project to leverage smart contracts in order to replace current email-based procedures. More recently, Air Canada said it would participate in a blockchain-based travel distribution platform created by Swiss blockchain startups Winding Tree.