GLOSSARY
ICC Digital Standards Initiative
An industry-led program housed at ICC that maps and promotes interoperable standards for digital trade documents.
The ICC Digital Standards Initiative is an industry-led program hosted by the International Chamber of Commerce that catalogs existing digital trade standards and identifies gaps where interoperability is missing.
Why it matters
DSI maintains a public standards toolkit mapping which document types have mature digital frameworks. Electronic bills of lading (eBL) under MLETR-aligned rules and eUCP 600 for documentary credits are relatively advanced. Electronic certificates of origin and phytosanitary certificates remain fragmented, with multiple competing formats and limited cross-border recognition.
For operators, DSI's gap analysis helps you assess which documents in your workflow can realistically go digital today versus those still requiring paper fallbacks. The initiative's standards map is available at https://www.dsi.iccwbo.org/.