The Role of Trade Documents in
International Trade
Trade Documents play a crucial role
in international trade, as any efficient supply chain
operation is based on the information provided in
the trade documents. Documentary errors or the non-availability
of trade documents usually leads to serious complications
and sometimes even to a breakdown of the supply chain
operation. The cost of maintaining trade documentation
is a significant component of the final market price
of the goods. It is estimated that direct and indirect
costs of trade documentation accumulate to 5%
to 10% of the value of the goods, depending on the
nature of the goods and the specific supply chain
scenario. In the presence of documentary errors this
percentage will significantly increase. With an international
trade volume in goods of 5,500 billion US $ annually,
documentation is a significant cost component of international
trade. In order to reduce these costs and to
permit efficient international trade a set of standards
for efficient trade procedures and documentation has
been developed.
Importance of aligned Trade Documents
Trade Documents that adhere to international
documentary requirements and best business practice
are generally referred to as aligned documents.
Important standards and best practice for aligned
trade documentation have been developed in the United
Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Owing
to the importance of this subject, the United Nations
has set up a Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic
Business (UN/CEFACT) within the UNECE to further develop
and maintain these standards. Today most documents
used by advanced trading nations and logistics operators
are based on these standards for instance: The EU
Single Administrative Document (SAD), the TIR carnet,
the IATA Air Waybill or the IMO Bill of Lading. While
the use of aligned trade documents has become a standard
in advanced trading nations, the UNECE recognizes
that specifically with regard to transition economies
and developing countries non-aligned trade document
systems are still being used. The use of these
documents complicates procedures, unnecessarily increases
the costs of the goods to be exported and is a considerable
impediment for exporters to compete successfully on
the international markets.
UNeDocs aligned paper Documents
The UNECE has therefore set
up the United Nations electronic Trade Documents (UNeDocs)
project to develop guidelines and tools for implementing
aligned trade documentation. UNeDocs provides
a conceptional framework for developing aligned
paper trade documents based on international
trade standards and the subsequent development of
the electronic equivalents of the paper document.
UNeDocs designs documents on the basis of international
trade procedures, the United Nations Layout Key (UNLK)
and the the United Nations Trade Data Elements
Directory (UNTDED), ISO standard 7372. These two definitions,
the document layout based on the UNLK and the semantic
content of the document based on the UNTDED provide
the basis for a later definition of the
electronic equivalent of the trade document in UN/EDIFACT
or XML format. UN/EDIFACT and XML are today's most
widely used electronic business protocols and
provide access and connectivity to e-business systems
and electronic supply chain management.
UNeDocs Toolkit for Trade Facilitators
As the alignment of paper documents
is crucial for the development of electronic documents,
the UNECE has now developed the first release of a
set of tools for the design of aligned paper trade
documents. The Toolkit consists of recommendations
and guidelines. It has been developed for trade facilitators,
logistic managers, government officials, software
designers and other professionals who design
or implement trade documents. It provides the United
Nations Recommendations on the design of trade documents
(UN Recommendation No. 1), the guidelines for implementation,
the databases for the definition of the semantic
basic data definitions (TDED) and the latest UN/EDIFACT
release. It also provides electronic templates of
forms , both in MS-Word and in PageMaker 6.5 format.
Trade facilitators can use this templates to translate
forms into languages other than English and to adopt
the forms to the specific national or sectoral requirements.
Copyright
All documents are copyright of the
UNECE and subject to the standard United Nations copyright
note. The UNECE points out that the sole
authorized text leading to the UNLK are the published
UN Recommendations and standards, especially the UN
Recommendation No. 1 and the ISO 3535 standard. The
electronic templates were designed to support the
development process and also to deliver templates
for the print of document forms. The rendering
of the actual electronic form on a sheet of paper
sometimes varies, owing to specific configurations
of standard software or characteristics of certain
printers. MS-Word forms are generally not suitable
to produce camera-ready images. The UNECE strongly
recommends to verify the final form layout against
the measurements and standards of the UNLK before
authorizing the trade document form.
Acknowledgements
This toolkit integrates documents and standards
developed in the UNECE by the International Trade
Procedures Working Group (ITPWG) and the Edifact Working
Group (EWG) of UN/CEFACT
and the TC 154 of the International
Standards Organization .
Download
A compressed version of the Toolkit can be downloaded
from the UNeDocs Download page.
Contact information
Markus Pikart
Program Manager UNeDocs
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
8, Avenue de la Paix
CH - 1211 Geneva
Switzerland
e-mail: Markus.Pikart@unece.org
Fax: :(+41 22) 917 0037
Version
UNeDocs p-LK Toolkit for Trade Facilitators
Version V0.2 Date 07.05.2002
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