Electronic customs in China, India and Morocco

Ms. Yanhui ZENG Deputy Director and Chief Engineer, China E-ports General Administration of Customs, China

Mr. Shyam RAMADI Import / Export & Transport Consultant (Former Customs / Transport Senior Manager with Philips India Ltd for 25 years)

Mr. Lakhdar Nabyl Head of Information Technology Division of ADII, Customs and Indirect Imports Administration of Morocco

On Wednesday, 28th March from 3.30pm to 4.30pm on the televised conference platform (Hall 4), there will be presentations of special interest to all those companies involved in trade with the three countries mentioned above. Beyond the hour-long debate, the leaders and specialists from CONEX will be present at their stand (E79) on the 27th, 28th and 29th March ready to answer the numerous questions that will be asked following an encounter of this level of importance.

CONEX on the world market

CONEX’s customs anthropologist, Lance Thompson, has been examining customs practices in India, China and Morocco. “Faced with the formidable development in Asian markets and the significant trade flow with Morocco, it is important that CONEX be able to give its clientele, import-export companies, authorised customs brokers and carriers, precise information about the electronic systems that have been set up in these countries,” explains Lance Thompson.

“If our company, the leading provider of software for the treatment of customs declarations and tariffs, achieves its goal of allowing its customers a smooth transition towards the introduction of France’s new DELTA system, we then aim to be present at an international level by studying and deciphering customs practices in force around the world. This is all the more important given that the WCO (World Customs Organization) is already working on a future worldwide electronic declaration system,” adds Alban GRUSON, CONEX CEO. “We will then be in a position to conceive and develop software to help companies adapt to each of these markets, as we are currently doing in Europe.”

IN CHINA :
“The E-port is a single window grouping 15 government ministries,” indicates Lance Thompson who travelled to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing. Direct foreign investment has a major point of convergence in the Shanghai region, which is precisely where CONEX is concentrating its efforts. In this vast country, the central customs authority has, in effect, left each region the freedom to develop an IT system adapted to its specific needs, as long as it remains compatible with the national single window.

IN INDIA :
ICES (Indian Customs EDI System) also uses a single window called ICEGATE, a portal opened in 1999. The entirely computerised declaration system applies across this immense territory and covers 85% of international trade. Operators who are not yet computerised, or who are situated in remote places which are not covered by the system, can bring paper declarations to customs offices where they will then be integrated into the system.

IN MOROCCO :
The SADOC System (Customs Administration and Exchange Office System) has been replaced by BADR (Customs Network Automatic Database). It is evident that all these methods continue to evolve and are far from being harmonised: “Information is sometimes opaque or inaccessible, if only because of problems of translation, from Chinese to English for example,” indicates Lance Thompson.

Nomenclatures in constant evolution, multiple customs duties, lack of transparency: rapid and clear information is what partners in international trade need. ED - Encyclopédie Douanière (Customs Encyclopaedia), acquired by CONEX in 2003, concentrates its efforts on watching over and informing its customers of any development in customs regulations. ED is itself moving towards a far more global approach by covering international customs matters.

CONTACT Contacts Agence C3M
Tél. : + 33 (0)1 47 34 01 15
Suzana Taunais-Biseul, suzana@agence-C3M.com
Michelle Amiard, michelle.amiard@agence-C3M.com