The ICC DSI program
Exporters and importers and their service providers, such as banks, insurers, and suppliers of logistical and technology services, are confronted daily with diverging rules and different standards for their business operations. Online transactions increasingly support those business operations (B2B and B2G), although a paper-based version is still required for several trade documents. These complexities of business processes result in more costs and create additional barriers for exporting and importing businesses, particularly SMEs. To overcome these costs and barriers, the ICC Digital Standards Initiative (DSI) was initiated to establish a globally harmonised, digitised trade environment, which will promote resilience in trade finance and supply chain processes.
Cooperation of WTO with ICC
The WTO and ICC recognised that trading across borders is notoriously complex and highly dependent on paper documents, with fewer than one per cent of trade documents fully digitised. To accelerate trade digitalisation, they developed and published in 2022 their “Standards toolkit for cross-border paperless trade”1 with an overview of the available trade documents and standards. This toolkit aims to support adopting available and existing standards, such as identifier standards for subjects (businesses) and objects (products, logistical units, shipments, documents etc.)
ICC DSI program
The ICC initiated (together with two partners) the ICC DSI program in 2021 to establish a globally harmonised, digitised trade environment. The program structure includes a DSI Governance Board, and DSI Industry Advisory Board (IAB) focused on recommendations on standards of all relevant international trade processes (B2B and B2G), and the DSI Legal Reform Advisory Board (LARB) focused on recommendations harmonisation of pertinent legislation for the international supply chain. The two advisory boards include senior managers of industry associations and companies that are actively involved in global supply chains. The composition of the boards, the summaries and documents of meetings are published on https://www.dsi.iccwbo.org/ with relevant information for policymakers and developers of business processes.
Recommendation on standards
Digitisation involves converting data from an analogue (paper-based) format to a digital format. Digitalisation is about transforming the entire business process (B2B and B2G) to be digital.
Data standards are mission critical for the digitisation and the digitalisation of the international supply chain and cover more data of subjects (with rights and obligations) and of objects (without rights and obligations, such as for goods, containers, vessels, planes etc). ICC published in 2020 its “ICC Identity Management Guide: for all parties involved in the international supply chain”.2 This guide made already transparent that international businesses are faced with multiple identifier standards for their business operations mainly because of rulemaking by government agencies but also by industry associations for a specific industry sector.
The IAB has delivered, in partnership with its working groups, two reports published in April 2023 3
The DSI Report “Key Trade Documents and Data Elements” which includes an analysis of standards and an overview of seven trade documents (certificate of origin, customs declaration, packing list, bill of lading, commercial invoice, warehouse receipt and insurance certificates) with recommendations.
The ‘Trust in Trade Report” with the Industry Advisory Board’s Trusted Technology Environment (TTE) working group examines how to create and maintain the trusted technological environment for verifiable trust with a foundational digital layer underpinning the international supply chain’s physical, financial and information layers.
The IAB Working Group Key Trade Documents and Data Elements (WG KTDDE) continued its work by analysing and reviewing the additional trade documents included in the WTO ICC Standards toolkit for cross-border paperless trade. Trade documents have a general part (such as the identity of actors, location, and dates) that often use different standards. The intention is to conclude with a recommendation of which standards best fit the data elements included in the general part of any trade document used for the international supply chain.
The IAB Working Group Trusted Trade Technology Environment (TTE) will continue its work to develop recommendations on the application of digital ID for all parties involved in the international supply chain based on a trust architecture backed by cryptographically produced verifiability for all data in alignment with global standards where they exist.
Recommendations for the public law rulemaking
The digitalisation of the business processes (B2B and B2G) requires harmonised legislation to avoid disruptions or unnecessary data conversions of data of the dataflow between exporters and importers and/or their service providers and with government agencies as the customs or Financial Intelligence Units.
The IAB Legal Reform Advisory Board (LRAB) formulates recommendations for the adoption of rules in the legislation of countries. The UN Commission on International Trade Law adopted in 2017 its UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR)4. The LRAB supports the adoption of this model law to make it possible for the paperless trade of exporters and importers between countries. DSI has created an MLETR Tracker with the status of the MLETR adoption of countries available5.
References
1 https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/publications_e/standtoolkit22_e.htm.
2 https://iccwbo.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/icc-identity-management-guide.pdf
3 https://www.dsi.iccwbo.org/.
4 https://uncitral.un.org/en/texts/ecommerce/modellaw/electronic_transferable_records.
