What is new in the V2.0 CITES electronic permitting toolkit

 

Since the publication of the first version of the CITES electronic permitting toolkit in January 2010, the CITES Secretariat and the World Customs Organization (WCO) have reached agreement on the inclusion of standards related to the development of CITES e-permitting systems in version 3.3 of the WCO Data Model. This achievement builds on many years of successful collaboration and joint work between the CITES Secretariat and the WCO and is reflective of efforts to use new information and communication technologies to assist countries to more effectively regulate and facilitate legal, sustainable and traceable trade in CITES-listed species.

The results of this initiative will also provide the necessary framework for other multi-lateral environmental agreements and protocols to develop similar documents that are harmonized with the WCO Data Model and to establish Single Window environments, enabling them to ensure their permits and certificates are harmonized with international standards and norms and are able to benefit from important projects related to international trade in wildlife, particularly with regard to the use of modern communication and information technologies, and the implementation of a Single Window environments.

As a result of this cooperation, the WCO has published version 3.3 of the WCO Data Model which now includes support for CITES e-permits in a Single Windows environment. To accompany this new version, the WCO has also updated the UN/EDIFACT (United Nations rules for Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport) UNSM (United Nations Standard Message) to cover Single Window Government Agency requirements which include the requirements for UN/EDIFACT e-permitting.

This new version of the CITES electronic permitting toolkit  has been developed in order to reflect these new e-permitting possibilities, While the content of the first part of the Toolkit has not been changed significantly, this updated V2.0 Toolkit has an expanded technical Annex (section 4) as follows:

• Two new sections have been added to the technical annexes to cover a) the CITES e-permitting subset of the WCO Data Model and b) the e-permitting subset of the GOVCBR (Government Cross Border Regulatory) UN/EDIFACT message.
  
  
• In order to develop the CITES e-permitting subset of the WCO Data Model, a very small number of data model structural adjustments were necessary to the V1.0 Core Components e-permitting data model in order to benefit implementers who may need to deploy both versions. The updated version which is now based on the D12B version of the UNCEFACT Core Component Library is provided in the second section of the Technical Annex. The semantic content has not been changed in this V2.0 and any implementer of the V1.0 e-permitting schemas should apply to the CITES Secretariat for all the details of the adjustments.
  
  
• In addition to the aligned Core Component and WCO data model subsets, this version of the toolkit includes a mapping between the two.
  
  
• A mapping between the new WCO Data Model subset and the GOVCBR UN/EDIFACT subset is also provided.
  
  
• Finally, schemas and examples are provided for both data model subsets.