As ED1 system come into use widely in administration, commerce and transportation, international trade carried out with documents traditionally is gradually being transformed into ' paperless trade' under such circumstances.
By introducing ED1 system...
As ED1 system come into use widely in administration, commerce and transportation, international trade carried out with documents traditionally is gradually being transformed into ' paperless trade' under such circumstances.
By introducing ED1 system into Bills of Lading that are one of the most important documents in international trade using advanced information technology, ' The B/L Crisis' so called can be settled and the efficiency in international trade can be pursued. By the way such a new system has been proposed by CMI.
This paper is a study on the functions of Electronic Bill of Lading proposed by CMI in comparison with those of traditional B/L, the problems in relation to implementation of Electronic Bill of Lading, and the acceptability of Electronic Bill of Lading in view of law and business practice.
To sum up, though there is no problem in substituting paper B/L with Electronic Bill of Lading in view of its functions, it seems to be too early to grant the same legal effect to Electronic Bill of Lading as paper B/L owing to a defect in legislation. But there are constant efforts to accept Electronic Bill of Lading in international convention and business custom. Therefore it is forcasted that Electronic Bill of Lading will be introduced in the level of the management strategy and the survival of an enterprise in spite of the load of its cost and the difficulty of adaptation to new practice.
As EDI is displayed to the best of its ability when it is generally implemented in all parts of transaction rather than partial implementation, it is probable that ED1 systematization of B/L will be realized in such level.
In conclusion, although Electronic Bill of Lading has many questions to be settled and commercial practice is not easily altered, a keen request for the change of the current practical custom shall act most importantly on the introduction an settlement of new business custom.