In 1979, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) chartered the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 to develop uniform standards for interindustry electronic exchange of business transactions-electronic data interchange (EDI)
In 1986, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) approved the acronym "UN/EDIFACT" which translates to United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport. UN/EDIFACT is an international EDI standard designed to meet the needs of both government and private industry.
The UN/EDIFACT Working Group (EWG), a permanent working group of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), develops and maintains UN/EDIFACT
X12 is used in the USA but most of the rest of the world uses the EDIFACT transaction sets.