UN Adopts Breakthrough Convention on Cargo Documents to Facilitate Global Trade

The United Nations General Assembly has adopted the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents, a landmark treaty that extends the long-established benefits of maritime bills of lading to all modes of transport.

For the first time in history, goods carried by road, rail, air or sea could be represented by a single negotiable document - on paper or in electronic form.

The Convention is intended to make global trade work more smoothly for everyone.  It creates a new kind of cargo document for goods being transported, which enables goods to be purchased, sold or used as collateral while in transit.  

This makes it easier for businesses to get the financing they need, and goods can keep moving regardless of the mode of transport, even when unexpected problems arise.

Because one cargo document can cover the entire trip - from factory to final destination - it cuts down on paperwork, helps shipments move faster through customs, and lowers costs. The Convention also supports the transition to digital trade by allowing these documents to exist in electronic form.

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In practice, the new system will help many different players in global supply chains, including in the Global South: Small businesses looking for financing, transport and logistics companies coordinating multi-modal journeys, banks and insurers managing risk, digital platforms that process trade data, and Governments and customs authorities working to make trade more efficient.

“This adoption closes a long-standing legal gap and makes global trade faster, safer and more accessible, supporting sustainable economic growth,” said Tomasch Kubiak of the International Chamber of Commerce Banking Commission, noting that negotiability can “travel with the goods — whether by road, rail, air or sea”. 

This is expected to improve cash flow for businesses, including micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in the developing world.

Beate Czerwenka, the Chair of United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group VI that developed the Convention, praised the new treaty as a major step towards a more resilient and digitalized trade ecosystem, emphasizing its potential to help move goods smoothly through complex supply chains.

UNCITRAL, which prepared the instrument, is the United Nations system’s core legal body for modernizing and harmonizing international trade law.

Through conventions, model laws and legislative guidance, it helps States create predictable, efficient and fair commercial frameworks that support cross-border trade and sustainable economic development.

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