New standards to support Global Trade 2.0

In 2022 we saw supply chain & customs visibility, not only being possible, but a prioritized demand from our customers. We saw customs advisory services evolve to Strategic Customs Planning, creating integrated solutions from origin to destination. Global Trade 2.0 is here.

Trusted Trade Lanes with visibility, digital data pipeline support & goods tracking are comlng – in fact they are already here.

Standards & harmonization accelerates digitalization.

The announcement at the end of last year that UNCEFACT has developed a new international standard for tracking of goods in complex supply chains is another example on the emerging Global Trade 2.0 paradigm.

In today’s globalized economy, goods move through complex supply chains and cross borders – often numerous times, which involves multifaceted interactions among a variety of suppliers and trade actors. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have brought to light the challenges of supply chain disruptions.

”This new standard is a critically important step forward to support end-to-end monitoring of sustainable global supply chains,”

Sue Probert, Chairperson UN/CEFACT

Today, the granularity of tracking is primarily focused on the means of transport or transport equipment as trackable transport assets, in which the traded goods are placed (e.g. a good is tracked as part of the container, in which it is being shipped). It is often thought that if the location of the trackable transport asset is known, the information about the location of traded goods is included therein. However, this is not a one-to-one relationship. And, the relationship may vary over time, considering that goods may be consolidated, split, deconsolidated, or re-combined at waypoints during the transport journey.

Through its UN/CEFACT Track and Trace Standard for Multi-Modal Transport, UNECE helps to shed light on the key question of “where are my goods?” This question arises frequently, as goods move along multiple steps in supply chains between the seller and the buyer.

To read the article for UNECE, click here: UNCEFACT: a new international standard to improve tracking of goods across complex supply chains