IOTA’s mission to launch the Trade Logistics Information Pipeline (TLIP) to get the private and public sectors to come together to facilitate paperless international trade has been realised as it gains popularity in the payment industry.

In 2022, it collaborated with TradeMark Africa to launch a digital portal to highlight its benefits while providing an opportunity to follow the progress of the project. In posts shared by TradeMark Africa on the social media network X, TLIP was identified to be the missing piece of the puzzle meant to address the challenges border agents face.

According to reports, border agents have been dealing with document delays over the years, leading to consignment hold-ups and financial loss. On top of that, there has been limited data visibility as agencies use various systems to gather trade data from different supply chain actors.

The system of customs agencies is also susceptible to fraud, leading to misdeclaration and misclassification. According to Trademark Africa, TLIP could address almost all of these challenges, and make border trade efficient.

Role of TLIP in MISSION

Recently, TLIP was selected as one of the 30 organizations to participate in the MISSION (MaritIme juSt in time optimiSatION). This program is reportedly part of the €95.5 billion ($102 billion) Horizon Europe program, and it got €7.5 million ($8 million) from the European Union to develop a new digital communication and logistics platform.

The involvement of TLIP is reported to solve the issue of fragmentation in the maritime transport ecosystem. Maritime transport accounts for 80% of the world’s trade.

Typically, maritime transport suffers from a fragmented information technology (IT) landscape with an almost endless number of different IT systems used by the different actors in the supply chain. Systems such as port community systems and fleet performance management systems might automate data, connect individual systems of different stakeholders, and allow real-time data sharing, but mostly operate in silos, requiring resource-intensive and time-consuming work to keep essential information updated.

Firstly, MISSION would facilitate the synchronization of ship schedules. On top of that, it would ensure that port operations are coordinated while enhancing navigation safety by 20% to 30%. In this project, the TLIP infrastructure would take advantage of the IOTA’s distributed ledger technology to ensure that there is a seamless Integration with the existing systems via APIs and state-of-the-art data standards.

According to a report, the interoperability of the TLIP ensures the seamless Integration of the MISSION platform into the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (EBSI). In the future, MISSION would integrate the TLIP with AI-driven smart contracts to ensure that there is a smooth exchange of data, which includes alarms for non-compliance and delays.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.