Single Window for Australia's International Trade (NNF 2018/035)

Studies how to include blockchain in trade reform.

Australia's newly-established Home Affairs super-agency wants to create a "single digital window" through which all of Australia's international trade would flow.

This "secure window" would underpin a modernised international trade system for the country that is "digital, automated and user-friendly", Home Affairs said.

It revealed it is currently working with other government agencies and industry to develop its proposal for trade modernisation that it will present to government for approval.

In its submission to a parliamentary inquiry on trade, Home Affairs revealed how it intended to respond to the new technologies and globalised supply chains that have "fundamentally changed the way goods are traded" with Australia.

A key component of a trade modernisation agenda is a single window. A single window would create a secure digital interface between government and industry, and provide a single data touch point for Australian businesses to meet all international trade regulatory requirements.

Single window trade systems provide a central location for cross-border traders to submit regulatory documents like customs declarations and trading invoices, rather than having to deal with multiple government agencies. They are intended to lower processing times and costs for traders.

To read an article published in itnews click HERE.

CBFCA Commentary

CBFCA is represented on the Department of Home Affairs Trade Modernisation - Trade Facilitation  Initiatives Working Group and later this month will be attending a meeting to discuss the trade modernisation initiatives and developments of a single window for Australia's international trade.

We will keep you informed of any further developments as it's important to ensure current industry systems can interact and are fully integrated with any future single window for trade.

 
Zoran Kostadinoski
Regional Manager VIC / TAS / SA