Public Sector: Customs Enforcement and Trade Facilitation

The global trading system is under increasing strain to enforce — and comply with — trade policies that regulate multi-tier value chain networks.

Illicit actors exploit the complexity and opacity of global value chains to obscure dumping, environmental harm, forced labor, trafficking, and security threats. Governments are increasingly using trade policies to extend their enforcement capacity across global value chain networks. Thousands of new tariffs, export controls, labor and environmental policies, and other trade regulations have been recently introduced that regulate multi-tier value chain activity beyond the border.

This means that value chain compliance is the new trade compliance imperative. Both customs agencies and the trade community are struggling to keep up.

A new paradigm is needed for processing global value chain data to support trade compliance and facilitation.

The efficient and effective enforcement of these value chain policies at the border now depends on the ability to process data from across global value chain networks, to model the value chain networks of products being imported, and to screen those networks for security and compliance. Because neither importers nor customs authorities can compile and process this information on their own, a new data processing and trade facilitation paradigm is required.

The existing trusted trade facilitation regime must evolve to account for value chain compliance. Customs authorities should build on the success of “Trusted Trader” programs (C-TPAT and AEO). These programs were founded around national security concerns and therefore profiling the importing entity — and not in ensuring the compliance of the individual products being imported (and their associated upstream value chains). Trust is extended to the importer but not their imports, which means even the most trusted traders are routinely subject to unpredictable disruption. For customs authorities and importers alike to manage value chain compliance, they must be processing and sharing data from across multi-tier global value chain networks.

Altana, the world’s first Value Chain Management System, enables customs authorities to illuminate, enforce, and facilitate compliant global value chains for goods crossing their borders.

See across the global value chain network of every product being imported and exported through Altana’s proprietary federated data network — the world’s largest connected body of supply chain data. For importers connected to Altana, you can access an Altana “Product Passport” for the item being imported, which includes additional visibility, documentation, and attestations across the multi-tier product value chain for that item.

Focus on what matters for each product’s value chain with AI assistance and network analytics. Altana surfaces forced labor, misclassification, dumping, narcotics and their precursors, carbon profiles, and other compliance issues for each item and its multi- tier value chain. Even for ecommerce and low value shipments on manifest entries, Altana’s AI systems and global data network can model and screen value chain networks in real time.

Act to enforce value chain compliance and facilitate trade value at the speed of modern commerce. Altana’s unique federated data platform provides for a collaborative, shared view of the supply chain network, connecting the trade community and customs authorities in a common operating picture. Altana can be deployed as an application for non-technical users or a powerful data and AI platform capability for technical users to enrich their own systems with Altana’s data, AI models, and value chain network connectivity. Through Altana’s Value Chain Management System, a new paradigm of trade facilitation designed around product value chain compliance now makes it possible to improve enforcement and efficiency at the same time.