A system that facilitates the negotiation of a standard for inter-enterprise collaboration between trading partners includes a set of meta-model elements. Each element in the set can be negotiated by enterprises and incorporated into a negotiated meta-model that describes an agreement between the enterprises as to collaborations between the enterprises. Each element in the set describes a portion of a potential standard for collaboration between enterprises. The system also includes a meta-model negotiation service that receives an indication that enterprises wish to negotiate a standard for collaborations between the enterprises and provides access to the set of elements and receive selections of one or more of the elements for negotiation and incorporation into a negotiated meta-model. The negotiated meta-model describes an agreement between the enterprises as to collaborations between the enterprises.