This Blog offers a quick glimpse at the recent endeavours of the DOTCOM Waste project consortium, partnered by the United Nations University (Germany), Cross-border Research Association (Switzerland), Compliance & Risks (Ireland), TECOMS (Italy), Ports Environmental Network-Africa (Ghana), Basel Convention Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific (China), Basel Convention Regional Centre for West Africa (Nigeria), and the Public Prosecutor Office of Bari (Italy).

The two-year European Commission (DG HOME) funded project that kicked off in January 2016, seeks to enhance the capabilities of a range of governmental authorities, including police, customs, port authorities, environmental agencies and prosecution offices, to fight cross-border waste crime more effectively. To attain this goal, the project aims to increase stakeholders’ understanding of current waste crime trends as well as to identify and share good practices for detecting, investigating and prosecuting waste crime activities. Some key actions envisaged are the development of a targeted training toolkit, including training materials and practical operational tools, and the execution of training activities for relevant stakeholders.

DOTCOM Waste is now reaching its culmination as the knowledge accumulated throughout the project has morphed into a complete set of training materials, including live and online training seminars. Two separate face-to-face training sessions will take place this year in Rome (EU/West Africa routes) and Beijing (EU/China routes), in September and October respectively. The webinar series planned to take place in May and June, is underway. Six webinars have been scheduled so far and more may take place in the future, should the need arise. Experts may present either in English or in other languages in future webinars. Information on the training events were advertised on the DOTCOM website and circulated among the networks of the partners. Nearly 120 people registered for the first two webinars and there are 122 applications for the face-to-face training workshops. Applications are being reviewed for the final selection for the live training sessions. These events will target mixed groups of intermediate to high level practitioners, mostly from police, customs, port authorities, environmental agencies and prosecutors; while the webinar/ e-learning courses allows for the delivery of more basic training to a wider range of stakeholders.

The training toolkit for the face to face sessions will largely focus on a broad range of subjects including the Legislative Landscape; Waste Classification and Problematic Waste Streams; Inspection and Detection; Next Generation Compliance; Investigation; Intelligence; Illegal Shipments; Prosecution; Sentencing; and Interagency Collaboration and Networking. Each webinar intends to provide up to date insights on a separate topic, namely Intelligence in Fighting Waste Crime; Collaboration on Illegal Waste Crime; Financial Investigation in Tackling Waste Crime; Inspection Plans and Next Generation Compliance; Legislation on Transfrontier Shipments of Waste; and Using Remote Sensing Technologies when Fighting Illegal Waste Crime. A comprehensive Risk Analysis of waste crime, a systematic assessment of the current gaps in capacity building and training needs (Training Needs Assessment) of the stakeholder groups, as well as a compilation of a Compendium of Best Practices on waste crime response, led to the designing of the DOTCOM training toolkit and materials.

To maximise the output of the project, the training toolkit will also be made available online in a members-only section, vastly increasing the amount of people who will be able to access the training materials. These e-learning modules will reflect the content of the face-to-face training events and webinar content, and users will be able to easily navigate to any topics that they have a specific interest in.

A “Validation Meeting” was organised in Dublin in March this year to test the training toolkit and e-learning materials. A group of high-level experts with in-depth experience in training law enforcement officials and prosecutors was involved in the review of the materials. The DOTCOM consortium reviewed and amended the training package based on the new insights and feedback gained in this crucial expert meeting.

On May 1 2017, DOTCOM Waste hosted a side event at this year’s Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (COPs), in Geneva entitled, “Get the Tools You Need to Make a Difference – Global Training Toolkit + Waste & Chemicals Inspection App”. The participants were briefed on the main activities of the DOTCOM Waste project and received an overview of the online training toolkit on enforcing transboundary movements of waste regulations. There was also a demonstration of the new inspection application for environmental inspections called WATCH-IT.

The joint final conference of the DOTCOM Waste and BLOCKWASTE projects will be held in Brussels on 23 November 2017. In addition to presenting the results of the two EU Internal Security funded projects on illegal waste management and trafficking, the conference will promote interactive and constructive dialogue through round table discussions with contributions from experts. The conference aims to highlight concrete ways of addressing cross-border waste crime, while at the same time build on the valuable insights gained in the projects by keeping alive the spirit of collaboration and continuous process of finding new solutions.

31.5.2017, CBRA Blog by Dr. Sangeeta Mohanty

Eager to learn more on DOTCOM Waste? Visit: www.dotcomwaste.eu

The fourth and last year of FP7-project has started, with a large number of research, innovation, technical and educational activities going on – until the project finalization on 30.4.2018. In this CBRA Blog we elaborate on our ideas to expand CORE outreach towards European and Global police organizations.

As many of you CBRA Blog readers are aware, FP7-CORE project focuses on improving the security of global supply chains, while facilitating the cross-border trade transactions and logistics movements to the maximum. Main part of the remaining work in CORE is performed in dozen+ tangible supply chain security pilots and demonstrations, one example being “enhancing governmental agency cooperation in flower trade lane from Kenya to the Netherlands – with the explicit aim to reduce trafficking in prohibited goods, to minimize tax fraud as well as to mitigate the risk of plant diseases” – thanks to improved national and international information exchange, physical inspection and other cooperation between police, customs and phytosanitary agencies.

One of the areas we here at CBRA plan to explore in more detail during the next 11 months is about “Police relevant CORE outcomes and results”. Supply chains are more and more commonly seen as key elements of critical infrastructures, thus calling for “Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)” measures. Next to the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), this can be linked all the way to the recent United Nations Security Council resolution UNSC 2341, which discusses, among other topics, the necessity of “…capacity-building and technical assistance to protect critical infrastructure from terrorists…”. Certainly, good potential for the CORE-project to make police relevant contributions, both from European as well as global perspectives!

So far during years 2016 and 2017 we have had several discussions about CORE (plus more) with the following European police networks and organizations:

• The European Network of Law Enforcement Technology Services, ENLETS, see e.g. https://euro-police.noblogs.org/2011/10/european-network-of-law-enforcement-technology-services-enlets-expert-meeting-in-warsaw/
• The European Traffic Police Network, TISPOL, https://www.tispol.org/
• EUROPOL, including units for trafficking in human beings and organized property crime, https://www.europol.europa.eu/

Following these preliminary discussions, the main objective of CBRA is to convert key results and findings from the CORE-project into “police relevant learning materials” – for example “global supply chains 101 for police officers”, “how to enhance cooperation between police and customs agencies”, and, “how can law enforcement officers benefit from trusted trade lanes”, just to name but few examples. More specifically linked to the last example: “the CORE collaborative chain control approach in the trusted trade lane supervision concept allows for more targeted and effective combatting of tax fraud and other trade related crimes” is likely to raise high interest among broader police audiences. We plan to pilot such materials during October 2017 – March 2018, before publishing the final versions for European and worldwide police use in April 2018.

Last but not least, we have a continuous interaction with the “global INTERPOL family”, when it comes to exploring CORE dissemination and exploitation among the global police communities. As a concrete example, Mr. Mike Ellis of CBRA (former head of illicit trade at INTERPOL), will host a CBRA-CORE booth at the INTERPOL World, Singapore, 4-7.7.2017, with the primary purpose of disseminating police relevant CORE brochures, https://www.interpol-world.com/supporting-organizations . In addition, CBRA is working closely with the INTERPOL International IP Crime Investigators College, and their e-learning platform, http://www.iipcic.org/ .

To summarize, CBRA is looking forward to tightening CORE-cooperation with various police organizations – and of course any national police agencies who might have interest on crime prevention in global supply chains. In case your agency is interested to learn more, please contact us by email ( cbra@cross-border.org ) , or, by phone ( +41765890967) !

In Lausanne, 24.5.2017, CBRA Blog by Dr. Juha Hintsa

“The European Commission announced it is proposing to extend the current VAT-system that applies for EU-intra-cross border services, the MOSS, to import and supply of E-commerce shipments. It also intends to dissolve the tax-exemption at import for shipments with a value of up to € 22, as this places regular retailers in the EU at a disadvantage”. Erasmus University of Rotterdam (RSM), in cooperation with National Trade Facilitation Committee of The Netherlands (ODB), are organizing an event titled “How to simplify the process and what are the implications for VAT in E-commerce considering the proposed changes of the EU?”. The event takes place on Tuesday 23 May 2017, 1-6pm, at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. CBRA recommends any interested party to join this timely seminar!

According to the RSM website, page https://www.rsm.nl, the seminar “will discuss the current status of these plans and the anticipated policies. Will the new EU legislation solve the problems of complexity? What are the consequences for customs import procedures if the Mini One Stop Shop will be applied at importation? Will it bring a level playing field for retailers, both in the EU and elsewhere? Are there any alternative procedures? And how will this system in new EU legislation impact on customs enforcement?”. Interesting questions, indeed!

As some of you CBRA Blog readers might recall, CBRA team executed a scientific study titled “The import VAT and duty de-minimis in the European Union – Where should they be and what will be the impact?”, during years 2013-14. You can find our 2015 Blog on the study here: https://www.cross-border.org/2015/02/09/de-minimis-study/ . Based on objective import (millions of) records and cost data (both from the express sector), certain (limited) data from multiple EU customs administrations, as well as outcomes of an independent consumer survey, the study made following key conclusions and recommendations:

1. VAT de-minimis should be raised to 80 EUR from the current 22 EUR – this is due to the fact that the total cost of collection faced by Customs administrations and the private sector currently exceeds the revenues collected.
2. While increasing de-minimis levels might affect the buying behaviour of consumers, such changes are not likely to be significant – for example, quality and dealer-reputation are more important to consumers in their purchase decisions.
3. Raising the VAT de-minimis would enable Customs administrations across the European Union to reallocate resources towards higher priorities such as: the collection of higher revenues; anti-fraud activities; addressing product safety and intellectual property violations; and supply chain security.
4. Development of an improved understanding of the costs faced by EU Customs administrations is crucial to the future enhancement of EU-level and national policy and regulatory decision-making in the future – as, today, significant shortcomings are apparent e.g. among the captured labour and technology costs.
5. Investments in further harmonization and lean government programs across the EU are needed – as today there are significant and costly variations across Member States, for example in VAT-levels and rules, as well as in the practical implementation of customs procedures.

Unfortunately, it appears that not much of our recommendations were taken on board by the EC – our guess is that the topic became “overly political”, in the context of “total economic rational (i.e. do not collect low taxes where the total collection cost (government + private sector) is higher than the tax collected)” versus “placing regular retailers in the EU at a disadvantage”. We would have expected a rational increase in the VAT de-minimis to the level of 80 EUR, instead of totally abolishing the VAT de-minimis in the EU.

Well, now when it seems that the “VAT de-minimis abolishment procedure is in place, in an irreversible manner”, we encourage next all involved parties to work hard towards “highly cost-effective collection models, procedures and tools” – as collecting say 0.2 EUR import VAT -tax shouldn’t cost more than 1-2 cents, for customs and supply chains combined, in the future. Hopefully such approaches will be explored during the 23 May 2017 seminar at the Erasmus University Rotterdam!

CBRA Blog on 23.4.2017, by Dr. Juha Hintsa

PS. This event is organised by RSM in cooperation with the ODB to celebrate the accreditation of RSM’s Master in Customs and Supply Chain Compliance programme. This modular programme for international professionals in Customs and Trade Compliance is the first that is grounded in the EU Competence Framework for Customs

Webpage: https://www.rsm.nl

Bibliography: Hintsa, J., Mohanty, S., Tsikolenko, V., Ivens, B., Leischnig, A., Kähäri, P., Hameri, A.P., and Cadot, O. (2014), The import VAT and duty de-minimis in the European Union – Where should they be and what will be the impact? Final Report, Brussels, Belgium.

You can download the full report here: https://www.researchgate.net

Capacity Building has become one of the most important subjects in Trade Facilitation, with the recent entry into force of the landmark WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, commonly known as the TFA. The 8^th session of the World Customs Organization’s Capacity Building Committee, WCO CBC, was held on the premises of the WCO from 7-9 March, 2017. Experts from international organisations, national governments, academia and the private sector attended this two-and-a-half-day meeting in Brussels to gain first-hand information on the Capacity Building initiatives of the WCO and its partners, national developments with regard to Trade Facilitation and other related topics. I was happy to take part in this annual event on behalf of Cross-border Research Association. This Blog (part 1 of 2) captures the focal points of the discussion on the first day that consisted of a Joint Session with the 7th Meeting of the WCO Working Group on the WTO TFA.

Following the adoption of the meeting agenda, the keynote address reinforced linkages between Trade Facilitation and Capacity Building. The keynote speaker, the Ambassador of Brazil to the EU, highlighted the importance of the TFA as the first multilateral binding agreement holding enormous development potential with far-reaching consequences for the world economy. Capacity Building is considered the epicentre of Trade Facilitation holding unprecedented potential for developing countries to boost commerce, while integrating into international markets. It has vast implications in terms of cost reduction, economic growth and job creation. It was pointed out that the TFA was negotiated at the WTO, but the first implications will be mostly dealt with in the WCO and national customs administrations. The current challenges and threats, including protectionism and high transaction costs cannot be faced in isolation and a harmonised implementation will provide greater benefits.

The first panel session centred on Stakeholder Engagement in the context of National Committees on Trade Facilitation, NCTFs, and how it can connect border agencies the private sector and other relevant organisations in the implementation of the WTO TFA. It reports on overall achievements and some outcomes related to Stakeholder Engagement since the last session of the TFA Working Group and CBC, in 2016.

Illustrative examples were provided on Colombia and India. Colombia has achieved spectacular results in terms of cost and time savings through a number of regulatory reforms and practical measures adopted over recent years. Examples include harmonising domestic laws; establishing an improved network of Single Windows; setting up a single point of contact for associated problems; coordinating opening hours; conducting joint physical inspections; and introducing elements like systematic operations, Advance Rulings, Authorised Economic Operators, and the redesign of customs channels into the national legal provisions.   Efforts are now concentrated on the greater use of non-intrusive technology and the increased use of IT for customs and other procedures.  The WCO has provided technical assistance on the pilot phase of the rolling out of non-intrusive technology. Interagency coordination, however, needs considerable strengthening in Colombia.

Experts from India spoke about the structure, design and underlying principles of the NCTF that reflects wide representation, inclusive approach, intra and interagency coordination, and public-private ownership. Adhoc Working Groups have been formed to address specific provisions of the TFA. In the context of agriculture, the NCTF is also engaged in reforming the policy and legislative gaps. The representative from the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India, FFFAI, underlined the need to address the speed of doing business.  India’s ambition to be a leading economic power has placed much attention on the private sector. The Goods and Services Tax to be introduced in India is being designed along the lines of the TFA. Customs brokers will assume a new role in the context of the TFA and are being trained accordingly. Infrastructure development remains a high priority. According to the expert, India has reached a point where the government and the private sector are no more adversaries, but have identified common grounds and forged a common agenda.

The next panel focused on the recent developments with regard to the implementation of the WCO Mercator Programme, the World Bank and WTO’s implementation support, and Donor Coordination. The key objectives of the programme are to achieve uniform implementation of the TFA to provide tailor-made technical assistance and to facilitate effective coordination amongst all stakeholders. To support the harmonised implementation of the TFA by using core WCO instruments and tools, the WCO is now updating its Implementation Guidance, and developing e-learning courses. Post Clearance Audit workshops for Western Balkans were held recently in Serbia. The World Bank expert gave insights on recent activities of its Trade Facilitation Support Program, TFSP, for a number of Asian and African economies. The WTO speaker presented the online TFA Facility platform that was set up to assist member states in the implementation of the TFA. The platform intends to be a one-stop-shop presenting case studies, guides and tools, and aspires to be a central repository for all information, resources and materials.

From the perspective of Donor Coordination, references were made to the WCO’s multi-year projects and national-level collaboration with other development partners.  In addition, the Tailor-made Track of the Mercator programme was introduced. The Mercator Tailor-made Track provides the framework under which the WCO’s support takes into consideration the local conditions and environment for implementing Trade Facilitation measures with particular regard for the work of other development partners. The important role of academia as a contributor to TFA implementation was brought to the fore. First, universities should consider including courses specific to the TFA. Second, an attractive win-win situation could be achieved if Masters and PhD students are encouraged to write theses on TFA-related topics identified by the WCO.

The fifth and final session of the day was dedicated to understanding the Mercator operating modalities, including the proposed new operating model and delivery management of TFA-related requests. The Director of the Mercator Programme introduced the three pillars of the programme’s Operating Model, namely the harmonised implementation of WCO’s global standards; the tailor-made technical assistance and capacity building efforts; and effective stakeholder coordination. The dual-track method comprising the Overall and Tailor-made Tracks of Mercator culminate in a coherent, pragmatic and result oriented approach. The Overall Track provides for high-level donor coordination, ensures that the key development partners are well-represented at WCO meetings, and underpins the importance of harmonised working methods. The Tailor-made Track encompasses four key elements: country level engagements, monitoring, donor engagement, and the accreditation of experts.  The support mechanism consists of four steps: Mercator programme advisory functions; implementation validation; monitoring and evaluation; and planning and delivery. This discourse was buttressed by real-life examples from other panel members. The representative from the National Revenue Authority of Sierra Leone shared lessons and experiences on the gradual unfolding of the programme in the country. The diagnostic report and implementation proposal has been signed off and a focused yet flexible approach has been developed. Results based plan and outlook, needs based sequence of activities, effective coordination and duplication avoidance, and sound risk management are some of the underlying principles of the national plan. The expected outcomes of these efforts are achieving close alignment with the TFA policies, establishing Standard Operating Procedures through the use of WCO Tools and instruments, embedding a culture of continuous learning and improvement, and establishing a dynamic operational environment.

Both Uganda and Afghanistan demonstrate important progress in implementing the respective national action plans. The strategic interventions through Mercator have resulted in a series of customs legal reforms to bring the TFA in clear perspective. Examples of other concrete achievements include the establishment of a new training facility called the Afghanistan Customs and Tax Academy  and the establishment of a strong collaboration mechanism between the Uganda Revenue Authority and the Afghanistan Customs Department. The knowledge sharing on the WCO tools and instruments between the two countries has been instrumental in facilitating trade, especially in the case of Uganda.

The lively dialogue and exchange of opinions call attention to the new political momentum for streamlining global trade and unleashing the economic potential of developing countries. It was generally acknowledged that global efforts should not be confined solely to the TFA, but may go beyond its scope in pursuit of economic growth and increased prosperity. While the WCO is in a privileged position to act as a broker between donor and beneficiary and provides the necessary technical expertise, it is for the beneficiary to take ownership of the implementation of the TFA in a transparent, holistic and future oriented manner.

Mercator Programme: Building Networks, Partnerships and Economies

Part 1 of 2 of the CBRA “WCO CBC”-Blog, by Dr. Sangeeta Mohanty.

The Supply Chain Risk Management, SCRM, Consortium was born out of an MBA classroom setting at Lehigh University, back in 2011, while exploring the impact of supply chain disruptions on global supply chains. Founded by Gregory L. Schlegel, CPIM, CSP, Jonah, Executive-in-Residence at Lehigh University and Adjunct Professor of ERM at Villanova University, the Consortium has grown to include 18 companies who bring unique core competencies in supply chain risk in an effort to “Identify, Assess, Mitigate and Manage Risks”, in complex supply chains. These competencies emanate from a new book and range of SCRM education, risk quantification, global risk event alert solutions, Business Continuity Planning, Enterprise Risk Management, ERM/Risk Register solutions, Supply Chain Cyber Security, Supply Chain Mapping solutions, and, much more.      

Now what is SCRM?  The working definition inside the classroom and   the new book describes it in the following manner. “Supply Chain Risk Management is the implementation of strategies to mange everyday and exceptional risks within the supply chain through continuous risk identification, assessment, mitigation and management with the objective of reducing vulnerability and ensuring sustainability.” The Consortium’s view of SCRM is driven by its new 21^st Century Supply Chain Risk/Maturity Mode that is presented in the following diagram.

The Maturity Model contains four stages, basically formulating a roadmap for SCRM success. The stages, Visibility, Predictability, Resiliency and Sustainability have many elements supporting the journey, including tools, techniques, methodologies, tactics, frameworks and more. With the model as a foundation, the SCRM Consortium provides risk education, solutions and advisory services in an effort to identify, assess, mitigate and manage risks throughout the supply chain. The Consortium recently produced some concrete outputs, namely:

• First-of-a-kind book on SCRM;
• Over 40 public SCRM workshops worldwide, during a three-year period;
• Over 20 articles and whitepapers published in three years;
• Cloud-based Risk Assessment Tool licensing agreements;
• Co-creators of the APICS Certificate in SCRM;
• Co-creators of the new Certification, “SC-R”, Supply Chain Resiliency, with The Logistics Institute of Canada;
• Risk Assessment and Risk Training for several mid-western state NGO’s;
• Over 15 conference speaking engagements in three years;
• In-house training and consulting for several large manufacturers across multiple industries;

The 2017 calendar is “action-packed” with new tools, techniques, methodologies and solutions coming on board throughout the year. Below are a few exciting new deliverables coming to fruition in 2017, again, all in an effort to Identify, Assess, Mitigate and Manage supply chain risks.

• Lehigh University will be supporting the Consortium’s expanded education product portfolio with Certificates in SCRM and SCR&R, Supply Chain Risk & Resiliency, through new Case-based, Tool-based, Team-based, Instructor-led courses around the globe.
• The Consortium is embarking on developing a “First-of-a-Kind” Online SCR&R course culminating in a Certificate from Lehigh University.
• The Consortium is moving forward with a “First-of-a-Kind” SCRM Simulation-Game to demonstrate the basic concepts of the body-of-knowledge.
• The Consortium will be speaking and running workshops on SCRM, SCR&R in the USA, South Africa, Hong Kong, China, Germany, England and the UAE.
• The Consortium will be expanding the SCRM body-of-knowledge into the “Fast Fashion” arena with workshops at LIM College, in New York City.
• The Consortium has and will continue to run SCRM workshops for the US Department of Defense, in conjunction with the National Defense Industrial Association, NDIA.
• Several research projects will be launched at Lehigh University, including an expansive study on the ERM Operating Frameworks – capturing, codifying and classifying the attributes of four classic Risk Perspectives and Appetites.
• The continuation of Classroom MBA SCRM courses at Lehigh and Villanova Universities.
• Several SCRM engagements for global manufacturers around the globe across multiple industries.

Please feel free to visit The SCRM Consortium’s new website (www.thescrmconsortium.com) and join our LinkedIn Discussion Group (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4874779).

CBRA Blog on 19.3.2017, by Guest Editor Gregory L. Schlegel CPIM, CSP, Jonah, FOUNDER (grs209@lehigh.edu)