Some thoughts on Customs in summertime

Customs is about borders. Borders used to be the first frontier for protection of a nations people, industry and market. Today it is the last frontier.

Today the border starts when we order something online or buy an airline ticket. The entire value chain is our common border and it needs to be protected and optimized, also across geographical borders.

For ages there have been a view that enforcement of regulations and trade facilitation are on opposites sides of a scale, or described as two sides of the same coin. Neither is true anymore.

The uncertainty we have seen in the world has accelerated trade digitalization, enabling new ways of compliance supervision and monitoring of various regulations.

It is time to go from rethinking the global trade system – to actually changing it.

Fragmented transactional trade and customs processes is for the past, validated echosystems and networks is the future.

The next step of the process of inter-connected digital trade corridors includes a new paradigm for borders.

We are today designing data-driven AI powered trusted trade lanes and intelligent digital trade corridors, where border management is integrated for all stakeholders involved.

These digital trade corridors provides a range of new possibilities and enables an opportunity to introduce joint prosperity production zones between countries, connecting geofenced production areas using supervised digital trade corridors and digital smart borders.

We are already doing supply chain stakeholder risk mapping for all tiers using AI, we do upstream compliance visibility screening and actioning for a wide range of various risks and we collect verified data all through the supply chain, empowering value chains to become more resilient and predictable.

By building dynamic digital trade compliance records and masterdata product catalogues – we create a Passport for Goods, a game changer for international trade. We can now introduce a global entry for goods for traders showing a new level of trust, powered by verified data and supervised compliance monitoring – in a model for one single source of truth.

These passports consists of data badges that are larger in content than the digital (technical) product passports previously introduced in some marlets and have a different purpose. The Passport for Goods also includes entity data, commercial data, customs data and goods movement data.

This is what smart borders looks like in reality, enabling smart customs and smarter trade.

What will be drivers for next steps of this new paradigm shift?  

The UK Growth Commission has through application of a scientific calculation model proven that trade facilitation is a guarantee for growth and that any country can apply the model to get their own business case for smart borders. The positive results when we have applied the model are astonishing.

The European Union is designing its next customs model with the introduction of the EU Customs Data Hub and an AEO superstatus (Trust&Check). This will change the way customs is done in the direction outlined in this article for in one of the largest markets in the world.

In addtion a number of countries are pilot testing supply chain visibility driven digital trade corridors right now.

World trade is changing. We are changing it for the better, when it is needed the most. Get ready for the journey.

Legendary music producer Jon Landau once said, ’I have seen the future of rock’n roll and it’s name is Bruce Springsteen’.

I have seen the future of global trade – it’s name is Passport for Goods.