Weaknesses in the supply chain: Who packed the box?

Abstract

The international trade supply chain has grown in complexity to a point where clear visibility is masked from those who need to know what is going on. International conventions cover the transport of goods between seller and buyer but concentrate more on limiting liabilities than they do on ensuring the accurate description of the goods. The person who knows what is being sent into the supply chain is the person who packed the box or consigned the goods. If the packing list is wrong, not used or hidden from view then the transport documents such as way bills and the manifest are likely to be inaccurate. This poses safety, security, legal compliance and commercial risks. Information required by border enforcement agencies is being asked for further upstream in the supply chain, prior to the goods being loaded. But the consignor, who holds the key to the majority of that information is outside the jurisdiction of the importing country's authorities so they turn to the carrier and the importer instead. Unfortunately, information held by the carrier is not always accurate and Customs hold the importer accountable for goods they have probably never seen. In these days of information management rather than the physical control of the goods, the role of export data is increasingly important. A multilateral, international legal framework with enforceable jurisdiction is needed with more emphasis placed on the point at which the international movement of the goods begins. The consignor and the true packing list play a key role. A new key performance indicator and critical way-point must be created called the Consignment Completion Point. A web-based, seamless, electronic data 'pipeline' needs to link the seller/consignor and the buyer/consignee and the interested economic operators in between. Real-time, accurate data must be assured from the beginning, updated as the goods move, and shared in a risk based, layered approach.