The information that will be listed on the aircraft, together with the needs of a range of enforcement agencies, has been identified by a Steering Committee comprising the WCO Secretariat project team, national experts from Customs and other partner administrations (civil aviation, criminal inves...
The WCO has released an upgraded version of its Cargo Targeting System (WCO CTS). This enhancement has been made possible thanks to financial support provided by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, and assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protect...
The software has been designed by the WCO, based on the best practice and expertise of Customs, shipping and the airline industry, and takes into account the Customs operational environment and the needs of Customs Officers in performing their daily tasks. It is owned by the WCO and is available ...
At the start of 2019, in partnership with the European Union, the WCO Secretariat launched the COLIBRI Project to help administrations responsible for enforcement in Latin America, the Caribbean and West Africa to implement effective controls in general aviation. General aviation covers all civil...
An international database dedicated to general aviation
The objective of the COLIBRI Geoportal is to bring together in one place data relevant to the effective surveillance of movements by general aviation. It therefore includes a databas...
As regards the Geoportal, users will be able to choose between several base maps:
WCO Members asked the Secretariat to place a new focus on the development of guidance and capacity to support the use of data analytics. As one of the responses, a team of experts was put in place under a project called BACUDA. The project’s name is an acronym, which stands for “BAnd of CUsto...
Objective
BACUDA is a collaborative research project between Customs and data scientists whose objective is to develop data analytics methodologies, including algorithms in open-source programming languages (R1
The Royal Malaysian Customs Department is working on a new information system, known as uCustoms, which will enable effective information-sharing, streamlined procedures, and genuine collaboration among all agencies involved in the clearance process.
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Post-clearance audit (PCA) includes a preparation phase during which data from various sources is collected and then analysed, especially import and export declaration data. The aim is to obtain a comprehensive overview of the auditee’s business structure and, on this basis, identify and analys...
At the WCO Secretariat, a modest three-person team decided to take up this matter and to develop a prototype dashboard using Microsoft Power BI. Launched nearly a decade ago as a standalone desktop data visualization tool, Power BI is now a business analytics service provided by Microsoft that en...
As far back as 1971, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise (HMC&E) – as it was then – was looking at how computers could be beneficial to the Customs process. The growth in air traffic and the need to clear goods quickly in the United Kingdom (UK) prompted the development of the London Airpo...
The Foundation for International Development Studies and Research has published a The author begins by analysing the potential specific benefits of GAI for Customs administrations: machine translation, creation of computer code for data analysis, uniformity and correctness of administrative language, content creation, assistance in drafting policy documents and assistance in f...
The environment surrounding Customs administrations is changing rapidly. The conclusion by the World Trade Organization (WTO) of its Trade Facilitation Agreement in December 2013 demands that governments make further efforts to simplify trade procedures and ensure more transparency in trade regul...
The implementation of a real-time electronic cargo monitoring system to track goods transported in transit enables countries in East Africa to cut transit time, prevent cargo theft and boost revenue collection
In the East Afr...
RECTS operates in real time, enabling any transit violations, such as going off route, seal tampering or breaking, to be detected. Every time such an incident occurs, an alert is sent to the central monitoring centres hosted in each country, and a rapid response team is sent to the scene. The tea...
Context for change
Driven by the need to ensure it would be able to address the increased demands of the global trading landscape, with regard to both financial and social security, accession to international instruments ...
The TIR system is going paperless. The new eTIR system is based on real-time digital data exchange between transport operators, Customs authorities, TIR system guaranteeing organizations, and the United Nations. A pilot project is currently being implemented betwee...
With its focus fixed on the capacity consistently to improve the service it provides to its users, Moroccan Customs has long been counting recourse to the new information and communications technologies among its strategic options. Today, the various projects undertaken to dematerialize its proce...
Complete dematerialization of the Customs clearance circuit
The launch of “paperless” Customs clearance was preceded by the gradual rollout of legal, procedural and technical prerequisites, which called for a commitme...
Dematerialization of certificates of origin
In Morocco, certificates of origin are issued by the Customs Administration. Exporters simply apply for a certificate when drawing up the export declaration. The computer system...
The Botswana Government wants to build a tech-driven economy, in other words, an economy where development is driven by the potential of available technologies and the innovations they unlock. The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) shares that ambition and is ...
Performance measurement
BURS aims to be an agile organization and its strategic plan is updated every five years. To monitor implementation of the plan, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been developed for each busin...
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...
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 ...
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 p...
This article introduces the Ecosystem of Trust (EoT) project which aimed at testing whether the use of supply chain data, alongside technologies such as smart seals and smart containers, could be integrated into government systems to improve border processes. The p...
Ecosystem of Trust
A key part of reshaping our border is implementing technology and data innovations. This is at the heart of the Ecosystem of Trust (EoT) project. Initially set out in the 2025 UK Border Strategy, the EoT proposed a coll...
The Jamaica Customs Agency is cognizant of the benefits to be derived from the introduction and use of information and communication technology (ICT) in partnership with other partnering regulatory agencies (PRAs). Such an endeavour is considered strategic and necessary for improved service deliv...
As part of the reform, an electronic Single Administrative Document (eSAD) covering all declaration regimes was introduced, which resulted in an immediate reduction in the cost of documentary compliance for clients, and in the standardization of all procedures across all Customs Offices. Suppor...
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 req...
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 ser...
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 e...
Abu Dhabi (AD), the capital of the United Arab Emirates, was one of the early adopters of trade digitalization in the Middle East and has made considerable progress in this field. To achieve this, it needed to establish a solid partnership between key private- and public-sector stakeholders, incl...
The Advanced Trade and Logistics Platform
Back in 2014, the government selected the AD Ports Group – the master developer, operator and manager of commercial and communi...
The exercise brought valuable insights to participants, and 25 observations and recommendations were drafted. They addressed particularly OGA/Customs coordination, highlighting the need to establish a coordinated border management framework which would provide for joint inspections and enable Cu...
Data analytics – for example, automated selectivity rules – has become an increasingly important tool for Customs agencies. However, conventional data analytics has some critical limitations. It can only look for pre-defined patterns and rules, and cannot make use of unstructured data, which ...
Hackathons are no longer the exclusive domain of tech geeks. Several hundred big companies in other industries now organize them, including firms in industries as diverse as airlines, cars, telecommunications, beer and banking, as well as governmental and public in...
It is 07:45 on a Wednesday morning in May at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States (US) and passengers are boarding Delta Air Lines flight 334 to Mexico City. One by one the passengers scan their boarding passes and approach a camera that is set up on the air bridg...
As early as 2002, shortly after the worst terrorist attack in US history, legislation was passed requiring the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use biometric technology to issue visas and screen non-US citizens entering the country. Then in 2004, more legislati...
Field testing
Concurrently, CBP was doing its own laboratory tests and conducted a series of pilots. “We ran several pilots to help us learn about the different types of biometric technology in the different environment...
The ATA[1] Carnet is an international Customs document that permits duty-free and tax-free temporary admission of most goods for up to one year. It enables countries, businesses and border agencies to expedite the Customs process by utilizing unified, ready-to...
Going digital
The ATA Carnet is still today a paper-based document, although its digitization (turning the physical paper into an electronic file) and the digitalization o...
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 iden...
...
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 deduc...
Globalization and the rising threat of terrorism are just two of the many issues challenging border agencies’ ability to secure the swift movement of people and goods across borders. At the same time, emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT,, blockchain, biometrics, data analy...
On International Customs Day 2016, the Secretary General of WCO, Kunio Mikuriya, reminded us all that information and communications technology (ICT) is everywhere in today’s Customs workplace, and that ICT has transformed the way Customs and governments operate.
To meet the challenge of...
On 18 February 2015, the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) of the Dominican Republic officially opened a modern scientific laboratory occupying a site measuring 1,217 square metres in the city of Santo Domingo. The facility has an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), an emergency generator, kit...
Since the Fourth Industrial Revolution was mentioned in 2016 at the World Economic Forum, the impact of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the blockchain and “big data” have become issues discussed at length worldwide. In Korea, in preparing for the future, the governm...
2018: Project design
The KCS’s second step was to review areas where the use of blockchain solutions would make sense. The import/export clearance process was identified as a good start, given that it would benefit ...
India figured amongst the top 10 countries that had improved its ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2019. The most remarkable progress was made in the category “Trading across borders,” where India’s rank jumped from 146 to 80, the highest ju...
Exports
On 1 July 2017, India introduced a single tax called the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is levied on the supply of goods or services consumed in India. There is not GST on exports, and if transactions leading...
Never more than now has the need for a secure and contactless border experience been more important.
Border agencies face many challenges and are today operating in an era of unprecedented change. An increasingly volatile global travel and trade envir...
To change the way core border agency tasks and services are delivered in a faster, safer, and more user-friendly way, we believe the border agency of the future will be characterized by three core features.
Invisible
Conclusion
The border agency of the future will be invisible, adaptable and radically connected. Through these three characteristics, agencies will enable all their stakeholders to enter a new era of faster, safer, and mo...
Given increasing concerns about food security and food safety and the need to fight hunger and eliminate food waste, a review of the current processes for implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement and adoption of ...
Many importing countries require a Sanitary/Phytosanitary Certificate which is an official document issued by a competent authority of the exporting country to the exporter. It certifies that the animals or plants, and their derived products, covered by the Certificate have been inspected and are...
Back in June 2016, we wrote in the pages of this very magazine that “automatic detection tools, commonly known by the acronym ATR, which means automatic th...
Non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems are helpful; however, any system is only as effective as the human who operates it. Operators must be well-trained, sufficient in number and accustomed to the many different shapes and forms of wildlife items.
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....
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 work...
Technology is changing at what seems like an ever-increasing pace, raising discussion about autonomous cars and the future of employment, as well as the future of trade. Whilst cars are not quite driving themselves yet, global trade has seen a dramatic shift in the way that we shop.
I am t...
The Express Industry is an innovative industry by nature, bolting together extensive air and road networks, local pick-up and delivery services, and massive information technology (IT) services to create one integrated and secure supply chain, driven by the needs of our customers.
A major ...
In 2016, the Cameroon government opted to impose a systematic scanning policy for containers on both their import and export. This article assesses the impact of this mechanism in the Customs clearance procedure, focusing, in turn, on its efficiency, how it is gene...
Repositioning the scanner upstream of the clearance procedure
In 2006, mobile scanners had been positioned at the end of the Customs clearance procedure, and containers were subject to the scanning process only where:
...
In June 2019, experts in Customs, trade, transport, logistics and technology gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, to discuss matters relating to the various technologies used to manage flows of goods, people and means of conveyance across borders, with a focus on both technological products, services an...
Data is the new oil and free flow of data is needed
Customs has a lot of information at its disposal. The first information they collect is pre-arrival declaration information related to shippers, consignees, values and ...
There are many suppliers of analytical tools that Customs can call on to enhance its risk assessment capabilities. Some propose to use selectivity models and specialized databases to analyse the transactions that Customs has to ensure are compliant.
It is advisable, however, to carry out a...
Although we had the infrastructure and technical expertise to provide this service, we still needed three key elements:
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 Organizatio...
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 with...
In today’s interconnected world, the efficient movement of goods across borders is crucial to most economies. Ports and Customs play pivotal roles here. In this environment, as in many others, efficiency means digitalization of processes, and seamless flows o...
However, scaling up or down in response to fluctuating demand can be challenging with on-premises systems, often requiring costly hardware upgrades. IT teams are responsible for maintaining hardware, applying updates, and managing security, diverting resources from core activities. Establishing r...
When electronic data interchange (EDI) was introduced half a century ago, it rang in an era of business automation. Two decades later, in the eighties, standards began to converge towards the UN/EDIFACT standard, which set the foundations for global data exchange between businesses. Today, 95% of...
ONE Record explained
So what would it take to share data via the web? Let’s say that we want to make a booking for freight with an airline. We could create a web page with all the details and send them the URL. Here are a coup...
In April 2019, the WCO SAFE Working Group endorsed a document providing a summary of the technical specification for the proposed unified X-ray file format for non-intrusive inspection (NII) devices, codenamed the Unified File Format (UFF). Endorsement of the summary document by the WCO’s Polic...
UFF Phase 2 deliverables
The architecture of the UFF is outlined in a document entitled “Technical Sp...
Improving workplace productivity and helping people get their jobs done efficiently is critical for Customs administrations that have to deal with an increase in the number of cross-border movements, be it cargo or people.
With a forecasted growth in trade and travel being driven by EXPO 2...
The system acts like a tiny coach sitting on a manager’s shoulder throughout the day. And every now and then, the coach whispers something like, “this person did something great recently,” or “this process could be improved.”
The Productivity Engine produces a productivity score ...
Statistics have shown that criminals are increasingly active in seeking out and exploiting the vulnerabilities of air travel to illegally smuggle dangerous, prohibited and restricted items by air. The WCO Illicit Trade Report 2019 reveals that “in 2018, 126 countries submitted 45,497 drug traff...
In countries where scanning equipment is available, one solution would be for Customs authorities to increase the inspection ratio for inbound travellers and their belongings. However, frequent screening with traditional standalone X-ray scanners can sometimes be inconvenient, stressful and even ...
Customs administrations and trade operators both want to reduce the complexity of compiling and exchanging data. However, there can be tension between the Customs administration’s need to access data and the company’s need to protect confidential informatio...
SFML: developing analytical algorithms without exchanging data
As an example, let us consider the case of secure federated machine learning (SFML),[1] a machine-learning technique that...
Vietnam Customs use case
In Vietnam, material used for export production can be imported duty-free. Material import and consumption are controlled by the General Departmen...
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 na...
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 th...
In 2013, as Brazil was preparing to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, the Brazilian Customs administration started exploring ways to improve air passenger control in order to be able to effectively process the athletes and millions of tourists who were expected to attend or part...
New analytical tools
Until 2014, Customs officers posted at the airport based their decision on whether to select and control a passenger and his/her baggage on the results of behavioural analysis, questioning, baggage surveillance, and o...
The management of land or maritime borders is different from that of points of entry such as ports or airports, where the main constraint is not the scale of the territory, but rather the scale of the flows. If time is the principle constraint in ports or airports, then space is the main challeng...
Geodata in use today
State agencies use geographic tools for many purposes: to analyse land use; to plan traffic infrastructure; to monitor the environment and agriculture; to respond to disaster management; and to manage...
The Botswana Unified Revenue Service recently implemented a new, modern IT system to manage their foreign trade operations. The migration from the old to the new system had to be smooth to ensure business continuity. This article presents the rationale behind the m...
Rationale for migrating to a new system
Several factors influenced the decision to move to a new system. Botswana’s rankings in the World Bank’s flagship report, Doing Business 2011, prompted measures that were aimed ...
Increasing the efficiency of transportation is key to reducing the impact of trade operations on the environment. To achieve significant results, Customs, border agencies, traders and logistics operators must digitalize their processes and share relevant data. Howe...
Working with industry leaders such as DHL, DPD, Cosco and Kuehne + Nagel, as well as with Customs administrations and other public authorities, MJC2 has developed new AI-driven algorithms and optimization solutions, which address areas such as real-time logistics planning, manufacturin...
Singapore is spearheading the implementation of TradeTrust, which is a framework comprised of a set of globally accepted standards to facilitate the digitalization of documents used in international trade and logistics and their interoperability, and also a set of ...
For example, the Bill of Lading (BL)[1] is still provided in hardcopy in many countries, creating inefficiencies. It requires time and money to courier the BL document to destination ports of discharge, plus there are risks of the BL getting lost in transit, w...
Ensuring the enforcement of a national strategic trade control (STC) system is a key requirement for all Customs administrations. Strategic goods comprise weapons of mass destruction (WMD), conventional weapons, and the materials, technology and equipment that may be used in their development or ...
In the United States, for example, the Department of Commerce uses identifiers called export control classification numbers (ECCNs) to categorize items that are subject to export control regulations. These ECCNs predominantly contain strategic goods. US Customs and Border Protection uses the Harm...
In late 2019, French Customs set up a programme called “Valorisation des Données” (“Data Exploitation”), placing data at the heart of its various lines of work. Its intention in embarking on this project was to seek out new tools to transform the way in which its officers carry out their...
Apps
Below is a brief overview of the apps that have been developed.
“Minoration de valeur” (“Unde...
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 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 ch... 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 contac...
Just a few years ago, the Dubai government set a very aggressive vision to compete with the major cities of the world, and to stand out as the leading trade hub in the Middle East. This left Dubai Customs with no choice but to evolve and transform.
The characteristics of the environment wh...
Finnish Customs has developed an online Customs duty calculator, enabling consumers buying goods online to easily determine the amount of Customs duty and value added tax (VAT) that they more than likely have to pay to clear their goods.
Users must first select the types of goods they are ...
The amount indicated by the Customs duty calculator is only referential and not all categories of goods are listed by the tool. However, it goes a long way to informing users of what buying goods online involves.
This project is an example of innovative and agile development work. The deve...
Towards a digital transformation
COVID-19 has put immense pressure on traders and supply-chain managers and has highlighted the need for more traceability and visibility in trade transactions, and for more interoperability in IT systems,...
How it works
As soon as a company AEO certification is approved, a Customs officer in country A uploads information on that company to CADENA. The applicati...
In August 2020, Dubai Customs started deploying a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), also called an underwater drone, to boost its marine inspection capabilities. The drone has already proved useful in tackling attempts by traffickers and criminals to bring contraband and prohibited goods into the ...
Dubai Customs does not have its own diving team and, in the past, the Customs rummage team would normally search the cabins and the decks of a boat but not underneath the boat. It relies on the services of Dubai Police to do so. Now, the team can use the drone to check any part of a boat as far a...
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 exchang...
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 S...
Dubai Customs launched a smart mobile app enabling passengers arriving in Dubai to securely submit Customs declarations electronically, thus bypassing the current traditional paper forms. The online application, called iDeclare, simplifies the Customs clearance process for passengers by enabling ...
There can be no improvement in Customs performance without an upgrade of the information system. Given that the system has to be adapted to Customs, a profession that is constantly evolving in the wake of the amendments to the legislative arsenal underpinning foreign trade, this improvement must ...
Process approach
The “computerization process” initiated in the 1990s was rolled out without any consideration for one key approach: the process approach. Emerging in ...
PROFILE, a project funded under the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, aims to develop and test modern data analytics tools with a view to improving Customs risk management techniques.
Ultimately, the project will facilitate and accelerate the uptake by...
Project consortium
The project brings together 14 partners from eight countries across Europe: five Customs administrations, leading technology providers, and universities...
In Malaysia, the use of technology to support Customs operations has increased steadily over the last few years. As in many countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed this trend and the use of online communication tools and technology such as non-intrusive inspection equipment has become an...
The FAT was supervised by the Deputy Director General of Customs, Mr. Mohd Yunus Charlie Charington. It took place over a week and was carefully prepared with the manufacturers to ensure a smooth process without compromising quality. All tests were carefully examined and adapted with each process...
One of the main topics of discussion during the 2019 WCO Conference on the Future Direction of the Harmonized System (HS) was HS complexity. Concern was expressed about the difficulty of HS classification especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that are being granted the opportunity to ...
Keyword search tools
The most ubiquitous of the technologies used to power classification assistance tools use keyword search operators. You’ll find these tools in one form or another in Customs management systems, elec...
The Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) is constantly evolving. Its objective is to simplify and digitize all processes and to increase the organization’s flexibility. DaziT is the name given to the programme that brings together the various activities undertaken to achieve t...
Automatic activation
Automatic activation is a key component of the new end-to-end digitized Customs process which is gradually being introduced as part of the DaziT programme. At this juncture, two applications, Periodic...
Mobility and flexibility
The transformation is not limited to digitization; that is just the tip of the iceberg. As an organization, the FOCBS will be undergoing a radical transformation to become more agile and more flex...
This article gives a snapshot of the evolution of risk management within Armenia Customs. It looks in particular into the analytical tools developed to strengthen anti-counterfeiting enforcement.
The implementation of a risk management tool to manage ...
Flexibility and continuous improvements
The tool built is flexible and undergoes continuous development and expansion. Like other automated systems, it collects, organizes and categorizes data from various IT systems on t...
At the Georgian Cyber Security and IT Innovation Conference held in 2019, the IPR module developed by the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia won the prize for “Best Online Information Resource”. During the event, the State Revenue Committee was also awarded “The Best IT Mana...
In a world where international trade is the lifeblood of economies, ensuring the smooth flow of goods across borders while maintaining rigorous controls is a challenging balancing act. Dubai, one of the world’s busiest trade hubs, is meeting this challenge he...
Cross Border E-commerce platform
The Government, guided by its strategic vision to establish Dubai as a global e-commerce hub and reduce the cost associated with e-commerce operations, is committed to ach...
Following the creation of a Command Centre within the Enforcement Division’s Anti-Smuggling Department in 2012, Serbia Customs has significantly improved its capacity to fight smuggling. This improvement can be attributed to the implementation of a range of tools...
The Maldives Customs Service recently installed the Global Travel Assessment System (GTAS), an advance passenger data risk assessment system that enables advance passenger information (API) and passenger name record (PNR) data to be collected and analysed. In this ...
Implementation journey
Up until 2017, the Maldives Customs Service did not have a clear action plan for the implementation of an API and PNR transmission and processing system. But in October 2017, a representative of th...
Abu Dhabi is leading the region’s digital transformation drive with a view to moving all of the emirate’s trade online during 2021
Although the maritime transport industry handles 90%[1] of global trad...
Five years on, and after spending so long behind the technology curve, many of the world’s leading maritime players are now embracing a bold new era of digital innovation, and none more so than in the Arabian Peninsula, ...
In 2021, the Government of Mozambique launched the Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) with a view to bolster the supervision capacity for transit goods and hence promote legal cross-border and regional trade by reducing smuggling, theft and losses of goods across the supply chain.
Moz...
In order to address this challenge, the Government of Mozambique has established a company under a public-private partnership scheme to implement and operate an electronic sealing and cargo tracking system for the next 30 years. The system has been rolled out across the entire country, covering t...
Using data analytics, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi has developed an application automating the measurement of release and clearance times at the border. The result is an ability to measure time release dynamically and in real time, and to overcome the limitations of t...
Limitations of traditional TRS
Legacy Time Release Studies are static (one time) and based on manual data collection, observation, and qualitative analysis. This lack of ...
A new Customs agency
In March 2018, the Chinese government decided to integrate China’s entry-exit inspection and quarantine duties and workforce into China Customs. Since 20 April, the previous entry-exit inspection an...
More accurate targeting
The new Customs information system has been built to integrate and analyse “Big Data” – i.e. data aggregated from various sources and in multiple forms. A Big Data Application Centre and a...
The Saudi economic and social reform plan, called Saudi Vision 2030, aims at inducing long-term economic growth that is not reliant only upon oil exports. Saudi Arabia is the largest market in the MENA region and a gateway to a region of over 424 million consumers. Leveraging its unique geographi...
Integrating the Single Window into TradeLens
Since 2017, Saudi Customs had been actively engaging in the digitalization of its clearance procedures and its handling of shipments. An electronic national system for the mana...
Singapore Customs launched a Trade Finance Compliance Service on the country’s Networked Trade Platform to augment trade finance compliance efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Banks and financial institutions offer multiple sol...
Trade finance and trade-based money laundering
As part of their money laundering related monitoring and reporting obligations, banks and other financial institutions have to assess whether these trade transactions are leg...
During the past four years, the Oman Directorate General of Customs has been working on the Bayan system, the IT solution used by border regulatory agencies to process all trade procedures and declarations, and issue import permits and licenses. While deploying the system, the administration also...
Training
One of the challenges in implementing the Bayan System was to provide all parties connected with the necessary training on using the system. For example, some needed to understand how to issue import or export pe...
China Customs plays a key role in the administration of rules of origin, from their formulation to their implementation. Insiders who follow trade and Customs reforms in China may have noticed the emergence, in recent years, of new expressions and terms in this dom...
Exporters can submit their certificate application in paper copy or electronically, either by connecting to the International Trade Single Window System or by visiting the “Internet + Customs” website. Once the application has been examined and approved, China Customs notifies the exporter. I...
Rail freight transport is expected to grow, alongside the projected growth in global trade, more than threefold to US$27 trillion in 2030.[1] Two growth factors for rail freight transport’s growth are China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ̵...
Recent tech advancements
In rail transport, high-energy X-ray systems are most often used to screen rail freight and detect threats or anomalies. In recent years, advances...
Body-worn cameras are small cameras which can be clipped onto clothes or worn as a headset and turned on to record video and audio. In some countries, enforcement agencies are using the devices to monitor officers on patrol or on other assignments that bring them i...
Research
The Department conducted extensive research and practical experiments to determine the required specifications to be met by the cameras. The team in charge of the...
As Virtual Reality (VR) solutions are creating new ways to learn and become more embedded in the private and public sectors, Dubai Customs recently deployed a one-of-a-kind VR training programme to train their inspectors for fieldwork. The training is designed to improve inspectors’ efficiency ...
Selecting cargo for inspections and examinations using basic methods has limitations, so, to enhance their enforcement capability, Customs administrations need a paradigm shift in the way they deal with targeting. They need to leverage data science, an interdiscipl...
The architecture’s robustness is underpinned by its ability to combine multiple advanced data science components with human intelligence. It enables Indian Customs to integrate multiple data sources, generate meaningful insights and utilize targets derived from both data science and human exper...
The use of sophisticated concealment methods by traffickers requires the use of proper inspection equipment by Customs administrations. As with all modes of transport, vessels present their own challenges when it comes to search operations. Rummaging vessels is extremely time consuming and expens...
As private and public entities are being forced by the coronavirus to move their communications and file sharing to online collaboration platforms, they should be aware of the potential security threats they face and of the need to use professional tools in order t...
Customs administrations using these kinds of tools could put themselves at risk in terms of, for example, data leakage or security breaches. Lone worker safety, confidentiality of negotiations, product and transportation safety, and operator trust and confidentiality are at stake where unsecured ...
According to research, a single container shipment can generate up to 200 communications, and the administrative cost of processing the accompanying documentation is estimated to be 15‑20% of the overall cost of transporting the goods. It is therefore essential to find easier, more efficient w...
Existing model
Blockchain can help digitize the shipping industry, where ownership, traceability and security are paramount. A current processing model used by a Customs administration to receive and process advance cargo information (ACI...
A host of Finns imported goods from outside the European Union (EU) in 2022 for their private use. Of these individuals, 250,000 used the Customs Duty Calculator
At the time, Finnish Customs was implementing a strategy that included a component for pilot projects. The budget for pilot projects made it possible to start cooperation with VTT, one of Europe’s leading research institutions. VTT already had experience in the area of carbon footprints and had...
This section of the magazine gathers several articles on the “Blockchain,” a term which refers to a type of data structure that identifies and tracks transactions digitally and shares this information across a distributed network of computers. Blockchain is one type of distributed ledger: dis...
In terms of governance, Blockchain technology is decentralized. There is, however, an operator function that sets the rules for everyone in the network, along with regulators and government agencies. If the network detects that something “untoward” may be going on, the associated individual p...
As a vendor who designs and deploys border processing systems, we have seen many Customs and border administrations make significant investments towards optimizing and modernizing their border processing capabilities and methodologies in an effort to meet the demands of today’s fast-paced inter...
Random assignments for inspection are simply not effective, yet have emerged as a way for many Customs administrations to manage the growing volume of trade arriving at their borders. To compound the problem, some widely used systems automate this obsolete approach to border management, and refer...
Dubai, the second largest emirate of the UAE, stands among the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), bearing the fruits of adopting incentivizing policies and “smart government” initiatives. Recently, the Government of Dubai rolled out the emirate’s ...
E-commerce challenges
With a 25% yearly growth rate, the MENA region is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market. Dubai consumers and businesses are major contributors to this growth, which is expected to continue ...
The delicate balance between facilitating legitimate trade and combatting illicit trade raises numerous challenges for Customs administrations. Three of these appear to be common to all administrations.
The first shared challenge is a disproportionate ratio of personnel to workload. This h...
Going beyond risk management
What does it mean to shift to decision intelligence? Rather than considering one container or shipment at a time, Customs authorities can use a variety of exploration techniques to unveil hid...
The border is a national asset. To boost national competitiveness, facilitating legitimate cross-border trade must be high on every government’s agenda. The World Trade Organization (WTO) estimates that ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement could boost global trade by up to 1 trillio...
Blockchain: a new perspective for cross-border trade
Two years ago, blockchain was still largely a buzzword. Today, it’s high on the agenda of most leading Customs and trade organizations. Rather than asking whether blo...
Peru’s air and maritime ports of entry and exit are close to capacity, which creates a series of issues that affect the country’s overall competitiveness, including making imports and exports more expensive in today’s global market.
Among other difficulties, until 2018, any entrepren...
WCO Time Release Study
A few years ago, the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (SUNAT) started devising a plan to help these companies make better decisions when hiring Customs brokers, in order to...
What is to be done when non-intrusive inspection (NII) equipment has reached the end of its life? In this article, we asked Customs administrations and manufacturers how they manage the decommissioning of NII systems.
The average operating life of con...
Some legislation may provide that obsolete scanning equipment should still be treated as government property or be sold by public auction. As a result of the public auction, the equipment moves into the hands of a public or private company. Here again, the equipment manufacturer should be offered...
In Uganda
The Customs Department of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) initiates the decommissioning process through its Procurement and Disposal Unit, and must inform the Uganda Atomic Energy Council in writing of its in...
Where are we today?
We are living in an age of increasing and evolving threats – from explosives and biological pathogens, to cyber-attacks. The technology to counter some of these threats is already in use: high penet...
Key drivers for OA adoption include the need to respond quickly to ever-changing threats; to leverage new and developing technologies such as artificial intelligence; and to produce detailed management information from an increasingly complex screening operation. It is perceived as a more flexibl...
Between 2021 and 2023, French Customs trialled the use of cameras in covert surveillance systems on the roads. Positioned discreetly on the ground and connected to a 4G system, they allow Customs officers to detect suspicious movements remotely. As mobile devic...
Covert surveillance: Daily working hypothesis for inland Customs
The image of a Customs officer standing at a barrier has never been anything but an illusion. The annals o...
In 2016, in Germany, seven workers at a warehouse were hospitalized following the unpacking of two containers. They had inhaled toxic gases invisible to the eye and with no noticeable smell, and were suffering from severe eye irritation, respiratory distress and nausea.
Such incidents rare...
From 26 to 29 October 2015, for the fifth time, the WCO organized its Technology & Innovation (TI) Forum, a platform for leading experts and decision-makers from various border agencies, technology companies, academia and international organizations to exchange ideas on border management, enf...
The movement of goods and means of transport from, across or to, the European Union (EU) involves many actors in the supply chain who must exchange information and comply with several pieces of EU legislation and, in particular, with Customs, transport, environmental protection, safety, and secur...
Machine learning, i.e. the process of teaching a computer system how to make accurate predictions when fed data, can help Customs administrations to identify revenue fraud or other illegal activities. In this article, TTEK, a technology solutions firm, explains how...
At the time of writing, there are 164 countries that are members of the WTO; the most recent addition being Afghanistan in July 2016. In addition, several other countries have chosen voluntarily to adopt the Agreement as the basis for determining Customs value. To meet the terms of their internat...
The implementation of X-ray machines to support security screening was introduced approximately 50 years ago to accelerate the process of baggage inspection. Equipment was then developed to enable the non-intrusive inspection of vehicles, containers and trains.
Today’s X-ray systems pro...
When an object is X-rayed, some of the X-rays are absorbed by the object, whereas other X-rays pass straight through it. It is therefore the density and thickness of the materials that affect how easily X-rays pass through objects. The lower the density of a material, the more transparent the mat...
New regulatory frameworks are constantly being introduced by governments with the aim of ensuring that the trading of goods remains compliant with their goals. While the regulators place the onus of compliance mainly on the importers themselves, Customs are also faced with the immense responsibil...
Analyzing the regulators’ datasets is no longer sufficient
More than 10,000 regulatory frameworks impacting international trade were introduced in 2022 alone, and it is no longer possible to manage trade flows without t...
The WCO recognized the value of research and education as part of the response to the many challenges Customs administrations are facing. Crucial in stimulating research is enabling researchers and professionals to interact with each other. As hosts of the 5th ...
The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has been supporting the development of a blockchain solution to enable automated, secure and efficient information sharing on Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs) among the Customs administrations of Mexico, Peru and C...
To inform each other, designated Customs officers in each administration send, by email, an excel file containing the data elements that the countries agreed to exchange on their respective AEOs. Customs administrations engaged in an MRA also determine the period during which data should be excha...
The Pan-European Network of Customs Practitioners (PEN-CP) is a five-year project funded by the European Union (EU) under Horizon 2020 (H2020), the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness. Th...
Main activities
Instead of addressing a single Customs security challenge or problem, like it is done in most EU-funded H2020 research and development projects, PEN-CP participants carry out a broad range of small-scale a...
Every year, the WCO IT Conference and Exhibition brings together Customs, trade, transport and technology provider representatives to discuss matters relating to the various technologies used to manage flows of goods, people and means of conveyance across borders. Besides enabling participants to...
The next step should be to level the playing field with respect to performance. As one speaker asked: “Rather than mandate the IQI or penetration performances on an NII system, why not standardize those along with the testing regime in which they are met?” Similarly: “Instead of prescribing...
AI can take the fight against commercial fraud to the next level
AI and machine learning can enable Customs to identify cases of undervaluation, misclassification, misdescription and misdeclared country of origin. Experts...
From 31 October to 2 November 2017, for the sixth time, the WCO organized its Technology & Innovation Forum, a platform for leading technology experts and decision-makers from various border agencies, as well as representatives of the academic world and international organizations, to discuss...
In 1993, the Department of Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB), which has under its umbrella both the Customs service and the internal revenue service, launched Brazil’s Integrated International Trade System (Siscomex) as part of its efforts to implement computer-based procedures and controls. The ...
Machine learning
The artificial intelligence (AI) tool is called SISAM, a Portuguese acronym for “Customs Selection System through Machine Learning” in English. This computerized tool has been in use since August 2014...
A dynamic and challenging operating environment
Trade is of paramount importance to Singapore, as a globally-oriented and open economy. The importance of trade to the country is reflected in the fact that the value of Sin...
Whereas the former Customs and Excise Department was mainly focused on revenue matters, the new Singapore Customs is vested with responsibility for both revenue and trade facilitation matters. This working arrangement allows the ICA and Singapore Customs to share the responsibility of securing Si...
“Did you pack this bag yourself?” It’s a question many of us are used to being asked when checking in at an airport. For a shipping container, the situation is more complex. Most organizations never communicate directly with the party that stuffed...
A global data pipeline
TradeLens realizes the ‘data pipeline’ concept developed by respected career Customs officers, Frank Heijmann and David Hesketh, and others, which was explored in various European Union (EU) research pro...
One of the chapters of the innovation white paper[1] recently published by the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) is titled “Innovation in ports – not only about technology”. It argues that innovation is also about process efficiency,...
A regular steel container can be turned into a Smart Container by having devices and sensors installed in it. At the end of the contract with the IoT service provider, they will be dismounted. There are also containers with IoT hardware embedded into the original design during the manufacturing p...
Customs administrations have a full array of tools and technologies at their disposal to test material and substances – both in the field and in their labs. These tools all have benefits and limitations. This article introduces an innovation which enables field o...
IMS is most familiar to the air traveling community when airport security, such as the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), pulls travellers aside to check their bags for explosives using a trace explosives-detection device (TEDD). When airport security use a TEDD, they are looking ...
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with its Hong Kong counterpart in November 2017 to jointly develop a cross-border distributed ledger technology (DLT) based infrastructure that will link up digital tr...
“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”
TradeNet is almost 30 years old. Launched in 1989, when the Internet was still the domain of academics and researchers, it was well ahead of its time and its successful implementatio...
Digitalization has simplified Customs clearance in many areas, especially in the declaration of imports and exports. However, various data discontinuities and queries unnecessarily delay cross-border process flows. A group of major logistics companies, software pro...
The added value of blockchain usage lies in the tamper-proof provision of the relevant data at an early stage in the process and in feeding information on Customs clearance back into the logistics process to make it available to the other players up and downstream of the supply chain. In this way...
Detecting some regulated or prohibited commodities through the use of traditional non-intrusive detection equipment remains a challenge today. Take cocaine, for example. It is very often concealed in shipments of bananas and other fruits with a very similar density to the drug. Since x-ray is a d...
Recent developments, especially with silicon chips and machine-learning technology becoming more affordable, have changed the game. A scan operation that would have taken several hours twenty years ago, now requires only a few minutes. Muon tomography today finds applications in dom...
WCO events went digital in 2020, including the WCO annual conference dedicated to technology, recently rebranded as the WCO TECH-CON. The theme of the 2020 edition[1] was dictated by the circumstances, and the 50 speakers were asked to share their experience o...
The pandemic has also provided an opportunity to internalize the idea of digitization, which was always an option, but not necessarily a priority, for governments and their agencies. C...
As in other sectors, the logistics sector has benefited from digitization in recent years, allowing a smoother flow of goods across the globe. These advancements have promised, and to some extent also delivered, efficiency and convenience. However, a more ‘inconv...
A peculiar workflow that’s difficult to correct
While interacting with Customs brokers or Customs department staff within a company, I often observed this peculiar workflow: it involves the printing of information that was digitally available at som...
On the horizon is Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), a paradigm that takes AI a step further. Here, Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms, including Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, come into play, elevating the understanding of context and meaning within documents to a new l...