COMMITTEE FOR TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT

Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and Practices in Administration, Commerce and Transport (CEFACT)

Meeting of Experts on Data Elements and Automatic Data Interchange (GE.1)

Fifty-seventh session, 18-19 March 1998

PROVISIONAL AGENDA

(TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/1/Rev.1)

for the fifty-seventh session, to be held in the Palais des Nations, Geneva,

starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 18 March 1998

1. The provisional agenda for the third session of the Centre for the Facilitation of Procedures and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport (CEFACT) was prepared in accordance with decisions taken by the CEFACT officers and Steering Group.

2. The provisional timetable presented below has been proposed by the Steering Group for the third session of CEFACT. The report of the third session will be approved during the morning session of Thursday, 19 March 1998 and the report of the fifty-seventh session of GE.1 during the afternoon session of the same day. The CEFACT Steering Group will convene a meeting on the morning of Monday, 16 March 1998.

3. The third CEFACT session will begin at 15:00 on Monday, 16 March 1998 to discuss agenda items and migration to CEFACT.

Item 1 - Adoption of the agenda

4. In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE), the first item on the provisional agenda (TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/1) is the adoption of the agenda.

5. At the September 1996 session, it was agreed that during the transition to new CEFACT structures, beginning in September 1997, the officers of GE.1 would be "appointed by the CEFACT Plenary Chair after consultation with the Steering Group". Therefore, an election of officers shall not take place and Mr. Harvey Bates (Australia) will remain in the chair. Following the resignation of Mr. K-D Naujok (Canada), an officer of CEFACT will act as Vice-chair for this meeting.

Item 2 - Reports from UN/EDIFACT Steering Group and UN/EDIFACT rapporteurs

6. A report from the Chairman on the activities of the UN/EDIFACT Steering Group will be submitted as TRADE/CEFACT/1998/CRP.6. This document is for discussion, although it may reference other documents that are for approval.

7. A report on recent developments in the regions from the regional UN/EDIFACT rapporteurs is provided in document TRADE/CEFACT/1998/CRP.7. This document is for information only.

Item 3 - Migration to CEFACT

8. The Meeting of Experts will discuss the migration of those work items under its responsibility to the new CEFACT structures. Document TRADE/CEFACT/1998/2 contains the Mandate for the UN/EDIFACT Working Group which shall be submitted to the CEFACT Plenary on 16-17 March 1998.

Item 4 - Technical issues and reports from UN/EDIFACT standing technical groups

9. TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/3 contains the Executive Summary Report prepared by the Chairman of the Joint UN/ISO Syntax Working Group (JSWG). This document is for discussion, and may contain items that are for approval.

10. The security working group has revised part 10 of UN/EDIFACT Syntax 9735 Version 4, based upon the comments made during the September 1997 session of GE.1, and is submitting it for noting in: TRADE/WP.4/R.1284/Rev.2: UN/EDIFACT Syntax, Part 10, Security rules for interactive EDI.

11. Document TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/4 contains the Developer's Messages and Codes Handbook developed by the Joint Technical Assessment Group and submitted by the EDIFACT Steering Group for information.

12. The Chairman's Report from the Research, Strategic Advice and Implementation Planning Group (AC.1) is in document TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/9. This document is for information and approval.

13. As requested during the September 1997 session of GE.1, the following corrigendum have been issued in order to indicate that: the version 4 EDIFACT syntax documents published and approved by the UN/ECE are for information only and the final versions for implementation will be published only after the documents in question have completed the ISO fast-track process. These documents are for information only.

Item 5 - UN/EDIFACT policy and promotion

14. The secretariat will provide an oral report on promotional activities to which they have contributed since the last session.

Item 6 - UN/EDIFACT directories and message types submitted for noting as messages in development

15. The UN/EDIFACT directory D.98A is submitted for approval as TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/5. The statement from the Directory Audit Team on the quality of the directory can be found in TRADE/CEFACT/1998/CRP.8. An executive summary of the Directory Audit Team's report can be found in document TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/CRP.9.

16. The UN/EDIFACT rapporteurs have submitted the following message types for information as messages in development. A summary of these messages can be found in TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/7.

Item 7 - International standardization affecting trade interchange

17. The Standards Liaison Rapporteur's executive summary is contained in TRADE/CEFACT/GE.1/1998/8. This document is for discussion and may contain recommendations for approval.

Item 8 - Codes and policy related to codes

18. No documents were planned for this agenda item as of 3 February 1998.

Item 9 - Multilingualism in Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT)

19. No documents were planned for this agenda item as of 3 February 1998.

Item 10 - Other business

20. No documents were planned for this agenda item as of 3 February 1998.

Item 11 - Adoption of the report

21. In accordance with established practice, the Meeting of Experts will adopt the report of its fifty-seventh session, as prepared by the secretariat in the form of a summary of decisions taken during the session and to be presented to CEFACT for approval.