Can technology tame terror and keep trade flowing?

For industry there is often a contradiction between trying to facilitate trade and ensure security. Since 11 September 2001, governments have put an emphasis on increasing security but this can conflict with the need of businesses to trade quickly and efficiently. Technology can play a part in improving security and ensuring speed in trade, though only up to a point.

Changes to the EU’s customs code proposed last year by the Commission and supported by MEPs and ministers, will introduce a new security regime in importing and exporting.

Details of the way the code will be applied in practice are still being thrashed out by a committe of EU?experts, which meets again next month.

But by 2010, the new code will oblige traders to provide customs authorities with information 24 hours in advance of importing or exporting goods from the EU. Industry says this will lead inevitably to delays and increased costs because large amounts of information about goods will have to be supplied.

Technology could potentially help resolve such problems but member states do not have a uniform electronic way of processing the data. Carlos González-Finat, adviser in the international department of the European employers’ federation, UNICE, says companies will even have to fax some member states authorities with the information as their systems are so behind.

"The EU does not always have such a strong internal market and companies have to adapt to the requirements of 25 different countries," he says.

The European Commission says that by 2009 all member states will have the same electronic system - though they will not operate as one overall system.

The Commission has also proposed that when the new code comes into effect, traders who meet certain criteria will be required to supply less information each time.

These requirements are set to come into force in January 2008. But the conditions are seen by some companies as too strict, involving screening of personnel and on-sight protection systems.

For smaller companies the cost implications of bringing in such technological protection systems is great. "SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises] in particular will find these criteria difficult to fulfil," says González-Finat.

The Commission says many companies for insurance reasons already have checks in place to ensure security is prioritised. For smaller operations the stringent security measures may not even be required because fewer people and fewer goods can mean fewer checks.

The Commission has reached agreements with the EU’s main trading partners on ways to improve security. Last week a co-operation agreement with China was announced which would in the future allow mutual recognition of security standards while allowing quicker release of goods upon arrival. The Commission hopes a worldwide agreement at the World Customs Organisation can be put in place to ensure global standards and allow trade to keep moving swiftly.

Technology will be important, but agreement on the right devices to use appears some way off. Experts still disagree on what technology is best, such as scanners, nuclear detection and container devices which detect changes in temperature and light in a container. Radio Frequency Identification, a tag which can track a product, is another way of increasing security and at the same time allows traders to follow their product at any given time.

But for customs officials the one device which has revolutionised the security of trade while at the same time speeding it up is the X-ray scanning of containers. Whereas in the past a number of officials would examine the contents of each container, now a two-minute X-ray allows them to see if there is a need for a more thorough check.

That said, the analysis of the scan combined with other factors, such as destination or appearance, will still depend on human intelligence.

For industry there is often a contradiction between trying to facilitate trade and ensure security. Since 11 September 2001, governments have put an emphasis on increasing security but this can conflict with the need of businesses to trade quickly and efficiently. Technology can play a part in improving security and ensuring speed in trade, though only up to a point.