More on Intra-Asia Trade Compliance

Editor’s Note: Trade Tech chief executive officer Bryn Heimbeck gave SCMR readers a look at Japan’s new advanced filing requirements that come into effect early next year with Part I of his analysis published yesterday. Here is Part II.

Twenty-seven countries in Europe have implemented EU ENS (Entry Summary Declaration) for all modes of transport, says Heimbeck. He adds that China is working on its own version of a 24-hour rule and is implementing it already in several ports.

“Mexico, Australia, and Brazil have rules in place as well so we can and should expect this trend to continue as more of the major trading countries see security processes as part of both an enhanced national security effort as well as a benefit to trade,” says Heimbeck.

The WCO’s security framework has three primary goals – interdict international terrorism; facilitate trade; and enhance revenue collection.

“The facilitation of trade is the true silver lining in this process,” he says. “Pundits, professionals, and professors have all been talking for years about the gains that come from visibility of the supply chain.”

Heimbeck says it should be no surprise to professionals in international trade and transport that when the governments got involved at looking at the existing flow of trade into their countries from a national security perspective, they found what we have all known for years; it’s hard to see what is going on.

“They came to the same conclusion as the rest of us – visibility to the supply chain is essential,” he says.

And, they have had the clout to mandate that processes that bring visibility to the supply chain be put in place.

“We are already starting to see testaments to the gains that companies have realized in their supply chains in the U.S. resulting from information now available to them as a result of the 24-hour rule,” says Heimbeck.

The latest round of security enhancement came in the U.S. with the implementation of 10+2. This modification or extension of the 24-hour rule required enhanced information on the suppliers shipping the cargo and the nature of the cargo.

“Customs brokers in the US have been gaining significantly advanced access to data and have been making that data available to their customers on their cargo tracking pages,” he adds.

NVOCCs in the U.S. who have been filing AMS for a number of years now, have also reported significant advances in customer satisfaction coming from their ability to take AMS information and make it available to their clients before the cargo departs from the origin.

In both cases, the combination of advance cargo data collection and web-based visibility tools are giving importers much better visibility to their supply chains at a level of detail that they had not previously had. This has been good for the trade and we can expect to see more benefits coming as trading parties can come to expect access to information concerning their supply chains in a greater number of ports and countries.

“The result is already in place in major trade lanes and is growing steadily,” concludes Heimbeck. “Soon, we will all look back on the establishment of these information super highways and see them as no less critical to the success and expansion of international trade as our physical highway systems.”

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