Data protection is emerging as a major hurdle in the push towards building a paperless and efficient cross-border supply chain with widespread reluctance by parties involved to share their information.
Asia-Pacific trade is increasing and economies have become more interdependent and better connected, but the transport of cargo across many borders remains a complex and inefficient process, with customs clearance in many states even identified as a barrier to trade.
The electronic submission of documentation has long been identified as a way to streamline and improve the efficiency of customs declaration and clearance. High-level moves have been underway to address this over the last few years, and the transfer of electronic import-export documentation via a “single window” — where a single entry point fulfils all import, export and transit-related regulatory requirements — has been detailed under Recommendation 33 of the United National Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business.
Securing the data that must flow through various third parties and government agencies, however, is an area of huge concern and an issue that will not be easily solved.
Oliver Peltzer, a lawyer and vice chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, said protecting data was an overriding principle for companies across the supply chain.
“Companies have all the data available, but they don’t want to share it unless they are 100 percent certain that data protection is assured,” he told a meeting of the second Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Public-Private Dialogue on Advancing Trade and Supply Chain Connectivity through the Asia-Pacific Model E-Port Network, otherwise known as APMEN.
APMEN was established in 2014 and its objective is to promote supply chain connectivity and trade facilitation in the Asia-Pacific region among APEC economies. Members so far include Australia’s New South Wales Ports, Port Metro Vancouver, Shanghai E-port, Port of Kaohsiung, OnePort and TradePort in Hong Kong, Malaysia’s Port Klang Authority, Mexico’s ports of Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo, Peru and Vietnam’s Port of Hai Phong and Saigon New Port.
Harmonization of data protection standards is critical
Peltzer, who is based in Germany, said the only way data could be properly protected was if there was international harmonization. “It is not sufficient if only Europe or Australia has good data protection. There needs to be data protection across all countries, which there isn’t, and at the moment this is one of the main obstacles to bringing members of the supply chain together to form an e-port system,” he said.
Achieving this harmonization is not a simple process and requires a legal framework to address government-to-business electronic transactions and e-government applications such as the single window. These legal rules are different from those governing business-to-business transactions.
Another UN agency, UNCITRAL, introduced laws on electronic signatures to allow the development of a common framework for cross-border trade. This gives equal treatment to the different technologies and methods used in the submission of documentation, such as electronic data interchange, e-mail, internet and even fax, and has been adopted by several countries.
Adem Long, logistics and corporate affairs manager for New South Wales Ports, agreed that data sharing was one of the hurdles affecting the digitization of ports in Australia.
“There is an unwillingness of supply chain participants to share data, there is a lack of understanding of the e-port model and companies want to first see the savings they are getting out of it,” he told the APMEN meeting.
Even with the hurdles, there is an understanding among Asia-Pacific states that this is the way to proceed. Yao Weiqun, principal economist for the APMEN Operational Centre, said some countries had been making inroads on trade facilitation and that needed to continue, but he added a bit of caution.
“The way forward for paperless trade and the single window system will depend on the implementation on individual economies and on their seeking out regional cooperation,” he said.
The regional e-port program APMEN is leading takes the single window process even further, providing an integrated and paperless trade platform with “one-stop shop” import-export services.
Jonathan Koh, senior director of the trade facilitation center of excellence at Singapore-based CrimsonLogic, said governments wanted a 360-degree view of a shipping consignment, and the single window gave them that, but that alone did not address regional connectivity needs.
“The World Bank estimates that 73 economies have single window systems, including 18 Asia-Pacific countries, but a lot of that is for the countries’ domestic trade,” he said. “A lot of countries are getting digitized and ready for single window and e-port systems, and there are many countries with years of single window experience, but much of that is domestic experience and there is not much in regional or intra-Asia trade.”
Koh said the ASEAN single window discussions began in 2005 and 11 years later the idea was finally going live. “The idea is that each country will first implement their national single window and then interact with other countries’ single windows; but how to connect is a big question.”
One suggestion that he said led to a spirited discussion was that the trade data within the single windows should be centralized. “Trade is confidential and sensitive and companies did not want their data to be shared around. After a lot of debate it was decided that a combination of centralized and decentralized data would be introduced, and the ASEAN single window gateway could connect to the national single windows.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Greg Knowler
Quelle/Source: JOC, 02.08.2016
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