TradeCard adds electronic customs declaration service
TradeCard Inc., a New York city-based electronic financial transaction provider, said it has developed a system to allow the electronic submission of customs declaration forms for import and export.
A pilot was run with two local companies in Hong Kong. TradeCard said its electronic customs declaration service would be rolled out in Hong Kong in mid-December.
“TradeCard is exploring the expansion of this service to other countries where electronic customs declarations are used, such as the United States, the European Union, Singapore, Korea and Japan,” the company said.
Initially introduced in Hong Kong, the electronic customs declaration service connects TradeCard customers to electronic customs declaration initiatives developed by governments, eliminating the need to manually enter all the data themselves. In Hong Kong, the TradeCard system was integrated with the electronic trade declaration service offered by Tradelink Electronic Commerce Ltd., a joint venture between the Hong Kong government and private sector shareholders.
The service provider said that “millions of hours” are wasted on the repetitive task of filling out customs forms. TradeCard said that estimated time savings with its service are between five and 10 minutes per customs declaration. There were 1.4 million electronic declarations a month in Hong Kong, according to the general statistics branch of the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.
TradeCard noted that electronic customs declaration services projects are currently in progress around the globe, either by individual governments or by regional groupings, to ensure faster processing of goods as well as increased control and border security in the face of terrorism. It cited the European Customs Declaration Standard developed by the European Union, the G7 Electronic Export Declaration Process implemented by the group of seven nations and secure cross-border transaction services that include automated customs declarations already in use by the Pan-Asian Alliance in Southeast Asia.
In China, 80 percent of customs declarations are already processed electronically, TradeCard reported.