Completed Trade Single Window now in place

The e-commerce platform for trade, which has been part of the Customs and Ministry for Primary Industries $104.1 million Joint Border Management System programme, will allow all border requirements for goods and craft to be met in one place instead of many.

The Comptroller of Customs, Carolyn Tremain, says getting the completed system in place following months of testing and even longer in development is a significant achievement for all involved.

“This milestone is the culmination of more than five years of hard work and I’d like to thank all who’ve been involved along the way, in particular our pilot partners, the wider industry and the Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Federation (CBAFF).

“The enhanced TSW, which has been in place since 2013 with more than five million transactions processed, will support the seamless clearance of trade for years to come.”

The completed TSW has expanded functionality across the system. For TSW Online Registration, this includes the ability for brokers and other organisations to control who can do what in their name.

It also features four new lodgement types that will be piloted in coming months before being available to all users:

• Advance Notice of Arrival (ANA)
• Advanced Notice of Departure (AND).

Electronic messages for industry to report ship arrivals and departures. This includes Maritime NZ getting fuller electronic data to manage its safety and billing functions. After an initial pilot period, Port Health Officers will also be provided access to TSW to provide instructions to the ship about permission to berth.

Excise Declaration

Industry will be able to submit excise lodgements directly into TSW for the first time, with minimal Customs interaction. This will improve the efficiency of the excise declaration process.

Inward Cargo Report (ICR)

This is the most complex message set. It includes electronically requesting international and domestic transhipment to get approval to move consignments out of the port, airline store or other Customs Controlled Area if they have not been cleared already.

The Customs Chief Information Officer, Murray Young, says the rationale behind running pilots with a small number of companies first is akin to turning a tap on slowly.

“We want to make sure the new messages work well in a live environment, then we will progressively increase the load on the system and this allows industry to get accustomed to using the new functionality.

“At a later date we will then set mandatory dates for all industry to transition from using legacy messages to only Trade Single Window, which uses the World Customs Organizations latest data model, WCO3.”

For further information about the development of the Trade Single Window, please see video.

Any enquiries can be sent to tswusersupport@customs.govt.nz.