CUSTOMS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMPLIANCE FORUM

Customs work is now on a gradual course to move from manual form filling to data dissemination. Many of us will remember many false starts along this road over the last 20 years and may therefore be skeptical about whether or not this may happen but I can assure you that the change is already under way and is gathering pace in a way that will affect everyone who seeks to move goods across borders be they exporters, importers, freight forwarders, customs brokers, warehouses, haulers or any other type of business associated with international trade. The biggest promise of this swap from form filling {even if it is an on-line form that you can email to the relevant authorities) is the idea that data should be made available to all the relevant authorities in one place and then be automatically disseminated from there to whoever needs it I doubt anyone would deny that this would be a big improvement over the situation today!