International Trade

Electronic Customs Clearance: Keeping Up To Speed Across Europe And Beyond

By Wolfgang Schwab, Chief Strategy Officer for Customs, Kewill plc - Expert on Customs

A move away from paper-based processes to electronic processing has always been an essential strategy to improve efficiencies in customs clearance. Wolfgang Schwab identifies some of the challenges that exist in implementing an electronic customs strategy and recommends a pragmatic way forward.

The last few years have seen several customs procedures switch entirely from outdated paper-based processes to electronic processing. The New Computerised Transit System (NCTS), which previously processed transit operations using paper forms, was mandated in 2005 and a year later, the Export Control System/Automated Export System (ECS/AES) was launched. The latter comes into full effect in Europe on 1 July 2009, when customs authorities of all EU member states need to have adopted electronic export declarations replacing the paper-based systems.

The trend of electronically enabling customs procedures is likely to continue, as the European Commission has already laid the groundwork for the electronic processing of all European customs procedures with the Electronic Customs Multi-Annual Strategic Plan (MASP). The next stage of MASP is already on the horizon with the introduction of the Import Control System (ICS), proposed for 1 January 2011. These developments are being forced by the new customs code that makes electronic notification the norm and reserves paperwork for exceptional cases.

However, the introduction of harmonised IT processes does not mean that a single process will link up all European countries. In fact, every EU member state has created its own IT procedures and enables connections to other systems in the community in different ways in terms of both technology and content. For example, the export notification process mentioned earlier, which has been developed by European Commission workgroups, will not be uniformly implemented in all countries. This means that companies operating... continued on page two >

 

 

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