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.