Build up the Border: UK Customs teams up on trade

I’ve said it before, but UK Customs is at something of a turning point. There’s a genuine opportunity to build a border that runs on data instead of paperwork, one that keeps trade flowing while still catching what shouldn’t get through. That means moving away from one-off declarations filled in shipment by shipment, and towards live supply chain data, sharper risk assessment, and departments that share information with each other.

One of the main proposals for achieving this is the Single Trade Window, built on a simple premise: tell government once, not five or ten times. Rather than businesses re-entering the same details for HMRC, Border Force, DEFRA and every other agency involved, the Single Trade Window is designed to knit these bodies into something closer to “one government at the border,” instead of five separate queues.

Alongside that sits a push to incorporate AI and analytics into the process itself, for document checks, spotting anomalies and flagging risk before goods even arrive. Done well, this frees customs to concentrate on shipments that look suspect, rather than slowing everyone down uniformly. The responses are firm on one point, though: this can’t run unsupervised. There needs to be proper human oversight built in, so decisions stay fair, and someone remains accountable for them.

There’s also appetite to widen the Authorised Economic Operator scheme into something more tiered and adaptable, a trusted trader model that any compliant business can work towards, not just the largest players. That would bring simpler procedures, broader use of Entry in Declarant’s Records, and periodic reporting instead of a form for every movement, leaving customs free to concentrate on higher-risk activity.

That shift alters what customs intermediaries do too. As routine elements of declaration work becomes increasingly automated, brokers and agents are likely to shift up the value chain, moving from paperwork towards compliance strategy, risk management and data governance. Standardised digital mandates and secure portals should make it simpler for them to manage client authorisations without the current back-and-forth.

Proof, not promises

None of this comes without difficulty. Commercial confidentiality, cybersecurity, and getting international partners to agree on common data standards for cross-border sharing are all flagged as genuine obstacles. And there’s a clear caution in the responses: don’t take the existing paper process and simply wrap it in a digital layer. Redesign the process first, then digitise it, or you end up with a more elaborate version of the same problem.

To help with that, there’s a call for a Cross-Border Industry Innovation Forum and regulatory sandboxes, where things like smart containers, AI risk models and Electronic Trade Documents could be trialled properly before wider rollout. And whether any of this has worked shouldn’t be judged by how much new technology got deployed. It should come down to simpler measures: faster clearance times, lower admin costs, better data quality, and a genuine boost to trade.

By Rob Hardy, Chief Executive and Founder of EORI Group