Improving the unique identifiers that are used to convey product data could enhance digital supply chains, a new report has argued.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) white paper, Globally Unique Identifiers in Supply Chains, has highlighted that moving away from paper data-sharing to the use of identifiers could increase transparency and simplicity, as well as compliance.
However, in order for these identifiers to be effective, their accessibility and interoperability must be improved.
The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade’s professional practices director, Kevin Shakespeare, who contributed to the white paper, said:
“As a keen advocate of the potential of digital to support trade facilitation and to demonstrate sustainable and ethical trade, it has been a pleasure to be involved with a strong list of contributors across the global trade community”.
Identifiers
The report authors argue that the “goal of trade digitisation should be to eliminate paper use entirely and exchange trade data in structured, digital formats”.
This requires identifiers – including barcodes, QR codes and tags – that can be added to products and used by both trade partners and consumers “to pull only the information they need”.
For these identifiers to be effective, however, they need to have three key characteristics: discoverability, resolvability and verifiability (D-R-V).
Discoverability means the identifier can be “easily detected” so users can see data is available, resolvability involves users being able to “obtain reference data”, while verifiability confers high confidence in the data’s “authenticity” and clarity around who provided it.
Challenges ahead
Shakespeare adds that “unique identifiers are a foundational building block for a digital supply chain where data can be pulled by authorised trade participants in the supply chain and trade journey”.
“However, few identifiers currently issued to supply chain actors fulfil the criteria of being D-R-V, which are essential properties for structured data exchanges in a paperless trade ecosystem.”
He notes that issuers currently include “commercial registries, customs authorities, tax authorities, security authorities, transportation safety regulators, sectoral associations and certification authorities”.
Recommendations
The white paper offers six recommendations to issuers to improve identifiers.
These include becoming familiar with what good D-V-R looks like, completing a “self-assessment” of identifiers and then taking steps to improve those that don’t meet the D-V-R criteria.
Recommendations also address how to increase the interoperability of identifiers globally. This includes “cross-referencing or binding locally prevalent identifiers with globally prevalent identifiers” and “unifying tagging”, so that there is global alignment on how tags are named in structured files.
To support increased harmonisation, the paper also recommends a shared roadmap for issuers, setting out how these aims can be achieved. It also recommends governments, especially their customs and security authorities, ensure “international alignment of frameworks” that support high digital identity standards for trade.
Benefits
The report’s authors note that, compared to paper, identifiers have security benefits – their simplicity and transparency are an “effective tool against fraud”.
Identifiers would benefit small businesses by “by streamlining identity verification and onboarding processes”, and by implementing time- and cost-savings that would “enhance financial inclusion”.
Identifiers could also enable compliance with increased ESG reporting requirements, which often involve integrating data from many sources.
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