Articles under section " Dossier: Disruptive Technologies "

There is nothing new in saying that leveraging technology is key to effectively managing the flow of goods, people and means of transport. This magazine contains a wealth of articles explaining how Customs administrations are using technology to fulfil their missions. In fact, given the impact of te...

According to the WCO/WTO paper, around half of Customs administrations use some combination of big data, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Those which do not currently use them have plans to do so in the future. The majority of Customs administrations see clear benefits f...

The last article of the Dossier deals with blockchain technology. According to our survey, it has captured the attention of the majority of Customs authorities: 19% of the respondents said they were exploring its potential through a proof of concept; 14% that they were testing solutions through pilo...

A fundamental requirement for information to flow seamlessly across different IT systems is that they all speak the same language. Cross-border regulatory agencies retaining the right to determine the data they require should all use a similar language and have harmonized the way in which the requir...

Customs processes are complex and it is very unlikely that a single IT solution will efficiently deal with all their aspects and complications. This is also the case with many business processes. For this reason, more and more administrations and companies are developing IT systems based on a servic...

Conformity framework The WCO Data Model is a universal language, agnostic of technology and providers. When developing a system using the Model, each entity involved and each provider must be able to confirm that the components of the system speak this universal language perfectly. To facilitate thi...

Through the use of AI analytics, Bahamas has identified over 115 million USD in evaded revenue since 2020, while simultaneously modernizing its revenue collection management capabilities. In 2020, Bahamas Customs began seeking solutions to help identify and recoup lost and evaded revenue at the ...

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How the Solution Works The technology selected by Bahamas is deployed as a service under a subscription license. Called the “Risk Assessment Screening Service (RASS)”, the solution uses a combination of deductive (vetting of watch lists and commodity targets) and inductive (identifies known ri...

In our “Pushing Boundaries” vision, we described our “dot” on the horizon, a helpful focal point when dealing with challenges we are, and will be, confronted with. The most prominent one is how to cope with a rising number of declarations and, consequently, a growing need for inspections. At...

ACXIS One objective was to develop an automated support system for image analysts. Participants worked in their respective areas of competence to deliver the various components required to create such a system. Some worked on the data gathering aspect, others on the annotation of the images, othe...

Customs authorities are showing a growing interest in adopting artificial intelligence (AI), the broad category of science that entails simulating human thinking capability and behaviour. As stated in a joint paper published by the World Customs Organization, (WCO) and the World Trade Organization (...

Streamlining en-route processes For seaborne containers, such automatic detection offers opportunities in transforming Customs inspection into a streamlined en-route process, significantly increasing inspection rates without disrupting travel or trade. Take the Port of Qingdao in China, for exampl...

World trade is the lifeblood of the global economy. It not only is a vital component in the ongoing operations of businesses (large and small), governments and NGOs around the world, it has the power to grow economies, increase productivity and transform the quality of life for citizens in the natio...

The industry is starting to see the benefits of AI integration across the digitalisation of the trade ecosystem. An example is the Single Window system that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking automation to the next level. Beyond targeting and managing all areas of import/export processes that ...

Since 2016, when the Finnish Government decided to digitalize all public services, Finnish Customs has been working on the development of digital services to improve its customer service. In 2017 the Administration explained, in the pages of this magazine, how it tested the innovation potential of ...

There were a couple of commercial solutions to choose from, and we opted for an off-the-shelf solution developed by a Finnish company; this meant we only had to add Customs-related information to the tool and then train it to pair questions to answers, using about 60 interaction scenarios. The chatb...

The new system we have acquired is very informative. It shows a customer’s past interactions with the customer service across multiple channels in a single database. We can also add notes about a customer’s needs and issues. This information enables us to serve customers better if they contact u...

In 2019, the Arab Republic of Egypt decided to move away from a slow and burdensome paper-based way of processing cross-border transactions to one based on automation and digitization. As part of this transformation, the country required economic operators and government entities to begin exchanging...

NAFEZA was built by the Egyptian company MTS, majority-owned by the Egyptian Finance Ministry and other government entities, with CargoX providing the blockchain document transfer services. Both took into account existing norms and practices for developing single windows, as laid out in the WCO Sing...