Electronic Documents (eUCP)

Abstract

Background to eUCP (Uniform Custom and Practice) 600: The emergence of electronic commerce in the international trade system has completely transformed the way the business community does business with its overseas counterparts. This has created the need for a new set of rules and procedures governing global trade operations including entering into sale contracts, trade payment and handling of goods and documents. This has given rise to a new agency being introduced into the international trade mechanism, that of a reliable and trusted third party to do the important work of authentication and safe keeping of messages and their integrity, storage and retrieval, give instructions to various service providers and trigger release of goods and payment.