Landmark Moment for Global Multimodal Transport: UNCITRAL Finalises Draft Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has officially approved the draft Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents (NCD) on 11 July 2025, recommending its adoption by the UN General Assembly later this year. This marks a historic milestone in the modernisation of international trade law and opens new opportunities for shippers, freight forwarders, and trade finance institutions across both established and emerging trade corridors.

The NCD Convention introduces an opt-in harmonised legal framework for negotiable cargo documents of title - whether in paper or electronic form - across all modes of transport. In today’s complex and often disrupted global trading environment, this development is a major step forward in enabling more agile, secure, and efficient trade.

For freight forwarders and logistics providers, it will reinforce and strengthen their critical role in meeting global needs tailored to shipper needs when issuing paper and electronic transport documents as contractual carriers, such as the negotiable FIATA Multimodal Transport Bill of Lading (FBL / eFBL), by ensuring harmonised legal certainty for multimodal transport. This addresses a long-standing legal gap and will widen opportunities for trade finance, particularly for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and regions reliant on inland and multimodal transport.

FIATA has been actively involved in the development of this Convention as a longstanding observer to the UNCITRAL Working Group VI, sharing its experiences with the FBL as the only international standard multimodal transport document to date, and ensuring that the Convention reflects practical industry realities and needs. 

Key benefits of the NCD Convention include:

• Legal Certainty for Multimodal Transport: The Convention addresses a longstanding legal gap by recognising negotiable cargo documents in multimodal transport. This reinforces the established practice of freight forwarders acting as contractual carriers, issuing documents such as the FIATA Multimodal Transport Bill of Lading (FBL) to organise end-to-end transport.
• Support for SMEs and Global Supply Chain Access: By enabling the use of negotiable documents across jurisdictions, the Convention facilitates access to global supply chains for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, including those in emerging markets without direct access to deep-sea shipping.
• Enabler of Digital Trade: The Convention incorporates provisions based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), providing legal recognition for electronic negotiable transport records. This is a critical step in advancing digital trade and innovation in logistics.
• Opt-In Flexibility: The Convention is designed as an opt-in instrument, allowing commercial parties to decide whether to apply its provisions. This ensures flexibility and responsiveness to market needs.
• Preservation of Existing Liability Regimes: The Convention focuses on negotiability and documents of title, without altering existing transport liability frameworks. This ensures continuity and legal clarity for freight forwarders and their clients.

The draft Convention will now be transmitted to the United Nations General Assembly for adoption during its 80th session in late 2025. FIATA will continue to support the Convention’s implementation and will provide members with guidance and resources to understand and apply its provisions. We encourage all members to familiarise themselves with the Convention and to engage with their national authorities to support its adoption in the interest of global trade.

For further information, please visit the UNCITRAL press release and view the short explainer video on negotiable cargo documents.