UBL Naming and Design Rules SC

RE: [ubl-ndrsc] Fwd: Fwd: ISO 3166-1 -- Change of Alpha-3CodeElem entfor Romania

  • 1.  RE: [ubl-ndrsc] Fwd: Fwd: ISO 3166-1 -- Change of Alpha-3CodeElem entfor Romania

    Posted 02-13-2002 08:15
    Hi All
    
    Having just returned from a business trip I am pretty amazed at the
    excitement around country codes. For my sins I am a member of the CDWG which
    is responsible, amongst other things, for the maintenance of the UN/ECE
    rendering of the 2 alpha ISO codes from ISO 3166. In the UN/CEFACT world
    i.e. for international trade in general and global ebusiness in particular,
    only the 2 alpha code list is recommended. UN/ECE has a formal agreement
    with ISO to be able to publish this set of codes for free access on the
    UN/CEFACT web page etc as UN/ECE Recommendation No. 3. Also, as Phil points
    out, the 2 alpha recommendation 3 forms the first 2 characters of the UN/ECE
    Recommendation No. 16 codes aka the UNLOCODE.
    
    There are other cases around ISO and UN/ECE Roecommended code lists which
    give rise to similar confusions due mostly to the fact that a) ISO charge
    for access to their full standards and b) several of these recommendations
    actually contain more than one code list e.g. REc 21 which has at least
    three code lists which are related but by no means equivalent.
    
    I guess our concern right now is to develop the rules, guidelines and tools
    requirements that will enable UBL to provide the necessary support for the
    use of the appropriate code lists from the UN/ECE list for electronic
    business document exchange purposes. To do so we, or at least some of us,
    probably need to understand the, not inconsiderable, vagaries of the lists
    themselves.
    
    The UN/ECE REcommendations are not all code lists and even when they are
    they are not all of interest to us for UBL. The full list can be found
    easily under 'Recommendations' on the UN/CEFACT home page -
    http://www.unece.org/cefact/. Each of the code set(s) are preceded by
    explanatory text which lays out clearly the relationship between the each
    recommendation and related code lists from other international agencies such
    as ISO. 
    
    The list of recommendations that concern us is, I believe:
    
    Rec 3 - alpha country codes
    Rec 5 - Incoterms 2000 (terms of delivery)
    Rec 7 - Date/time formats based on ISO 8601
    Rec 9 - 3 alpha currency codes
    Rec 16 - the UNLOCODE
    Rec 17 - Pament terms
    Rec 19 - modes of transport
    Rec 20 - Units of measure (only the common codes recommended for ebusiness
    use)
    Rec 21(a) - 1 digit code set for type os cargo (for reporting transport
    statistics to authorities)
    Rec 21(b) - 2 alpha package type codes
    Rec 23 - Freight charge codes
    Rec 24 - Trade and Transport status codes
    
    BTW Rec 31 and 32 may be of general interest as they are the latest
    UN/CEFACT recommendations with regards to ebusiness exchange agreements
    aspects.
    
    regards
    
    Sue
    
    Sue Probert
    Senior Director, Document Standards, Commerce One Labs
    Commerce One
    Tel: +44 1332 342080
    email: sue.probert@commerceone.com