scope:

The standard data elements included in this Directory are intended to facilitate interchange of data in international trade. These standard data elements can be used with any method for data interchange, on paper documents as well as with other means of data communication, they can be selected for transmission one by one, or used within a particular system of interchange rules, e.g. the Guidelines for Trade Data Interchange developed within the ECE (GTDI). Besides a introduction, the Directory contains the following sections: Section 2, which contains alphabetic and numeric indexes, listing data element names and numeric tags only, in certain cases with synonyms; the alphabetic index will be expanded to include cross references, synonyms and permutations of data element names in the light of experience and on the basis of user demand; Section 3, which forms the main part of the Directory and contains the complete list of standard data elements presented as described in 1.6 and 1.7 hereafter. In principle, each entry in this part should be self-contained and consultation of other parts of the Directory or outside sources should be required only exceptionally; Section 4, which provides explanatory notes where the text would be too lengthy to include with the data element entry concerned, or would contain general information common for a number of data elements; Section 9, with miscellaneous information, such as rules for maintenance, listing of current pages, etc.