eUCP AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE INVESTMENTS: e-SIGNATURE AND PAPERLESS FOREIGN TRADE

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.

近年来电子文档领域的发展态势表明，未来所有商务流程中的纸质文档使用终将被彻底摒弃。作为信息系统发展带来的优势之一，电子文档的应用已日趋普及，在部分场景中甚至成为强制要求。尽管外贸领域本应是电子文档优势得以彰显的场景之一，但电子文档在外贸中的普及度仍未达预期。当前纸质流程仍占据主导地位，该领域亟需一场彻底且全面的变革。尽管《电子统一惯例》（eUCP）发布至今已有多年，但并未达到预期效果，这表明亟需引入新型支付方式以替代信用证。本文基于最新发展态势展开综合评估，探讨了电子文档对外贸领域的潜在影响，并提出了一种基于单一文档的新型支付方案。