UK announced a draft electronic trade documents bill which will enable bills of lading using distributed ledger technology to be recognised in law. Based on the Model Law for Electronic Transferable Records, the entry of a second major financial hub to this next generation electronic transactions legislation gives a boost to the aim of paperless cross-border trading. 

This move is expected lower costs and speed up transactions, increase transparency in transactions and reduce paper usage.

Following on from what was discussed in my previous post on this subject, this development could very well open the floodgates that will lead to the inevitable move towards digitising the shipping documentation. Whether other G7 members and EU member states follow suit shortly remains to be seen.