eUCP and Electronic Commerce Investments: e-Signature and Paperless Foreign Trade

Abstract

The developments in electronic documents that are seen in recent years suggest that use of paper will be completely abandoned in all business processes after some time. As an advantage of the developments in information systems, the use of electronic documents has become widespread and even compulsory in some applications. Although it is one of the areas where the benefits of electronic documents will be seen, the use of electronic documents in foreign trade has not become so popular. As the paper-based processes still prevail, it seems that there is a need for a radical and comprehensive change in this area. Although a long time has passed after the publication of eUCP, it has not produced the expected effect, which indicates the necessity of introducing new payment methods to replace letters of credit. In this article, a general evaluation was made within the framework of the latest developments and the possible effects of electronic documents on foreign trade were discussed with a proposal of a new payment method based on a single document.

Keywords: eUCP, e-Commerce, e-Document, e-Signature, Digital Signature, Letter of Credit, Electronic Bill of Lading, e-B/L

JEL Classification: L81