Freight cleared in under five minutes

Genoa - With the spread of electronic filing, 92% of freight clears customs in record time. With the reform of Italy’s port governance becoming law last summer, the expectations are that the Customs and State Monopoly Agency (ADM) will assume all powers and enforcement duties for all procedures related to cargo arriving in and/or departing from Italian territory. It’s been dubbed the Single Window for customs checks (Sudoco), and, in addition to coordinating the ADM’s procedures introduced as a result of the application of EU standards, from which flowed the setting-up of the customs “one-stop-shop”, it will extend to other mechanisms set out by various state bodies. As the clock is ticking for the full implementation of Sudoco, which is awaiting finalization of the decree by the president of the Council of Ministers, the ADM’s position on coordination of a new inspection regime, however, has also given impetus to a redefinition of the interoperability between the information systems of the various participating government branches adhering to the “single customs window” project: “In the agency’s scheme,” explained Teresa Alvaro, who heads the ADM’s innovative technologies division, “the relaunch of the competitiveness of Italy’s logistics system hinges on a full digitization of the supply-chain, through the application of the “Internet of Things” paradigm to freight. The keystone in the digitisation of the supply-chain is the e-manifest, an EU-wide feature which underpins customs clearance procedures at sea and in the air, and that soon will be extended to the rail system.” The cornerstones of this strategy are pre-clearing, the electronic file, and actions related to the National Operational Plan (NOP).

Pre-clearing

Pre-clearing of cargo ships while at sea has been achieved thanks to the complete digitization of cargo manifests, which began several years ago, and by making use of vessel-traffic monitoring systems operated in conjunction with the HQs of Italy’s Coast Guard. Pre-clearing allows the transmission of customs declarations while the goods are still en route towards Italian ports or prior to arrival at airports, allowing customs to make an early risk analysis evaluation, and to release certain freight loads for which no inspection was deemed necessary, prior to arrival.

The electronic file

This feature was introduced on 1 May 2016, as a result of the new opportunities offered by the introduction of the EU Customs Code. Thanks to this innovation the obligation to pass through customs to present the necessary documentation to conclude the import/export operations, applies only in those cases where actual controls (inspection of goods/Scanner Controls) are deemed necessary. All required documents can be scanned and transmitted electronically to Customs. In the first quarter of 2016 the percentage of customs declarations which were cleared in what is considered the optimal time-frame - between 12 seconds and 5 minutes - was 84.3%. Between 1 May and 31 December 2016, this showed a further rapid rise, reaching 92.6%.

National Operational Plan

The next phase in the streamlining of Customs procedures are contained in the National Operational Plan (NOP): Network Infrastructure 2014/2020, project financed with EU funds for regional development. The projects earmarked by Italy’s Customs regard the optimization of procedures in supply chain logistics in Southern Italy, by highlighting the shift towards digitization, aimed at giving Italy’s South a rapid competitive advantage; each of the six-projects of the programme are integrated with each other; they target the southeast and western area of Sicily, the Puglia port system, the logistics hub of Gioia Tauro, and the Campania-based logistics operations.