CUSTOM DEPARTMENTS IN CARICOM MEMBER STATES TO BENEFIT FROM THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ADVANCED CARGO INFORMATION SYSTEMS (ACIS)

Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 18, 2019 (SKNIS): To ensure all CARICOM Member States are fully apprised of the Advanced Cargo Information Systems (ACIS) and to support a successful implementation, CARICOM IMPACS hosted a joint communication/sensitization session in St. Kitts and Nevis, on January 18, for the benefit of air carriers, shipping agents and other cargo related stakeholders, as well as customs officials.

The CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) through the support of the 10^th European Development Fund has been actively engaged with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in order to facilitate the implementation of the system in the Member States.

This regional centralized system will be fully integrated with the existing ASYCUDA (The Automated System for Customs Data) systems currently operational in all Member States. This will allow for the electronic submission of all cargo manifest seamlessly to the regional centralized system.

“ASYCUDA is a computerized customs management system which covers most foreign trade procedures. The system handles manifests and customs declarations, accounting procedures, transit and suspense procedures. It generates trade data that can be used for statistical economic analysis. The ASYCUDA software is developed in Geneva by UNCTAD.

ASYCUDA considers the international codes and standards developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization), WCO (World Customs Organization), e.g. Data Model, and the United Nations. It can be configured to suit the national characteristics of individual Customs regimes and National Tariff & legislation. ASYCUDA provides Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between traders and Customs using prevailing standards such as XML.”

According to Ezra Gilbert, who is a customs officer from Grenada and a part of the ASYCUDA implementation team, one of the main reasons why the system is valuable to customs is that it improves risk analysis as they will now have access to more regional and international databases.

The benefits to be gained from the new system by custom officers are real time notification and pre-alerts, access to regional and international sources of intelligence, strengthening local risk management of operations, enhanced information sharing amongst law enforcement agencies, and optimized use of human and financial resources.

The system will also be beneficial to cargo reporters as it will increase efficiency and improve quality assurance.