IJCA - Volume 3 - Flipbook - Page 47
2024 | Volume 3, Issue 1
45
Veri昀椀able and Traceable Product Conformity Data
By Brett Hyland, UN/CEFACT Project Lead | DOI: 10.55459/IJCA/v3i1/BH
-ABSTRACTThe alignment of digital product passports, digital trade single windows, product sustainability legislation, and
the pervasive digitalization of trade-related documents marks a critical juncture in the transmission of product
conformity data. Simultaneously, the evolution of accountancy standards is prompting fresh requirements
for disclosing sustainability performance, emphasizing the need for dependable and traceable supplier
sustainability data. This paper delineates the endeavors of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and
E-business (UN/CEFACT) in developing an interoperable framework to incorporate product conformity data
into digital trade processes.
Keywords: product conformity data, digital trade processes, UN/CEFACT draft speci昀椀cation, conformity assessment community,
sustainability performance, digitalization of trade-related documents, CAB outputs, supplier sustainability data, veri昀椀able assurances,
international engagement
Introduction
Digital product passports1, digital trade single windows2,
product sustainability legislation3, and widespread
digitalization of trade-related documents4, 5 are
all converging in ways that represent an inflection
point for the exchange of product conformity data.
At the same time, accountancy standards6, 7 are
evolving to drive new requirements for the reporting
of sustainability performance, requiring access to
supplier sustainability data that is both reliable and
traceable. This paper details recent efforts by the
United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and
E-business (UN/CEFACT) to produce an interoperable
framework for the integration of product conformity
data within digital trade processes.
those aimed at achieving objectives aligned with UN
Sustainable Development Goals.
Product Conformity Data Exchange
and UN/CEFACT
In the case of sustainability claims, the standard of
evidence needed to support such claims may already
be increasing due to a rise in so-called ‘greenwashing’
prosecutions9 as well as emerging laws regarding
corporate accounting for climate performance. In the
absence of supply chain traceability, sustainability
certificates alone may not be sufficient to give
comfort to company directors. In mid-2022, a
UN/CEFACT work program commenced with the
objective of exploring the prospects for verifiable and
traceable product conformity data. This work has
centered around the development of an electronic
protocol designed to deliver digitally verifiable
assurances for conformity data, while recognizing
that paper-based certificates, including PDFs, will
continue to exist into the foreseeable future.
Conformity assessment processes are a key
mechanism for providing global product assurance.
However, the data resulting from these processes
is still largely paper-based or in electronic formats
that do not facilitate easy data processing, primarily
due to the lack of agreement on commonly used
data elements and definitions. This, in turn, creates
challenges in determining the status of certificates
and their linkages with physical product supply, as
well as the authority under which such certificates
were issued8. While these matters represent
longstanding problems in relation to product quality
and safety, the emergence of regulatory drivers in
the sustainability space brings new urgency to the
matter. Addressing this problem is central to many
government and private sector initiatives, including
A UN/CEFACT Business Requirements Specification10
was published in July 2024. This specification
describes a set of digital elements and linkages
to enhance utility of data issued by conformity
assessment bodies (CABs), supplementing nondigital certificates that may be provided. Specifically,
the presence or absence of elements exposed
during discovery of conformity data provides distinct
insights, including any verifiable connection to
the physical product of interest, the status of an
issued certificate, and the authority under which
it was issued (such as an accreditation authority).
The concept does not replace any of the existing
governance structures within the conformity
assessment community, but simply proposes a
means for adapting these to a digital context. The
