Welcoming the Electronic Trade Documents Act
Date published:
Promising to make trade more straightforward, efficient, and sustainable, the Electronic Trade Documents Act has been adopted with its provisions set to be introduced in mid-September.
The Act, means that electronic trade documents will be granted the same legal status as physical trade documents.
Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, Paul Scully, said: “The global container shipping industry generates billions of paper documents a year — and there’s no need for the immense costs UK businesses have to face in producing them, and the detrimental environmental impact that this has. What may look to many of us as a small change to the law is something that will have a massive impact on the way UK firms trade and, in turn, is going to boost our economy by over £1 billion over the next decade.”
Existing laws dating back to the 1800s previously meant that exporters and importers have had to use paper documents to transfer ownership of the goods they are shipping, he went on, creating a costly, inefficient, and outdated way of working.
The Act also covers trade documents such as promissory notes, warehouse receipts, marine insurance policies, and cargo insurance certificates. The Government estimates that it could generate a net benefit of £1.14 billion for the British economy over the next decade for UK businesses trading across the world.
The Chamber’s head of international trade James Davison said “the Act’s introduction in September will provide a much need boost in digitalising export and import documentation and begin the process of simplifying international trade for our membership.”