Strengthening ties with agencies may be the way forward for Customs

Last week, the Policy Commission of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), at its 64th session held at Shanghai, asked the customs administrations all over the world to use all the WCO instruments and tools to track goods and to share information with other government agencies in order to ensure cargo security in cross-border transactions. How will a positive response from the Indian Customs to this call affect importers, exporters and other agencies actively engaged in international trade?

The immediate provocation for the WCO communiqué is the recent attempt in West Asia to use air cargo as a delivery mechanism for explosive devices. The plot was prevented by the coordinated actions of several agencies, including Customs, responding to specific intelligence information.

WCO says that the Customs administrations possess enough information on supply chains and cargo movement and the powers to inspect, in principle, every cross-border movement of goods, passengers and conveyances. They can specify data requirements, monitor cargo movements, identify high-risk cargo, and apply various control techniques including knowledge of traders, risk analysis, scanning and physical examination to identify patterns and gather information that can lead to actionable intelligence.

WCO’s SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade, to strengthen end-to-end supply chain security through enhanced Customs-to-Customs networking and formal partnerships with trade, places emphasis on risk analysis and export control, preferably based on advance cargo data, besides encouraging the use of non-intrusive technology (NII) as a component of a risk-based processing system. It contains the Customs/business innovation of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) programmes, which provides benefits to administrations and the security partners in the private sector. WCO’s Harmonised System (HS) Code is the global standard to identify goods in international trade. WCO promotes usage of the WCO Data Model as the global standard that links goods, related parties, and means of transport together for risk assessment and compliance verification and also advocates use of its Customs Enforcement Network (CEN), its communication tool CENcomm and the national application nCEN.

Indian Customs administration has already taken a number of measures such as introduction of HS Code, licensing of Customs house agents, electronic data interchange facilities, know your customer guidelines for AEO using its computer networks, scanning sensitive cargo, etc. However, the major focus is on collection of duties, trade facilitation and prevention of misuse of value-based export incentive schemes.

The examination of cargo is selective and destinations such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Colombo and Singapore are designated as sensitive based more on revenue considerations and not on cargo security considerations.

The way forward for the Indian Customs may be to strengthen cooperation with agencies such as International Civil Aviation Organisations, increased security focus on all modes of transport for outbound, transit and inbound movements and greater interaction with AEO such as importers, exporters, Customs house agents, shipping companies and cargo handling agencies, etc. All such partners in the supply chain may be subject to greater disciplines, such as advance cargo declaration.

WCO has also announced that the international Customs community will celebrate 2011 as the ‘Year of Knowledge’ with the theme, “Knowledge, a catalyst for Customs excellence”. Hopefully, cargo security will be an important element of the endeavour and the Indian Customs will do everything to further educate its staff and disseminate useful information to the trade.

Email: tncr@sify.com