Simplifying Customs Procedures through Digitalisation and Bureaucracy Reduction

Digitalisation and reduction of bureaucracy offer considerable potential for saving time and resources. Considering that customs authorities in the European Union (EU) processed the import, export or transit of more than 868 million items in 2019, these resources could be utilised on the part of the customs administration, for example, for more effective and system-supported risk analysis.

At the national as well as the European level, there is significant untapped potential for simplifying customs procedures through comprehensive digitalisation and consistent reduction of bureaucracy. To this end, close and constant cooperation should be sought between the customs administration and the economic operators. Through such a dialogue, technical and implementation issues can be discussed in a decentralised and efficient manner and joint proposals for solutions can be developed.

Simplifications through Digitalisation

It is essential to work more closely with economic operators in the development and implementation of digital solutions at both EU and national level. Additionally, the development of digital solutions must be user-friendly from the perspective of German industry. This is the only way to ensure that digitalisation leads to real simplifications on the part of business.

The German customs administration is taking a leading role regarding digitalisation within the EU. From the point of view of economic operators, a central problem is the lack of, and in many areas even absence of, interconnection of the national IT systems of the customs administrations between the Member States and with the European Commission. This currently leads to significant additional burdens on the business side, which in some cases considerably exceed the actual advantages of customs procedures. Consistent linking via digital interfaces could significantly simplify customs procedures and lead to a considerable reduction in bureaucracy.

Furthermore, the amount of data required in customs declarations is constantly expanding. Increasing requirements due to changes in EU customs law are supplemented by additional requirements from national customs authorities. Here, appropriateness should be ensured with regard to the data really needed for risk analysis and control requirements. Reduced data requirements would serve as a relief for economic operators and make data analysis for control purposes by customs authorities more efficient. For example, for recurring and thus well-known business transactions, periodic (e.g., monthly) collective declarations with reduced data sets would be sufficient. A reduction of the data fields to the required level in line with the legal basis should therefore be targeted.

An efficient and digital exchange of data relevant to customs declarations offers further simplification and reduction of bureaucracy in customs declarations. The creation of digital interfaces in particular can lead to significant simplification, save resources, and accelerate the processing of customs procedures. Establishing, for example, a single-window application that establishes customs as the central contact authority for business to consolidate a digital exchange of both customs and non-customs information would result in significant simplification. Centralised clearance also has enormous simplification potential for economic operators through the efficient digital exchange of information and necessary documents.

Especially for Authorised Economic Operators (AEOs), procedural customs controls should take place rather than transaction-based controls. A more effective risk management with more targeted controls is supported by digitalisation, as well.

Simplifications through Reduction of Bureaucracy

Even beyond a consistent digitalisation of customs procedures, there are a number of other opportunities for simplification through reduction of unnecessary bureaucracy. This would not only relieve the burden on economic operators, but also on customs authorities. A systematic reduction of bureaucratic burdens and requirements would lead to savings in resources, which could be used more effectively elsewhere and thus strengthen the EU and its Member States as a business location.

Small and medium-sized companies in particular typically lack the personnel and financial resources to comply with complicated customs formalities. The fewer goods a company exports, the greater the impact of customs duties and bureaucratic costs, and the more difficult it is to enter the export business.