This project’s purpose is to update the UN/CEFACT Recommendation No. 1 “UN Layout Key for Trade Documents” as well as its “Guidelines for Application”. Recommendation 1 provides an international basis for the standardization of documents used in international trade and transport and for visual display representations of such documents. Recommendation 1 was first published in 1973 and the current recommendation text dates from 1981. Recommendation 1 has been supplemented by guidelines and informative annexes in the early 2000s. The guidelines added to Rec. 1 provide, among other content, a very important number of examples. At this time, the two texts read as two separate documents: the recommended practice and the guidelines for application.

The present project proposal will consolidate existing material into a single set of guidelines with supporting annexes, moving many of the examples to an informative case-study repository. This will provide an updated package of this recommendation which will further facilitate the smooth flow of information in domestic and international trade.

search for documents among all the deliverables of this project