A. General Information
Singapore-Thailand eBL pilot project
B. Lessons Learned
Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has partnered with a group of companies including ExxonMobil, VLK and Bunkerchain to complete the first paperless cross-border trade with Thailand on its TradeTrust platform using electronic Bills of Lading (eBL).
The introduction of eBLs has enabled greater efficiency by streamlining and automating existing processes. The benefits include shorter waiting times and reduced costs. This pilot builds on cooperation with industry partners like ExxonMobil to encourage the use of ETRs and facilitate cross-border trade.
Pioneered by IMDA, TradeTrust was designed to address the challenges of paper-based cross- border trades, leveraging international standards and frameworks, utilising blockchain- powered technology to enable digitalisation of transferable documents into ETR. IMDA’s TradeTrust framework harmonises the legal recognition of digital documentations between various jurisdictions which has adopted the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR).
Exchange of electronic Bill of Lading
- ExxonMobil Asia Pacific shipped liquid chemicals from Singapore to Thailand. - VLK issued an electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) using Bunkerchain, a TradeTrust-enabled digital platform. - The use of Marine Vessel Pass, a joint project between S&P Global Market Intelligence and Bunkerchain, created a Digital Passports for Ships on the eBL ensured that digital identity used in the signing, was onboarded, and verified by S&P Global Market Intelligence. This was tied to their International maritime organization number. - The eBL was subsequently surrendered on the TradeTrust Reference Implementation, demonstrating interoperability across different systems without the need to develop inter-system connectivity protocols such as APIs. It also established the interoperability between digital and paper-based processes. - VLK was supported by their Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Club, on the basis that the P&I liabilities arising from the use of a TradeTrust-issued eBL is equivalent to the liabilities that could have arisen under the use of a paper-based Bill of Lading. - The eBL was legally supported solely by statutory law without the use of any contract law or rulebook. This shipment showed that an eBL issued using the TradeTrust framework can be used in a non-MLETR jurisdiction, such as Thailand.
Bill of lading
Tradetrust
This live transaction for consignment of liquid chemical from Singapore to Thailand, leverages on the TradeTrust framework to create an eBL that uses UNCITRAL’s MLETR compliant statutory law framework. It demonstrated that the industry can potentially use eBL even if there is no basis of a contractual legal framework. This can lead to wider adoption of eBL in cross-border trade.