Tag Archives: customs

Migrants and European supply chains

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Revised on: 2015-09-26

Truckers caught up in Europe’s migrant crisis say business is increasingly disrupted by queues and stowaways, but they are far more worried governments will step up border controls. In a worst case scenario this could mean serious supply chain disruptions or supply chain delays if EU governments decide to make border crossings more difficult than today.

Schengen about to be scrapped?

Europe is currently facing a major migrant crisis, so severe that there is already a Wikipedia entry for European migrant crisis. While this is first and foremost a humanitarian issue, there could be potential supply chain consequences, as an article on euractiv.com reports, stating that Haulers fear migrant crisis:

Truckers caught up in Europe’s migrant crisis say business is increasingly disrupted by queues and stowaways, but they are far more worried governments will step up border controls.

If the border-free zone within Europe were to disintegrate or be scrapped, it would call into question not only the road haulage industry’s own, time-sensitive business model but the supply chains of industries across the continent, they say.

The article on euractiv.com paints a rather frightening picture of what could possibly happen if the worst hit EU countries decide to enforce stricter controls, let alone close their borders completely. That would bring us back to the days we still had passport checks, document controls, crosschecks, and all of this increasing the waiting time for border crossings to hours at best and days at worst.

Are we heading in the right or wrong direction?

This brings to mind what I highlighted in a previous post on cross-border supply chains:

The vulnerabilities of international supply chains will increase in the future, driven by various external hazards and risks, lean operational models as well as changes imposed by regulatory countermeasures. Companies are particularly concerned about future disruptions in material supply and transportation, which will have negative impact on just-in-time operations.

That post was written in 2011, and now, 4 years on, “the vulnerabilities of international supply chains” has definitely increased, albeit migrants were probably not the shortlist of possible future vulnerabilities at that time.

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Customs Research meets Customs Practice

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Revised on: 2011-08-01

Customs. A real hassle and a nuisance at times, but also a necessary evil in international trade. “Evil” is perhaps the wrong word here, although having been questioned by customs officers at Melbourne airport once, playing the Devil’s Advocate seemed to be their favorite game, so evil isn’t that wrong, as far as my experience goes. Anyway, every global supply chain must at some point cross some border and that is where customs comes into play. You might think that customs is not much of a field for academic research, but in fact it is, and every year since 2006 the World Customs Organization WCO has held a conference where practice and theory can meet. The WCO Partnership In Customs Academic Research and Development Conference 2011 or PICARD Conference 2011 will be in Switzerland Geneva, 14-16 September, with a focus on these four issues: Co-ordinated Border Management, Performance measurement of Customs, Economic security and poverty reduction, and Integrity.

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Global Risk and Compliance – Are you protected?

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Revised on: 2015-09-09

Trade Compliance and Export Control are not just buzzwords in global supply chain. They represent significant risks. Breach of trade rules and regulations can have serious ramifications for businesses, ranging from mere fines to loss of contract, not to mention loss of reputation, and even bankruptcy if the breach should result in long-lasting and costly legal litigations. Consequently, knowing the risks and their impacts is important for any company involved in global trade and that is the topic of the latest webinar by WTG, Global Risk and Compliance – Are you protected?, presented by Neill Cooke, Ethics and Compliance Manager at UK-based IMI plc. Using practical examples, this webinar will outline various risks and their consequences for international companies, and I for one look forward to listening and watching this webinar.
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Trade compliance risks

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Revised on: 2011-09-09

Although “German” traffic from countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland make up less than 10% of my visitors, I still feel compelled to promote this webinar that will air on 19 April 2011, not only because I myself am fluent in German, but also because it relates directly to my blog topic and to some of my previous posts. In Management von Trade Compliance und Exportkontrollrisiken Innerhalb Einer Internationalen Supply Chain or Managing Trade Compliance and Export Risks in Global Supply Chains, as I would translate it, Torsten Röser and Thomas Kofler take a closer look at the risks and pitfalls involved in trading across borders, and in particular how non-compliance with trade and regulations can severely hamper supply chain operations.

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Cross-border supply chains

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Revised on: 2015-09-03

What are the main change and trend drivers for international supply chains? How will future cross-border supply chains look like? That is what Ari Pekka Hameri and Juha Hintsa wrote in Assessing the drivers of change for cross-border supply chains. In a study commissioned by the World Customs Organization in 2006, they sought to identify a set of foreseeable drivers of change and their predicted impact on global supply chain management for the next 20 years.  Their findings: supply chains are likely to become even more complex and challenging to manage, which will pave the way for end-to-end integrated service providers in a strongly consolidated logistics market, and thus ultimately lead to an increase in risks and vulnerabilities in international supply chains.

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Book Review: Customs Risk

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Revised on: 2015-09-12

International trade and global supply chains are filled with goods that are criss-crossing the globe and international borders many times on their way from the supplier to the end customer. Customs is perhaps the most important element that facilitates these cross-border movements, and for businesses, failing to comply with customs requirements may result in delayed shipments and serious disruptions in the supply chain.  That is why managing customs risk is an integral part of managing global supply chain risks, but customs risks are unfortunately absent from much of the supply chain risk literature. A Short Guide to Customs Risk by Catherine Truel deals exclusively with this topic and after reviewing it I think that it should be required reading for anyone dealing with supply chain risk. That said, customs risk is perhaps more of a logistics risk than a supply chain risk.

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