eUCP ; What is the Last Case?
Integration is the Most Important Prerequisite for Active Use of
e- Documents
e-mail: emre@emrecivelek.com
September 9, 2009
Electronic documents in the future commercial life will be very active according to the vision of ICC - International Chamber of Commerce at the beginning of 2000. In this year a working group was formed for the electronic submission of documents under the letter of credits. As a result eUCP (Supplement to UCP 600 for Electronic Presentation) brochure went into effect as of 1 April 2002. This development was considered as the right time for investments in electronic commerce and a good signal for the e-Documents submitted under the letter of credits.
But yet, many banks in the world still is not ready to execute the transactions with electronic documents. Technological advances in Internet technologies and even legal infrastructure in many countries allow to use e-Documents. Why actually we can not use e-Document effectively. Answer is this: Foreign trade operations are multilateral process. Importers, exporters, banks, insurance companies, customs, transport companies, inspection companies, etc. are the parties would be included into a standart foreign trade transaction. Legal and technical problems may arise during one operation carried out with e-Documents. So as to solve this problems all the parties participate in the transaction should use the same system and the single reference from the beginning to end. Unfortunately, today a global system (internet-based) to meet these needs is not exist. That is the basis of all these problems.
Today, the number of institutions using e-Documents for foreign trade transactions are to be less than expected. This case does not constitute a encouraging business environment. The reason for this situation is needed to examine. The one reason for this slow transition to e-Documents is that International standards for paperless trade exactly is unspecified. But main reason is that there is not an integration system between institutions to participate into a foreign trade transaction. And another reason deserved to mention in this article is that: Coverage of eUCP is limited to letter of credit transactions.
Consequently an integration system like trade points is the most Important prerequisite for active use of e- Documents.
But yet, many banks in the world still is not ready to execute the transactions with electronic documents. Technological advances in Internet technologies and even legal infrastructure in many countries allow to use e-Documents. Why actually we can not use e-Document effectively. Answer is this: Foreign trade operations are multilateral process. Importers, exporters, banks, insurance companies, customs, transport companies, inspection companies, etc. are the parties would be included into a standart foreign trade transaction. Legal and technical problems may arise during one operation carried out with e-Documents. So as to solve this problems all the parties participate in the transaction should use the same system and the single reference from the beginning to end. Unfortunately, today a global system (internet-based) to meet these needs is not exist. That is the basis of all these problems.
Today, the number of institutions using e-Documents for foreign trade transactions are to be less than expected. This case does not constitute a encouraging business environment. The reason for this situation is needed to examine. The one reason for this slow transition to e-Documents is that International standards for paperless trade exactly is unspecified. But main reason is that there is not an integration system between institutions to participate into a foreign trade transaction. And another reason deserved to mention in this article is that: Coverage of eUCP is limited to letter of credit transactions.
Consequently an integration system like trade points is the most Important prerequisite for active use of e- Documents.
