Customs

Customs Inside Anywhere, Insights Everywhere by Frank Heijmann and John Peters is a thoughtful deep dive into the anatomy of the issues Customs agencies are facing and how they might be considered in building the future. Holding to their traditional mandates as the conduit for tax collection, safety, security and trade facilitation the authors, from well-respected Dutch Customs, take you on a prolific journey of their vision on how secure trade facilitation can work to benefit all parties of cross-border exchange. But before you get there, you need to grasp the complex web of history, policies, regulations, agreements, legislation, standards, technology, and efforts influencing Customs. Through understanding of these issues the authors do an exceptional job of communicating how they can be woven into a simplified facilitation and enforcement process while still meeting the Customs mission.

Being in the commercial side of the industry, I gained new perspective of the myriad of considerations Dutch Customs has taken on in pursuing their ‘Pushing Boundaries Vision.’ Not only did the book spur new ideas on how to contribute to fulfilling the mission of Customs, but it also helped me take a step back and see the breadth of effort it will take to reach these goals.

As we look to increase our country to country trading capacity, industry and Customs agencies have an unprecedented opportunity to build more efficient systems of trust but before they do, they should read this book.

“ Customs, Inside Anywhere, Insights Everywhere” is a wonderful description of what a Customs Organization does. It clearly shows complex and unique processes that people inside Customs Organizations follow every day.

Each Chapter will force you to understand things from an entirely different perspective which Mr. Heijmann and Mr. John Peters do a great job of capturing.

If you truly want to understand Customs and how they benefit society then I highly recommend this book. I hope you will find much in these pages and will commit to applying what you learn here no matter what area you work in.

Written by Frank Heijmann and John Peters, “CUSTOMS Inside Anywhere, Insights Everywhere” is a must-read work for anyone interested in customs topics, customs practice and customs law. In over 350 pages, they shed light on all aspects that are relevant in international customs. And this is not on a theoretical basis. They are researchers and practitioners in one. They have decades of academic and practical experience at the national and international level.

The approach is truly global and visionary. Issues such as information, risk management, trustworthiness and the technical tools such as auto detection are of concern to all customs administrations in the world. In the comprehensive Part III “Building Blocks”, they manage to explain all the building blocks necessary to achieve the vision of customs they have outlined. Also important is Part IV, which contains reflections on the future of customs. Not only do they point out the current deficits, but under the heading “Customs Supervision 2.0” they present a model for the future that strikes a balance between the interests of customs administrations and business on the basis of electronic tools and data. 

The authors are to be congratulated for this innovative and refreshing commentary on the future trajectory of Customs. It challenges the status quo in a way that affirms the fundamental principles of regulatory control while exploring the possibilities of where the ever-evolving digital world that now dominates international trade and its regulation may take us.

This book embraces that change will not come if we wait for it, Customs agencies need to start making the changes now by not on fighting the old, but embrace building the new…

Frank Heijmann and John Peters have written an excellent book about Customs. This is a visionary, insightful and exciting book about one of the most important parts of international trade, namely customs and borders. 

I have worked almost forty years with customs development and capacity building and this is the best book I have read on the topic. 

I highly recommend everybody interested in customs, borders and trade to read this book. In fact I will buy a copy of the book as a handbook to everybody in my staff.