10 Jul 2025
by Karan Jain

Future-Proofing Trade: From TradeTech to TideTech

The systems that support global trade are being reshaped - not just by technology, but by the speed at which it’s evolving. AI, quantum, and privacy-enhancing technologies are no longer on the horizon; they’re here. The challenge now is how to govern them.

That’s what future-proofing trade really means - creating space to adapt policy and delivery as the world changes.

At NayaOne, we’ve seen this shift first-hand through our work on the World Economic Forum’s TradeTech Sandbox, delivered with the UAE Ministry of Economy and Abu Dhabi’s Department of Economic Development. It wasn’t about innovation theatre - it was about execution infrastructure: structured, safe environments where regulators, enterprises, and vendors could test and shape real solutions together.

That same model - proven in trade - is now being extended to the UK’s marine economy, a sector worth £49.4 billion annually.

What Worked: Lessons from the TradeTech Sandbox

The TradeTech Sandbox brought together stakeholders across the MENA region to run structured experiments in digital trade - testing everything from AI-driven logistics and smart documentation to digital identity and trade finance flows.

What made it effective wasn’t the use cases. It was the structure:

Safe experimentation with real data and workflows
API-first onboarding, enabling rapid vendor integration and testing
Multi-market engagement, from regulators to large corporates
•Direct feedback loops into trade standards and frameworks

And the outcomes weren’t just academic. Sandbox participants have been shown to raise 47% more capital, survive longer, and file significantly more patents than peers. These are not pilots - they’re delivery tools.

Why It Matters: Transforming the Marine Economy

The UK’s marine sector is entering a new phase of regulatory modernisation.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and the UK Major Ports Group (UKMPG) are piloting a sandbox approach to digitise, streamline, and de-risk the marine licensing process - a critical step for one of the UK’s most strategically important industries.

It reflects a broader shift already underway across regulated sectors:

→ Simulated environments that mirror real-world licensing journeys end-to-end

→ Cross-sector collaboration between regulators, operators, and technology vendors

→ Smart integration of AI risk models, geospatial tools, and ESG analytics

→ Policy insight loops that connect experimental sandboxes with long-term reform

This is where regulatory transformation moves from concept to execution - using infrastructure and experimentation to unlock change at scale.

The Bigger Picture: Future-Proofing Trade Policy

As global trade evolves under the weight of digitisation, decarbonisation, and increasing geopolitical and technological disruption, five areas are becoming critical for policy development:

1.Trade agreements must account for emerging technologies. 

Modern trade deals should be designed to flex as technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and quantum computing mature - avoiding the need for constant renegotiation.

2. AI in trade and logistics must be governed from the start

The use of AI in supply chains and trade finance is growing fast - but without early-stage rules, we risk regulatory catch-up and fragmented oversight later.

3. Quantum security and cyber resilience need practical investment.

It’s no longer enough to plan for quantum-era risks on paper. Governments and trade bodies need to support live testing environments and infrastructure to prepare.

4. PETs are key to cross-border data compliance.

Technologies like federated learning and zero-knowledge proofs help enable secure, compliant data flows between jurisdictions - a growing need in digital trade.

5. Shared testbeds can replace outdated policy pilots.

Multilateral coordination is increasingly built around shared infrastructure (such as sandboxes or test environments), where countries can experiment together, not just agree on frameworks.

Future-proofing trade means embedding these capabilities into how we regulate, not just how we innovate.

From TradeTech to TideTech

What started as a financial innovation tool is becoming critical infrastructure for governance and growth.

The sandbox model helps countries:

• Move faster, without compromising oversight
• Build smarter regulation grounded in evidence, not abstraction
• Scale technology with trust - from trade corridors to tidal zones

As the UK positions itself for net-zero infrastructure and next-generation trade agreements, these capabilities are no longer optional - they’re foundational. If you're shaping how the UK regulates, governs, or grows the infrastructure of tomorrow - let’s build together.

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techUK supports members with their international trade plans and aspirations. We help members to understand market opportunities, tackle market access barriers, and build partnerships in their target market. Visit the programme page here.

 

 

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Meet the team 

Sabina Ciofu

Sabina Ciofu

Associate Director – International, techUK

Daniel Clarke

Daniel Clarke

Policy Manager for International Policy and Trade, techUK

Theophile Maiziere

Theophile Maiziere

Policy Manager - EU, techUK

Lewis Walmesley-Browne

Lewis Walmesley-Browne

Head of Market Access and Consumer Tech, techUK

Tess Newton

Team Assistant, Policy and Public Affairs, techUK

 

 

Authors

Karan Jain

Founder and CEO, NayaOne