|
A report on a special international conference
a European panorama on electronic customs
Alban GRUSON, CONEX CEO, took the initiative of inviting foreign “politicians” and “customs experts” to explain to what degree their respective countries have advanced in becoming electronic customs services. The date for the major changeover, set for 1 January 2007, is fast approaching. This is when all European states, including France, must have dematerialised their customs procedures (via the DELTA project in France). As international administrations and “deciders” recognise the customs software specialist as an expert interlocutor, CONEX embraced this role in organising an invaluable discussion forum.
|
| Audio Visual set no. 2 at the SITL (International Transport and Logistics Week) with a packed audience: More than 200 people were seated in front of the panel of experts, chaired by Alban GRUSON.
|
|
The first to speak was Hervé JAMAR, Belgian deputy state secretary for fiscal fraud and finance modernisation. He detailed the application timetable of the PLDA – Paperless Douanes & Accises(Paperless Customs and Excise), the Anglo-French acronym whose French equivalent is DELTA. There will be three stages between September 2006 and July 2007 to totally dematerialise the treatment of Belgian customs procedures. Dematerialise is the word: Hervé JAMAR shared his memories of a pile of documents two metres high just to clear a single container through customs in the port of Antwerp.
|
Mrs Henrike GARTENFEKL, customs inspector in Fribourg, Germany, described ATLAS – automatic system for local tariff and customs clearance.
An integrated procedure – services tool in which customs tariff is available for consultation free-of-charge via Internet but requires payment if the customs agent wishes to inject the values directly into his own system. Free circulation is further encouraged through other options, for example, supplying customs information via the Internet or through customs-authorized software. "Paper" declarations will be tolerated only until 1 January 2008 …
|
|
|
The “Dogane italiene” (Italian Customs) technical innovations department director, Mrs Teresa ALVARO, insisted on their “method”: in order to rationalise, simplify, harmonise, make procedures interoperable and to reduce costs, Italian Customs first redefined the business process, before deriving applicable rules. With this positive and original approach, the Italian administration was anxious to avoid extra costs and delays. The AIDA procedure – very “Verdi” in its tone – which resulted, had to ensure the ability to share information between 4 000 offices, 9 000 public servants, 600 000 declarants etc. for some 10 million declarations per year. Italian modernisation integrates container scanners capable of sounding / probing the goods inside. These findings can then be relayed to a database for comparison.
|
Wieslaw CZYZOWICZ has a string of impressive titles: ex-director general of Polish customs, professor of customs policies and law, Head of the “Company Law” Department at the Warsaw School of Economics, Head of Faculty of Customs, Transport and Logistics Law at the Warsaw University of Economics. But it was with much humour that he described his country that for him is: an immense corridor of cross-border trade flow, north / south and east / west. “In Western Europe, you concentrate on maritime borders. This new “silk route” that leads to China and Japan crosses Poland, as does merchandise travelling from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean!” According to Mr CZYZOWICZ, in Poland, the oldest profession in the world, customs, has abandoned any trace of communist ideology: it has even adopted the American system as its model.
|
|
|
Veronika JUHASZ , international rapporteur for the Hungarian Association of customs-linked suppliers, spoke on behalf of the 105 members from companies large and small. At the beginning of dematerialisation, Hungarian Customs needs a coordinated effort between itself and the agricultural sector, enterprise and transporters. And for a good reason: Mrs JUHASZ explained that national platforms which are not as yet compatible with each other will be made uniform by the process of computerisation in an XTML format in the lead up to December 2006. However, Hungarian operators are not on the verge of abandoning “paper” just yet, confronted with “a very complex European system”. Mrs JUHASZ’s conclusion would in any case have left Alban GRUSON pensive: “We hope to achieve the same degree of expertise as CONEX”.
|
Retour |
User Area