Seamless electronic data and logistics pipelines shift focus from import declarations to start of commercial transaction

Abstract

Changes in the business and technology environment within which Customs operate means we have to re-assess our business model. Despite modern risk management techniques, commercial business systems and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), we, in Customs, still base our ways of operating on traditional concepts such as declarations and 'regimes' with the emphasis on imports and, for many countries in the world, on revenue. We need to return to basics and re-assess why we are in business. In the United Kingdom (UK) we have re-confirmed that we collect revenue, facilitate trade, protect society and collect trade statistics. But we are throwing away the old Customs textbooks on how we do that and looking to see if we can make best use of electronic data which is part of businesses' everyday operations to assess revenue, compliance, admissibility and security risks. This means working in partnership to drive up compliance and bear down on non-compliance using IT systems and intelligence-led risk management. But even more radical is the idea of shifting our emphasis from the point of importation to as far upstream in the supply chain as possible and considering the role of the consignor in feeding accurate information into an electronic data pipeline. After all, who packed the bag?