Risk management is the key method to achieve a balance between facilitating and controlling trade. Unless absolutely every single shipment is to be physically verified, agencies will need to establish criteria to choose which shipments to control and which shipments not to control. This will be through risk management. This publication brings together the core concepts of risk management as it relates to how government regulate, to market surveillance, to conformity assessment, to customs, and to economic operator identification. It then considers risk from a private sector perspective such as internal business risk evaluation, supply chain and risk competencies. It finalizes with the relation of risk management with some cross-cutting issues such as sustainability, gender and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

This publication provides a base understanding of risk management in international trade. Target audience are decision makers and economic operators who may not yet have an understanding of how risk assessment and risk management tools are used in cross-border trade.