Purpose
The CSD is one of the regulatory tools used in the protection of air cargo and mail throughout its movement in the supply chain. It certifies that the cargo has been cleared in accordance with security programmes of regulated agents, known consignors, or aircraft operators. It is developed by the ICAO.
Sender/receiver
The declaration is completed by the entity that makes the cargo secure: the known consignor, regulated agent, aircraft operator that originally issued the security status.
It is accessible to all parties in the supply chain.
Legal requirement
This declaration is part of ICAO guidance on how states may comply with the standards and recommended practices of Annex 17 – Aviation Security to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (ICAO Doc 7300), signed in Chicago on 7 December 1944. This guidance is fully detailed in the ICAO Aviation Security Manual (ICAO Doc 8973 — Restricted), 13.5.7.27 to 13.5.7.33. This same document provides the template in Appendix 33. The declaration may be in hard copy or electronic.
States may apply this ICAO guidance through their national regulations, giving them legal force.
Standards
Existing digital standards include: IATA Cargo Interchange Message Procedures (IMP), IATA Cargo Extensible Markup Language (XML), IATA ONE Record as well as the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for airmail.
IATA, working closely with other stakeholders, developed an electronic version of the CSD, the eCSD, similarly intended to provide a common international standard for cargo shipments. IATA adopted the eCSD in Resolution 651 as a universal standard that provides consignment information in accordance with the guidance provided in ICAO Aviation Security Manual (ICAO Doc 8973 — Restricted) and the regulatory requirements of the European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1998.
ICAO and UNECE have collaborated through the UN CEFACT to include the CSD in the Multimodal Transport Reference Data Model (MMT RDM). These standards enable interoperability between existing digital standards for the CSD through re-use of the data elements and are available as free-of-charge, public goods on the UNECE website.
Differences
The ICAO Aviation Security Manual provides the template for the CSD.
Platforms
Cargo Community Systems (CCS) are the emerging platform for sharing CSDs and data from other relevant documents.
Data
- Regulated entity category (RA, KC or AO) and identifier
- Unique consignment identifier: The identification of the consignment itself must be entered. This may be an air waybill, a house bill or a mail consignment identifier.
- Contents of consignment
- Origin
- Destination
- Transfer/Transit points
- Security status
- Received from: The coded identification of the category (i.e. regulated agent RA, known consignor KC or aircraft operator AO) that tendered the consignment must be entered.
- Screening method
- Grounds for exemption
- Other screening method(s)
- Security status issued by
- Security status issued on
- Regulated entity category (RA, KC or AO) and identifier
- Additional security information
Adoption
Increased digitalisation of regulators and authorities who require the document, as well as concomitant standards are necessary for increased digital adoption. An example is the European Commission, which is working on the implementation of the Electronic Freight Transport Information Regulation (eFTI) and will use the MMT RDM—itself incorporating the CSD—as the common interface for multimodal data exchange. Emerging standards that could further increase digital adoption include verifiable credentials and other decentralised architectures.
