Designing and implementing Customs-Business partnerships: A possible framework for collaborative governance

Abstract

The emergence of the Customs community's interest in building Customs-Business partnerships (CBP) can be examined in the overall context of the development of government to business partnerships, including the often successful public-private partnerships (PPP) model. The concept of CBP is that relationships between Customs and business are shifting away from the former adversarial and interventionist approaches and moving towards relationships that represent an ambition of working together for a common purpose. Based on a theoretical review of the partnership dynamics, a conceptual collaborative governance framework is proposed and the key elements in designing and implementing CBP arrangements are identified and developed. It is argued that CBP should be interwoven with the overall strategies of Customs reform and modernisation and should go beyond operational and technical matters for effectiveness and sustainability.