Customs Role and Priorities in the 21st Century

It is difficult to predict the future role of any institution, and there is no one correct or universally applicable response to anticipated trends in customs, as each country will respond in ways that are best suited to its needs, operating environment, national priorities, and cultural heritage. However, some general issues or themes are emerging that suggest the future role and priorities of customs.

First, in spite of declining tariff rates brought about by successive rounds of trade liberalization, the revenue mobilization and control functions of customs are likely to remain substantial for several reasons: (a) the fiscal dependency on customs revenues is likely to linger for some time, in light of the difficulty many developing countries encounter in broadening their tax bases; (b) imports will probably constitute a major tax base for levying VAT (value added tax), and customs is well positioned to control the goods at the time of importation; (c) customs will remain the responsible agency to ensure that goods that were imported for other than home consumption are not diverted to such consumption; and (d) assessing VAT refunds on exported goods will continue to require a high level of control over exported goods.

Second, in all countries, customs will continue to collect trade data for statistical and regulatory purposes.

Third, customs will continue to be responsible for effective and efficient border management to facilitate trade, a major contributor to the international competitiveness of nations. This will occur regardless of whether trade facilitation is formally incorporated into multilateral trade negotiations. As such, harmonizing, simplifying, and effectively coordinating all national border management requirements and commitments will remain priority responsibilities of customs.

Fourth, based on a heightened awareness of the threat posed by international terrorism and transnational organized crime, governments will require that customs administrations take on a larger role in ensuring national security and law enforcement. To that effect, customs administrations are likely to institute a range of changes to systems, procedures, and even administrative responsibilities to increase confidence in the level of control exercised over both imports and exports. Security checks will increasingly take place at the point of entry.

For customs administrations to effectively manage these sometimes apparently contradictory objectives, a wide range of new approaches, systems, procedures, and operating methodologies will have to be developed and implemented. Some of these are already beginning to emerge and are likely to underpin the future shape and role of customs:

· The primary focus of customs’ attention will shift from physical control over consignments at the time of importation to post-release verification using audit-based controls. This will require customs to adopt comprehensive compliance improvement strategies designed to progressively increase confidence in the information provided by traders and in the accounting systems and processes they maintain. All regulatory information is likely to be exchanged electronically, and decisions on treatment of imports and exports will be made on a risk assessment basis. The compliance record of individual traders will be a key consideration as will the exchange of information and intelligence. Such an approach will facilitate the re-engineering of core border management processes and regulatory requirements. It will also involve new and more coherent relationship with traders, as well as increased cooperation at the national, regional, and international levels.

· Countries will increasingly rely on a single agency to take responsibility for the entire border management process. This will involve the merger of a number of different border management functions under one administrative and policy umbrella. In some cases this will be achieved administratively, and in others virtually, through increased cooperation at the policy and operational level and through the adoption of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure that will allow traders to discharge all their regulatory responsibilities through one single window to the government.

· Moves to ensure more effective coordination between the various government agencies. Charged with regulating cross-border trade and achieving meaningful rationalization of regulatory requirements will require attention at the nati9onal, regional, and international levels. While many different players are involved, it seems likely that customs is the only agency with the national and international infrastructure in place to achieve this.

· Customs will increasingly rely on the intensive use of modern information technology to provide for seamless transmission of data to all interested members of the trading community. In the future, most customs administrations will rely on electronic submission of manifests before cargo arrival, on direct trader input of import and export declarations, and on electronic payment of duties and taxes. Initiatives that have shown good results so far and that aim at electronically connecting all members of the trading community, as in Singapore, are likely to spread. This will speed up the granting of regulatory permissions and to enable the collection of statistics.

· Many countries are already members of regional groups, a trend that might accelerate in coming years. Such regional groups might promote harmonization and simplification of customs procedures in accordance with international best practice standards. On the other hand, they create the need for new preferential trade regimes that impose burdens both on customs and on trade, and are prone to abuse.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14