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Trade Facilitation and E-business(UN/CEFACT)

Introduction

The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) is a subsidiary, intergovernmental body of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) which serves as a focal point within the United Nations Economic and Social Council for trade facilitation recommendations and electronic business standards. It has global membership and its members are experts from intergovernmental organizations, individual countries' authorities and also from the business community.

Key areas of work

Code List Recommendations

Trade Facilitation Recommendations

Standards

Projects

Public Reviews

UN/LOCODE Advisory Group

Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains

In focus

The 41st UN/CEFACT Forum will be co-hosted with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) and take place in person at the United Nations Building in Bangkok, Thailand.

Aimed at reinvigorating partnerships, demonstrating the impact and relevance of key UN/CEFACT instruments and making progress on key deliverables, this Forum will unite experts from the public and private sectors to engage in interactive thematic discussions, seminars, and roundtables.

The UN/CEFACT standards publication process is currently in progress, with several updates at various stages:

The UN/EDIFACT D23A is pending validation, undergoing careful review to ensure accuracy.
Simultaneously, the UN/CCL D23A has been completed and awaits uploading to the ECE website for public access.
Additionally, we are pleased to announce that the UN/LOCODE 2023-1 publication is now complete, providing valuable location code information. We are dedicated to delivering reliable and up-to-date standards, and we appreciate your patience as we finalize these crucial publications for the benefit of the global trade community.

UNECE website issues: broken links: UNECE Trade Facilitation publications may be experiencing unavailability issues due to broken links or URL redirects. We understand the inconvenience this may cause, and we apologize for any difficulties in accessing the necessary resources. Rest assured, our technical team is actively working to resolve these problems, and we anticipate a full resolution by the end of August. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this period, and we are committed to ensuring seamless access to the publications moving forward.

News

UNECE, ISO, IEC and ITU focus on semantic interoperability to advance e-business

02 August 2023

New United Nations survey highlights progress in global trade facilitation despite multiple crises

17 July 2023

UNECE blockchain pilot for cotton paves the way for more sustainable fashion

30 June 2023

Highlights

27 September 2023: The UN/CEFACT secretariat is pleased to announce that the UN/EDIFACT directories version D.23A has been validated by the Validation Focal Point and officially published. It is now available for browsing in the UN/EDIFACT section of the UN/CEFACT website and can be downloaded from the UN/EDIFACT Directories.

19 September 2023: UN/CEFACT is pleased to launch a call for participation for the project “Business Requirements Specification for Digital Product Conformity Certificate Exchange". The purpose of this project is to define a functional architecture, capable of operating across different stages of product supply, that would enable digital access to valid and current product conformity attestations containing linkages to substantiating data. The project will identify and define the business scenarios and transactions involved in accessing product conformity attestations, as well as relevant operational and legal aspects necessary to enable process mapping. This project will help to ensure UN/CEFACT standards can be integrated into emerging digital product conformity systems. The strength and integrity of product conformity systems has significant implications for digital trade. This project complements existing UN/CEFACT standards and recommendations by addressing constraints relating to the paperless movement of goods reliant on underpinning attestations of product conformity. At the same time, this work will benefit the development of other UN/CEFACT standards involving exchange of data regarding product attributes and will support efforts of governments implementing digitised trade facilitation solutions via eDATA Verifiable Credentials for Cross Border Trade. If you would like more information, please contact the project lead: Brett Hyland.

19 September 2023: UN/CEFACT is pleased to launch a call for participation for the project "Check IBAN Open Finance Use Case". The purpose of this project is to develop an information exchange standard for the Check IBAN open finance use case, to enhance cybersecurity and fraud detection measures within electronic business and international trade by immediately verifying the correct association between a given IBAN code and a certain Tax Code/VAT number. The project will benefit businesses and Public Administrations speeding up administrative procedures within the International Supply Chain. If you would like more information, please contact the project lead: Fabio Sorrentino.

19 September 2023: UN/CEFACT is pleased to launch a call for participation for the project “Guidelines on establishing Regional Single Window”. The primary aim of the project is to provide a Comprehensive Guide that effectively supports Trade Facilitation Initiatives within the Single Window framework, specifically addressing the new challenges that arise with the establishment of a Regional Single Window. If you would like more information, please contact the project leads: Alejandro Rinaldi and Neelima Pamulapati.

3 August 2023: The Core Component Library (CCL) D23A and XML Schema D23A have been validated by the Validation Focal Point and published on the UN/CEFACT website.

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