[June 18, 2002] A proposal for an OASIS TC on 'Controlled Trade Markup Language' was announced on May 09, 2002.
From the June 18, 2002 announcement: "OASIS announced that its members have formed the OASIS Controlled Trade Markup Language (CTML) Technical Committee to develop an international standard for the tracking of controlled materials as they move through trading processes. CTML will allow governments, industry, and non-governmental organizations to unambiguously identify essential business and legal documents that need to be exchanged, including trade applications, cases, licenses, and delivery verification certificates... Governments and suppliers around the world are participating in CTML development at OASIS. John Borras, Assistant Director of Technology Policy for the United Kingdom's Office of the e-Envoy, commented, 'The area of work being addressed by the OASIS CTML Technical Committee is something which the UK government sees as very important, and we are happy to co-sponsor and support its activities. The more we can standardize the vocabulary in this area, the better it will be for the exchange of information between governments and industry.' CTML will incorporate features of other XML business vocabularies and provide a clearly articulated interface to mutually supporting specifications. The OASIS CTML Technical Committee will align its work with other OASIS libraries and frameworks, such as ebXML, Universal Business Language (UBL), Business Transactions Protocol (BTP), and Customer Information Quality (CIQ). [According to] Steven Saboe, Director of the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund at the US Dept of State: 'Creating the means by which government and industry can communicate to control trade in dangerous materials is a worthwhile goal and strongly supported by the United States government. CTML will serve as a lingua franca, allowing the exchange of vital information in real time -- in a way that is cost effective for industry and that, above all, allows governments to assure the safety of their citizens'..." See: "OASIS Members Form Technical Committee to Develop International Standard for Controlled Trade. Supports Coordinated Management Strategy for Transfer of Sensitive and Strategic Goods."
From the (May 2002 draft) Introduction:
"The CTML standards will be open, vendor neutral, application independent and incorporate national authorities world-wide. The CTML TC will concentrate on building standards in the areas of controlled trade, import, export, and transit licensing, sanctions, commodity classification, internal control programs and export management systems. The CTML TC will advocate and establish relationships with other groups working on similar and complementary activities to do joint work in an 'open' process in order to avoid duplicity and confusion..."
CTML Design Approach: "[1] Collect and use input from real world users, applications and experts (e.g., U.K., U.S., Estonia, Poland, etc.). [2] Collect and use valuable input from other controlled trade standard initiatives around the world (e.g., EU, NSG, CWC, Wassenaar Regime). [3] Conduct a detailed analysis of international controlled trade information to serve as baseline vocabulary. [4] The development of CTML information will hopefully take less than a year because of solid work previously accomplished."
From the proposal and draft charter:
The end of the Cold War opened new opportunities for international trade, but it also created new challenges to managing transfers of sensitive and strategic goods. The risk of unauthorized sales of strategic items increased as traditional control systems broke down and the number of governmental and private entities with possible access to such items increased. Compounding matters, technological developments, like the Internet, now permit industry to increase the speed and efficiency of its electronic trading processes, requiring improved government-industry cooperation at all levels. However, there is no single, unified, and open means for government and industry to share information in a structured and meaningful manner. Now, more than ever, both government and industry need to improve their data sharing capabilities so that industry remains competitive and so that governments can protect truly sensitive goods.
The purpose of the Trade Control Markup Language (CTML) Technical Committee (TC) is to develop a unified trade control vocabulary that supports an international collection of business documents (e.g., trade applications, cases, licenses, delivery verification certificates, etc.) through the extension and expansion of an existing XML vocabulary. A goal of our work will be to incorporate the best features of other XML business vocabularies and provide a clearly articulated interface to other mutually supporting specifications. In the end, the CTML specification is intended to become an international standard for controlled trade activities, and together with other XML specifications, allow industry, nongovernmental organizations, and governments to unambiguously identify the essential business and legal documents to be exchanged in particular business contexts and geographic locales (i.e., country).
Furthermore, the CTML will align its vocabulary and structures with the vocabulary and structures of other OASIS libraries (like Unified Business Language, Business Transactions, and Customer Information Quality) and implement a mechanism for the generation of context-specific schemas for basic business documents and their components through the application of transformation rules to a common XML source library.
The specification will be open to everyone without licensing or other fees.
References:
- Controlled Trade Markup Language Proposal. May 09, 2002.
- [July 29, 2002] "Controlled Trade Markup Language (CTML)." Edited by Kathleen Yoshida (FGM Inc.). Working Draft v0.1.0.0. 25-July-2002. CTML Draft Specification v0.1.0.0. 34 pages. Prepared by members of the OASIS Controlled Trade Markup Language (CTML) Technical Committee. ['This specification defines an XML vocabulary for controlled trade activities. This version of the specification is a working draft of the committee, and as such, it is expected to change prior to adoption as an OASIS standard.'] "The purpose of the CTML TC is to develop a unified trade control vocabulary that supports an international collection of business documents (e.g., trade applications, cases, licenses, delivery verification certificates, etc.) through the extension and expansion of an existing XML vocabulary. A goal of our work will be to incorporate the best features of other XML business vocabularies and provide a clearly articulated interface to other mutually supporting specifications. The CTML specification is intended to become an international standard for controlled trade activities, and together with other XML specifications, allow industry, nongovernmental organizations, and governments to unambiguously identify the essential business and legal documents to be exchanged in particular business contexts and geographic locales (i.e., country). Furthermore, the CTML will align its vocabulary and structures with the vocabulary and structures of other OASIS libraries (like Unified Business Language, Business Transactions, and Customer Information Quality) and implement a mechanism for the generation of context-specific schemas for basic business documents and their components through the application of transformation rules to a common XML source library. The specification will be open to everyone without licensing or other fees..." Also available in Word .DOC format. [cache]
- Announcement 2002-06-18: "OASIS Members Form Technical Committee to Develop International Standard for Controlled Trade."
- "Introduction to the Controlled Trade Markup Language (CTML) Technical Committee." Draft document. May, 2002. Posted 2002-05-19 in a message from Todd Harbour. "This document provides background information for the CTML TC, identifies its goals and objectives, identifies areas of cooperation, approach the controlled trade domain, and status of activities." [cache ZIP/PPT original document; OASIS link 2002-05-23]
- CTML TC website
- Contact: Todd Harbour (FGM)
- Mailing list archive for 'controlled-trade'
- Mailing list archive for controlled-trade-comment'
