The Invisible Rails of Trade
Alexander Barrett
Technologist | International Business | Architecture | Public–Private Partnership | Global Trade & Policy | Emerging Markets | LATAM | Real Estate Development | Government Affairs | X:@ABarrettDC
The Invisible Rails of Trade — And the High Price of Standing Still
If global trade were a city, it would be a gleaming postcard of progress: high-speed cranes pirouetting at the docks, container ships sliding through engineered canals, airports performing the ballet of cargo logistics with stopwatch precision. But beneath that skyline, something is missing—a vital artery you can’t see.
It’s not another road, not another port. It’s the subway system for trust—the “data rails” of trade.
These are the invisible pathways that compliance records, customs filings, and product certifications should glide through as smoothly as a shipping container onto a truck bed. But they don’t. Right now, they don’t exist at all.
The Infrastructure We Forgot to Build
Imagine building an interstate highway system but never bothering to connect the on-ramps. Trucks would pile up at the edge of every overpass. That’s the current state of trade data: dozens of disconnected national and corporate systems, each speaking a different dialect.
A mango from Ecuador might leave Guayaquil with all the proper paperwork, yet when it reaches Miami, it can’t get through without another inspection—because the receiving system can’t read the data, or never got it at all. This is more than an inconvenience. It’s like having a bridge but refusing to tell anyone where the other end is.
The costs aren’t trivial. UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that inefficiencies in border compliance and documentation add up to as much as 10% of the cost of global trade. That’s hundreds of billions lost annually—not to mention the strategic risks.
The Stakes: Who Builds the Rails, Rules the Game
In the 21st century, whoever builds and controls these data rails controls trade itself. This isn’t speculative—it’s already happening. China’s Digital Silk Road (Assessing China's Digital Silk Road Initiative), as the Council on Foreign Relations notes, has already expanded into dozens of countries—pushing rapidly toward and beyond the 60-country mark—while the U.S. has scarcely even entered the race.
Once your trade data flows exclusively through someone else’s channels, switching is like ripping up your national highway system. Painful. Expensive. Politically radioactive.
That’s why the absence of an interoperable trade data infrastructure is as severe as the absence of a major port or road network. Without it, trade slows, costs rise, and strategic dependence deepens. With it, economies can move at the speed of trust.
The Window of Opportunity — and the Western Hemisphere Advantage
The Americas have a rare chance to leap ahead. The Inter-American Development Bank calls “high-capacity data connections the oil of the 21st century”—with one crucial difference: they don’t deplete; they need to be built.
A Western Hemisphere Trade Coalition—linking North, Central, and South America—could create the first secure, democratic, and truly interoperable trade data rail network. Harmonized protocols would mean that a Peruvian avocado could clear Toronto customs as effortlessly as it left Lima.
And critically, the governance model matters.
Enter the Verida Charter Foundation
This is where the nonprofit Verida Charter Foundation comes in. Its mission is not to patch existing rails but to lay them for the first time—across an entire hemisphere, governed by a charter that enshrines neutrality, transparency, and auditability.
Think of it as infrastructure with a constitution. No single government or corporation will own it. Instead, it will be stewarded by a multi-stakeholder governance system—akin to how the internet’s core protocols are managed—ensuring open access and resilience against political capture.
Crucially, this is the underlying infrastructure to connect all existing and new systems—not another SaaS subscription, flashy dashboard, or blockchain data silo destined to become tomorrow’s digital cul-de-sac. Instead, Verida empowers the supply chains we already have—ports, warehouses, customs agencies, inspection bodies—to finally operate like it’s the 21st century.
The idea is simple, even if the engineering isn’t: Submit Once, Trade Everywhere. Like ISO container standards revolutionized shipping, this could make verified trade data as portable and universally accepted as the containers themselves.
Not a Competitor—A Connector
This isn’t about replacing the powerful platforms that already move the world’s goods— SAP , Oracle , Info Nexus I , e2open , project44 , and countless others. It’s the connective tissue that allows them to interoperate across borders and sectors without each building bespoke bridges for every trading partner.
With the right rails in place, their investments become more valuable, their reach more global, and their customers more connected. This is an opportunity to make every supply chain platform more competitive by making every supply chain more connected.
Global Standards, Global Trust
Institutions like the World Economic Forum , International Chamber of Commerce , and GS1 have long called for interoperable trade data standards. Verida is designed to deliver those principles at scale—anchored in governance that aligns with WTO rules, UNCTAD recommendations, and World Bank development priorities.
When the rails are neutral and the standards transparent, the trust gap in global trade closes—not just between countries, but between public and private sectors.
A Case for Philanthropy and Impact Investment
For foundations and global investors, the value is twofold: lower friction for smallholder farmers and SMEs to participate in global markets, and higher efficiency for the corporations and governments that buy from them.
The Gates Foundation , The Rockefeller Foundation , and impact-focused capital from firms like SoftBank Investment Advisers could help catalyze the buildout, knowing that interoperable rails reduce compliance costs, open new markets, and create a foundation for equitable, inclusive trade growth.
Why Now? Because Someone Else is Laying Track
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative 's office has emphasized the need for “binding, enforceable digital trade rules” in agreements like USMCA and the U.S.–Japan Digital Trade Pact. The State Department’s Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership urges the creation of open, secure networks that reflect democratic values.
Yet, without a real-world implementation of these principles, they remain aspirational. Verida intends to change that—turning policy into practice before the geopolitical window closes.
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: rails—whether physical or digital—are always built by someone. If the West doesn’t develop its own, it will find itself negotiating access to someone else’s. And in matters of infrastructure, the “passenger seat” is rarely comfortable.
The Coalition It Will Take
Laying these invisible rails will require more than code. It will take:
This isn’t a moonshot—it’s a Manhattan Project for trade data. And like any such project, the first movers will set the terms for decades to come.
The Cost of Standing Still
Doing nothing doesn’t mean standing still; it means ceding control. The longer we wait, the more fragmented the global trade data landscape becomes, and the more entrenched foreign-controlled systems get.
Brookings warns that “digital interoperability is emerging as the decisive factor in the competitiveness of national economies.” Without it, even the fastest cargo jet in the world will still be waiting at the gate—for paperwork.
Laying the First Track
Verida’s pilot initiative will focus on a key trade corridor connecting three countries in the Americas, integrating agricultural exports, customs authorities, and certification bodies through real-time, verified data exchange. The goal: demonstrate the model's effectiveness and then expand.
Once operational, these rails could cut compliance delays from days to hours, slash redundant inspections, and give regulators confidence that the avocado in front of them is the same as the one cleared at origin.
If ports and roads are the hardware of trade, data rails are the operating system. We’ve been running global commerce on floppy disks long enough. It’s time for an upgrade.
The Punchline—If There Is One
Yes, there’s humor to be found here. In a way, we’ve built the world’s most sophisticated delivery network for stuff—and the least sophisticated one for the trust that makes that stuff acceptable to receive. It’s as if Amazon could deliver a package in two hours, yet it takes a week to confirm your address.
The joke won’t be funny much longer. The race to lay the invisible rails of trade has begun, and the tracks are already being claimed.
The question isn’t whether these rails will exist. It’s whether they’ll be built for the public good—or whether we’ll all be riding on someone else’s network, hoping they don’t change the password.
About the Author: Alexander Barrett once spent five years designing buildings before realizing the most important architecture of the 21st century might be invisible. These days, he’s more interested in building trust rails for global trade than glass towers—though he still appreciates a good skyline. Barrett’s mission is to make “Submit Once, Trade Everywhere” as commonplace as container ships and customs delays. He claims this is because he’s a visionary, but his friends suspect it’s because he just really hates filling out forms twice.
References
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Competing in China’s Digital Silk Road. 2023. https://www.csis.org/analysis/competing-chinas-digital-silk-road
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). China’s Digital Silk Road: Strategic Implications for the West. 2024. https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-digital-silk-road
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Digital Connectivity: The Oil of the 21st Century. 2023. https://idbinvest.org/en/blog/digital-economy/digital-connectivity-oil-21st-century
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Non-Tariff Measures: Economic and Policy Issues for Developing Countries. 2022. https://unctad.org/topic/trade-analysis/non-tariff-measures
Brookings Institution. Trade in a Digital Interoperability Era. 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trade-in-a-digital-interoperability-era
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Strong Binding Rules to Advance Digital Trade. 2020. https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/fact-sheets/2020/march/fact-sheet-2020-national-trade-estimate-strong-binding-rules-advance-digital-trade
World Economic Forum (WEF). Defining and Building the Metaframework for Global Trade Interoperability. 2023. https://www.weforum.org/reports
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Digital Standards Initiative: Enabling Interoperability for Global Trade. 2023. https://iccwbo.org/digital-standards-initiative
GS1. The Power of Global Standards in Supply Chains. 2024. https://www.gs1.org/standards
World Bank. Digital Trade for Development: Leveraging Data for Inclusive Growth. 2023. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/trade/publication
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1moAlexander Barrett, as always 👍. The world need to get there SAP and your example say it all. "It’s as if Amazon could deliver a package in two hours, yet it takes a week to confirm your address."