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Australia is establishing a working group to draft amendments to local and national laws to adopt the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR).
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MLETR is a legal framework developed by UNCITRAL intended to facilitate the use of electronic transferable records (digital equivalents of paper-based trade documents).
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Australia’s Attorneys-General noted the “significant economic and productivity benefits” of the proposed MLETR implementation.
Australia announced this month that it would establish a working group to progress the adoption of the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) and start drafting amendments to enshrine the MLETR into local and national laws.
The Standing Council of Attorneys-General, a quarterly meeting of Attorneys-General from all of Australia’s states and territories and the New Zealand Minister for Justice, met on 14 November to discuss, among other things, the increasing calls for MLETR adoption in the country.
MLETR is a legal framework developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and intended to facilitate the use of electronic transferable records – essentially digital equivalents of traditionally paper-based trade documents like bills of lading. MLETR is intended to pave the way for trade digitisation by ensuring that countries’ electronic trade legislations are compatible with each other and don’t discriminate based on technology or document format.
Australia’s Attorneys-General noted the “significant economic and productivity benefits” of the proposed MLETR implementation, initially brought up by the Australian government. The Council agreed to establish a working group of officials to “progress the development of national model amendments” to national and local electronic transaction acts (ETAs) in order to implement MLETR uniformly across Australia’s states and territories.
The Council will refer the drafting of those amendments to the Australasian Parliamentary Counsel’s Committee, Australia and New Zealand’s legislative drafting office, and aims to progress adoption “in a timely manner”.
Only about a dozen countries have adopted MLETR so far; most recently, Mauritius implemented a limited version of the framework that only applies to bills of lading, while the Marshall Islands passed legislation based on MLETR principles. Of the world’s top ten exporters, only three – the UK, France, and Singapore – had adopted MLETR in some form.
“Australia has historically been an early adopter of UNCITRAL texts in this field, but it has also been promoting MLETR in the region through Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and other venues,” Luca Castellani, Legal Officer at the UNCITRAL Secretariat, told TFG.
Australia’s move towards integrating MLETR into its legislation is an important step towards increasing international implementation – especially if New Zealand, as it often does, follows suit.
“Australia’s move may trigger an imitation effect that is important not only for larger economies in ASEAN, but also for the small Pacific States islands that are in critical need of reducing trade costs,” said Castellani.
“Some of those States have already adopted MLETR and could greatly benefit from sharing with Australia solutions and systems for MLETR implementation. MLETR implementation in those remote islands would also have a positive effect on supply chain resilience, including to counter the effects of climate change.”
