Introduction
- The provisional agenda for the fifty-fourth session of the Meeting of
Experts on Data Elements and Automatic Data Interchange (GE.1) has been
established in accordance with decisions taken by the Working Party on
Facilitation of International Trade Procedures at its forty-third session in
March 1996.
- The provisional timetable presented below has been agreed upon by the
Bureau of the Working Party on Facilitation of International Trade Procedures
for its forty-fourth session and for the sessions of its Meetings of Experts.
It is expected that the experts of GE.1 and GE.2 will have a joint session on
legal issues in the morning of Thursday, 19 September 1996.
a.m. p.m.
Monday 16 September 1996 Informal Meeting GE.1
Tuesday 17 September 1996 GE.1 GE.1
Wednesday 18 September 1996 GE.2 GE.2
Thursday 19 September 1996 GE.1/GE.2 WP.4
Friday 20 September 1996 WP.4 WP.4
- The informal meeting of delegations will take place Monday, 16 September
starting at 10:00 and continuing until 13:00. During the meeting on 16
September the WP.4 Bureau will present the consolidated, final report from the
three ad hoc groups (for Programme Development, Centre Implementation and
Empowerment) established to develop the plans and terms of reference necessary
for implementation of the Re-engineering proposal approved at the September
1995 WP.4 session. The WP.4 meeting beginning at 15:00 on 19 September will be
to debate and discuss the same document. In the context of trade facilitation
work, the word "delegations" refers not only to countries but also to
international organizations regularly represented at meetings.
Item 1 - Adoption of the agenda
- In accordance with the Commission's Rules of Procedures, the first item on
the provisional agenda (document TRADE/WP.4/GE.1/102/Rev.1) is the adoption of
the agenda.
Item 2 - Technical issues and reports from UN/EDIFACT standing technical groups
- The UN/EDIFACT Rules for Presentation of Standardized Message and
Directories Documentation (TRADE/WP.4/CRP.96), which was modified to take into
account WP.4's March 1996 decision to abolish Status 1 and 2 for messages and
the publication of Interactive EDI messages and directories, is submitted by
the ESG for discussion and regional comment with a view to final approval in
March 1997 as TRADE/WP.4/R.1023/Rev.3.
- TRADE/WP.4/CRP.104 contains a revision of UN/EDIFACT Directory/Release
Procedures based upon the decisions made at the March 1996 session of WP.4
abolishing Status 1 and 2 and allowing better version control at the message
level. This document is for discussion and regional comment with a view to
final approval in March 1997 as TRADE/WP.4/R.982/Rev.1.
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1240 contains the Executive Summary Report prepared by the
Chairman of the Syntax Development Group (SDG) and TRADE/WP.4/R.1238 contains
Issues Arising from Meeting 17 of the SDG. The SDG's Comments on
TRADE/WP.4/CRP.80 (French position concerning the draft version 4 of the
EDIFACT syntax) can be found in TRADE/WP.4/R.1223. These documents are for
information.
- As agreed during the March 1996, the SDG has finalized Parts 1, 2, 3, and
8 of UN/EDIFACT Syntax 9735 Version 4 and the ECE secretariat has submitted
them as an existing standard to the ISO for fast track processing. These final
versions are provided for information in documents:
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1241(UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 1, Syntax rules common
to all parts of this standard plus directories);
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1242 (UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 2, Syntax Rules
specific to batch EDI);
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1243 (UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 3, Syntax Rules
specific to interactive EDI);
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1248 (UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 8, Associated data in
EDI).
- UN/EDIFACT Syntax 9735 Version 4, Parts 5 and 6 are submitted by the
Syntax Development Group for approval, as requested during the March 1996 and
can be found in:
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1245 (UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 5, Security rules for
batch EDI (authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation of origin);
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1246 (UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 6, secure
authentication and acknowledgement message (message type -
AUTACK)).
The German position on these two documents can be found in TRADE/WP.4/CRP.105.
- The following drafts of Parts 4, 7 and 9 of the UN/EDIFACT Syntax 9735
Version 4 are submitted for review and comment:
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1250(UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 4, Syntax and service
report message for batch EDI, (message type - CONTRL));
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1251 (UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 7, Security rules for
batch EDI (Confidentiality));
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1252 (UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 9, Security key and
certificate management message (message type - KEYMAN));
- The Interactive Message Design Guidelines (TRADE/WP.4/R.1237) are
submitted by the I-EDI Group for approval.
- Ad hoc Group 1's report on its work since the last session can be found in
TRADE/WP.4/CRP.97. This document is for information and discussion and may
contain recommendations for approval.
Item 3 - UN/EDIFACT policy and promotion
- As agreed during the March 1996 session, a technical paper has been
prepared on the implementation of the decisions to abolish Status 1 and 2 for
messages and to replace Draft and Standard directories with "UN/EDIFACT
directories". This document is TRADE/WP.4/CRP.98, it is for discussion and had
not been received by the secretariat as of 12 August 1996.
Item 4 - Reports from UN/EDIFACT Steering Group and UN/EDIFACT Rapporteurs
- A report on the activities of the UN/EDIFACT Steering Group from the ESG
Chairman will be submitted as TRADE/WP.4/CRP.93. This document is for
discussion, although it may reference other documents that are for approval.
- A report on recent developments in the regions from the Regional
UN/EDIFACT Rapporteurs is provided in document TRADE/WP.4/CRP.94. This
document is for information only.
- As requested by GE.1 during its March 1996 session, the Convenor of the Ad
Hoc Group on NAD and Duplicate/Overlapping Functionality will give an oral
report on inter-session developments and discussions which took place at the
April 1996 JRT.
Item 5 - UN/EDIFACT Directories and Message Types Submitted
as Status 0
- The Draft UN/EDIFACT directory D.96B,
including the statement from the
Pilot Directory Audit Team on the quality of the D.96B directory is submitted
for approval as TRADE/WP.4/R.1228. TRADE/WP.4/R.1230 covers issues arising from
the D.96B Directory audit and is for discussion.
- As of the time when this revised provisional agenda was prepared the
secretariat had not been made aware of any message types to be submitted for
Status 0.
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1239 contains a summary of all those messages noted for
Status 0 during the March 1996 session. TRADE/WP.4/R.1184/Corr.2 contains a
corrigendum to the the message type QLSPEC which was noted for status 0 during
the March 1996 session.
Item 6 - International standardization affecting trade
interchange
- The Standards Liaison Rapporteur's Executive Summary is found in
TRADE/WP.4/CRP.99. This document is for discussion and contains
recommendations for approval. The Standard Liaison Meeting Report is in
TRADE/WP.4/R.106 and is for information.
- TRADE/WP.4/CRP.100 contains the report on the progress and status of the
Basic Semantic Repository (BSR) project by the Chairman of the BSR Management
Committee.
- At the request of the GE.1 Bureau and the EDIFACT Steering Group, renewal
of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ISO will also be discussed under
this agenda item.
Item 7 - Codes and policy related to codes
- No documents were planned for this agenda item as of 10 May 1996.
- As decided during the March 1995 Session of GE.1, this item has been added
to the agenda. Document TRADE/WP.4/CRP.103 contains the Report from the
Steering Group for the International Trade Transaction Model. This document is
for discussion.
Item 9 - Multilingualism in Electronic Data Interchange for
Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT)
- TRADE/WP.4/CRP.101 contains the report of the Convenor of the
Multilingualism and Terminology Group. This document had not been received by
the secretariat as of 12 August 1996.
Item 10 - Final Reports from the Ad-hoc groups for Implementation of the Re-engineering Proposals
- The WP.4 Bureau will submit the consolidated, final report from the three
ad hoc groups established to develop the plans and terms of reference necessary
for implementation of the Re-engineering proposal approved at the September
1995 in TRADE/WP.4/R.1234. The three ad hoc groups were the: Programme
Development Group; Centre Implementation Group; and Empowerment Group. This
report is for discussion within GE.1 in light of discussions for approval to be
held on Thursday and Friday, the 19-20 September 1996, during the WP.4 session.
- TRADE/WP.4/CRP.95 contains a new draft of UN/EDIFACT procedures, and is
for discussion and circulation to the regions for comment.
Item 11 - Legal and commercial aspects of trade facilitation
- TRADE/WP.4/R.102 contains the report from the Legal Rapporteurs. This
document is for information and discussion and may contain recommendations for
approval. This document had not been received by the secretariat as of 12
August 1996.
Item 12 - Other business
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1222 (EDI, A Management Overview) is submitted by ESCAP, the
Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific within the context of a joint
project undertaken with the ECE secretariat in order to provide training
materials on EDI and UN/EDIFACT to economies in transition, and in particular,
to those CIS countries which are joint ECE/ESCAP members. This document is for
information and discussion.
- TRADE/WP.4/R.1226 (EDI and UN/EDIFACT, A Technical Overview) describes an
"electronic book" developed by ESCAP with technical assistance from the ECE.
This was also developed within the context of the joint project described above
and is for information and discussion.
Item 13 - Adoption of the Report of the fifty-fourth session
- In accordance with established practice, the Meeting of Experts will
adopt the Report of its fifty-fourth session in the form of a summary, prepared
by the secretariat, of decisions taken during the session, to be presented to
the Working Party for approval.
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