Progress Being Made Toward Single Window for Trade Data [in US]

[US] Federal agencies are making progress in developing the International Trade Data System and the trade community has identified a number of features that should be included, according to a recent report from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection advisory panel. At a Nov. 15 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of CBP (COAC), the One U.S. Government at the Border Subcommittee provided an update on the status of ITDS efforts and the full committee adopted seven recommendations for further work in this area.

ITDS’ overarching goal is the utilization of the concept commonly known as the Single Window, a system through which traders’ reporting of imports and exports to the applicable federal agencies and those agencies’ subsequent admissibility determinations will all be transmitted electronically. A subcommittee report notes that the current process is costly and time-consuming because it is largely manual and paper-based, with 21 agencies requiring 139 forms for imports and eight agencies requiring 55 forms for exports...

This has been excerpted from 25 November 2013 article by Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg LLP, and is available in its entirety at http://www.strtrade.com/news-publications-ITDS-single-window-112513.html.