BOW WAVE 140

E-Commerce Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

Bow Wave homepage
Previous issue (139) / Current issue / Next issue (141)

Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2002 WavyLine.com	Issue No 140 29 Jul 02
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
Subscribe	Unsubscribe

In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. E-customs in HK
3. Guest Column by George Chandler: eBills of Lading
4. The All the Way Agenda
5. Warchalking
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Readers will recall we set a brain teaser last week in item 6

A man pushed a car to a hotel and was made bankrupt......

Not as many answers as we might have thought from our lateral thinking Readers but all were correct at any rate.

Correctomundos were received in the following order from:

Gary Hartland
S. Nina Gellert
Judy Crick of Limit
Robert.Jervis of Informa
Daniel Marsh of Willis
Greg March of Informa
Nick Lowe of the IUA
Tony Flanaghan of Seascope Insurance Brokers

Andrew Guest's answer that the man was playing a new high risk board game called Accountancy is worthy of special commendation.

New Readers this week include:

Jim Halligan
Lawyer Chris Mead of Cooper, White & Cooper in San Francisco Charles Xia of brokers Marsh
Laurie Bond of Pro Group Insurance in Zimbabwe
Alastair J Coles of County Adjusters
Ann Jones of International Bond & Marine Brokerage in New Jersey

News of Readers

From Hilde Krause in SF comes an update on that Rex DeGeorge insurance fraud case.

Mr. DeGeorge was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in federal prison, ordered to pay restitution to ACE in the amount of $2.8 Million and must receive court permission before filing any insurance claims ever again. Judge Baird was the presiding Judge and she told Mr. DeGeorge that she would have given him more time if the sentencing guidelines permitted her to do so.

Needless to say, Mr. DeGeorge's attorney announced they will appeal.

Poem of the Week

Song

The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I,
The gunner and his mate,
Loved Mall, Meg and Marian and Margery,
But none of us cared for Kate;
For she had a tongue with a tang,
Would cry to a sailor, 'Go hang!'
She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch,
Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch: Then go to sea, boys, and let her go hang.

William Shakespeare
The Tempest, II, ii.

As we enter the quieter season of high summer, this issue concentrates on e-commerce subjects of one sort or another.

Enjoy.

2. E-customs in HK

From Jimmy Olson's Eye for Transport E-zine we learn of the recent decision to introduce a single river manifest declaration for the purposes of HK and Southern PRC customs. The prime movers in this are our old friends Tradelink, a value added network through which the government of Hong Kong works. So in time the river operators who move so much cargo up and down the Pearl Delta will be able to make a single declaration to both customs authorities. The price of all this? Tradelink says the current maximum of 14 Hong Kong dollars (US$1.80) per manifest will be maintained.

see the announcement at:

http://www.tradelink.com.hk/news.htm#pr41

To subscribe to the Eye for Transport Newsletter go to

http://www.eyefortransport.com/

3. Guest Column by George Chandler:

eBILLS OF LADING UNDER A PROPOSED TRANSPORT LAW CONVENTION By: George Chandler (from the July 2002 issue of L/C Monitor)

Last April a working group of the United Nations Commission on Internet Trade Law (UNCITRAL) began its review of a proposal by the Comite Maritime International (CMI) for a new transport law convention.

The CMI proposal may be viewed at:

http://www.cmi.org

The UNCITRAL's version, with commentary can be seen under working groups/transport law - A/CN.9/WG.III/WP.21 of January 8, 2002 at:

http://www.uncitral.org .

Although much of the proposal regarding liabilities may be of minor interest to the L/C community, there are some aspects that could have a significant impact on bills of lading used under financed arrangements.

The UNCITRAL Working Group on Electronic Commerce noted as part of its work in developing the UNCITRAL Model Law for Electronic Commerce of 1995 that the lack of uniformity in ocean bills of lading was a significant impediment to the development and acceptance of fully electronic system for bills of lading. Upon their recommendation, the Commission requested the assistance of interested organizations in proposing rules to insure uniformity. The result is the CMI proposal, which could be the first "bill of lading" convention that actually takes up the trade and transport issues implicit in a bill of lading.

The first step in this effort to reach uniformity was to avoid getting bogged down in the long running debate over what is or is not a bill of lading by using the term "transport document" (which can be either negotiable or non-negotiable). Next, the exercise in semantics as to whether a bill of lading can ever be transmitted electronically was avoided by use of the term "electronic record" (which can be either negotiable or non-negotiable).

The CMI's eCommerce drafting group had been challenged by the Commission to build rules for electronic records from the ground up," rather than mere "functional equivalence," and they have succeeded in doing so. The proposed rules are "stand alone" rules for the time when paper documents become the exception.

These rules would not conflict with the ICC's eUCP scheme, and should work in harmony with ICC's INCOTERMS. They would complimentde,
for the transfer of electronic records. Yet these rules are sufficiently flexible that as "documentary" practice evolves in the electronic age, they should meet the needs of systems that cannot yet be imagined.

Chapter 2 would lay the foundation for electronic records by setting forth the rules for electronic communications, including the ability to change an electronic record into a transport document and vice versa, should the need arise (using the "switched bill" technique). The chapter also requires that the parties agree on rules of procedure for electronic communication, and that such rules be referred to in the contract particulars.

Chapter 8 would cover the issuance of transport documents and electronic records, and the information that they should contain. A new term is created, "contract particulars", to cover that information (a necessary device to avoid the difficulty in replacing terms that were useful for paper documents such as "stamped, but that can be hard to express in terms of electronic documents. The information that will be in contract particulars includes critical information, such as the shipper, the consignee, ports, description of the goods, and so on, as well as other information, such as exceptions, qualifiers to the condition of the goods, and the carrier, etc..

Chapter 11, as presently drafted, concerns the "right of control", such as which person is to control delivery of the goods. The question as to when the shipper's control of the goods come to an end is answered. As are the circumstances under which the consignee be changed. Procedures are provided for both transport documents and electronic records that will set rules for these situations for the first time internationally, and more importantly, uniformly. The benefit for carriers would be that it would lessen the possibility of getting caught in disputes between trading partners, particularly where each sues in a country that conflicts with the other, leaving the carrier with conflicting judgments. The benefit for trading parties would be certainly and predictability in international trade.

Chapter 12, as presently drafted, concerns the transfer of rights, including the right to control, particularly negotiable transport documents and negotiable electronic records. Some might quibble that the mere transfer of rights can never replace the negotiation of a bill of lading - undoubtedly similar to what others did when bills of lading replaced the system of dividing the "Carta" - but if the system rules set out clear rules as to who is entitled to possession of the goods at each stage of the process (as these rules would do),the ultimate result will be the same, particularly when used with well-accepted international practices such as INCOTERMS and UCP. No longer would title be at the mercy of conflicting national laws and practices. Chapter 12 does not dictate how title passes (that will be province of the trading parties, as it should be), and it will not interfere with the trading parties' intentions as some national laws and customs tend to do because of rigid adherence to outmoded practices.

The first reading of this proposal by the CMI should be completed during the Working Group"s September meeting in Vienna. Revision will begin in April 2003 at the third meeting of the Working Group. In the meantime, a jurisdictional dispute is taking place with UNCTAD over whether the ultimate convention should be multimodal (that is door-to-door) or limited to port-to-port. UNCTAD, the UN organization that promulgated the 1980 UN Convention on Multimodal Transport of Goods (which never came into force due to a severe shortage of adhering countries), does not want UNCITRAL intruding on its turf, notwithstanding UNCTAD"s lack of credibility in this area. Given that it is essential that this convention govern transport documents/electronic records throughout their transport and that so many container shipments are door-to-door, a port-to-port convention makes little sense. Inasmuch as such a convention would only be compulsory for public carriage, such as the liner trades (private carriage will likely incorporate it into charter parties through paramount clauses, but only if the parties agreed to do so), and port-to-port shipments are declining in favour of containers, it is highly likely that the convention will cover door-to-door shipments, at least in their contractual aspects.

4. The ATWA Mind-set

This is the third of four messages by Ian Priban of the British Innovation Group-Europe:

In late July you may ponder what will change by September 2002? Your answer can lead to the question how do I align with those pursuing constructive changes? You may then find that your mind-set is similar to that of Earlybirds pursuing the All-The-Way-Agenda (ATWA).

Growth is a biological phenomenon. A concurrent harvesting of innovations on the frontiers of science and technology is the strategy to accelerate progress. Healthy structures grow in a coherent way, if started from a finite set of the smallest elements. ATWA objectivity requires minimal information.

Physiological and biological research shows how to progress. For example, the electron-microscope picture of a cross section through the surface of a human cell’s protein structures, shows two receptors. Linking them triggers a chain of signals that controls growth. The link is the human growth hormone. It controls a child’s early development. The genes are a system that controls a newborn’s development. They integrate the different organs into one coherent being.

It is a fact of health care that physiological control of growth is universal to all humanity. A comparison of the process controlling automation in an economy shows that replacing the fifty year old traditional economic concepts with the more universal concepts of autonomic control will achieve a step-improvement of productivity. This will resolve the failing legacy systems problems.
'Imagination' (an intellectual quality) and 'strength of will' (a moral quality) must link to trigger this step-move. Bright individuals do not want the prevailing bureaucratic morass or confusion to obstruct their dreams. Their anger may start a democracy versus bureaucracy cold war. A professionalism of a new quality and the creative venture spirit will take over from the status quo.

First movers focus of what is important. A bureaucratic morass of confusion is cause of deadlock in Europe. To break the deadlock novel moves are required. Trust is a quality enterprise must re-earn to secure progress in Europe. The new market creators will be the first venturers to earn this trust. That is the key issue, not whether Britain should join the Euro or stays with Sterling.
The next theme is High Tide. Holistic methods, self-discipline and strong, direct charges through the ‘centre of chaos’ secure the Earlybirds’ opportunities. They avoid direct effects of unpredictable chaos when the tide comes in, ascending to the highground of evolution and relying on the ATWA, all round integrity.

For Background, read: 1 Self-organising Earlybirds, 2 Self-renewal, 3 Risk of being misinformed, and 4 Begin the future on

http://www.bige-intelligence.com

5. Warchalking

From the latest edition of Michael Quinion's World Wide Words:

"Sometimes an idea appears just at the right moment to be taken up and spread so widely that it seems to have appeared everywhere at once. Such has happened with "warchalking", which was invented only at the end of June but which is now ubiquitous online.

The name refers to chalk symbols that indicate to those in the know that an unsecured wireless networking station is nearby that can be used to tap into a corporate network and get illicit free Internet access. The term and the code were created by Matt Jones in the UK, based on the symbols that tramps and hobos once chalked on walls and doors to pass on information to others about houses to avoid or where a meal was to be had. Within days of appearing on his web site, the idea had been picked up by SlashDot in the USA and his symbols had been seen in London, New York, and Seattle.

This is just the most recent of a set of terms which is threatening to turn "war" into a computer geek prefix meaning something like "attempting to gain unauthorised network access". The first was the 1980s term "war dialling" for the way that hackers systematically dialled telephone numbers in search of a modem that might give them network access. More recent examples include "war driving" (driving around town with a portable computer, looking for unsecured wireless networks) and "warwalking" (the same idea, but on foot). In a sign of its vitality, "warchalking" has already given rise to the parody terms "chalkchalking", "pubchalking", and "blogchalking" and it is being seriously suggested that the symbols should also mark legitimate access points."

See:

Matt Jones' site:
http://www.blackbeltjones.com/warchalking/ A useful ZNET piece:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?R20765051 A Guardian article:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?A21721051

To get on the World Wide Words mailing list go to:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/

6. And Finally....

The English Comic Alphabet

A for 'orses (i.e. hay for horses)
B for mutton (i.e. beef or mutton)
C for miles
D for dumb
E for brick
F for been had
G for police
H for retirement
I for lutin'
J for oranges
K for teria
L for leather
M for sis
N for a penny
O for a drink
P for idious Albion
Q for buses
R for mo
S for you
T for two
U for insurance
V for La France
W for quits
X for breakfast
Y for husband
Z for breezes

Found in Tony Augarde's Oxford Guide to Word Games (1984)

We wonder whether there are any Readers whose habits of thought could lead to the creation of an Alphabet for our kind.

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 7300 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

Thanks for reading BOW WAVE