WCO Data Model Update to Have Little Immediate Impact on Most Brokers
The annual update of Version 3.0 of the World Customs Organization Data Model, due in October, will not produce significant changes to the basic structure of the overall data model and "efforts are made to ensure that Versions 3.1 and 3.2 are compatible with subsequent versions," said Satya Prasad Sahu, WCO technical officer-compliance & facilitation.
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"WCO will keep Version 3.0 of the WCO Data Model as a stable version, with the idea that a stable version would receive world-wide adoption by WCO members and other stakeholders engaged in cross-border trade," Sahu told us. The WCO has not embarked on a long-term project to produce Version 4.0 of the WCO Data Model, he said: "Instead, the focus of the WCO is to support activities that promote the adoption of the instrument. The activities include the production of annual updates, which would be published in October each year. Each annual update would contain amendments, upgrades or additional features considered necessary to facilitate implementation of the Data Model by Members."
Updates facilitate implementation by more countries and stakeholders, multiplying the benefits of adoption, Sahu said. By adopting the WCO Data Model, a Customs administration needs to develop a system that is conformant or compatible with the instrument. Updates include improvements to Version 3, based on practical experience with national implementation, and also include measures for routine maintenance activities (maintaining code-lists, for example).
For brokers whose national applications are already largely in conformity with the WCO Data Model, adoption of updates would have essentially no impact, Sahu said. But, in the future, as more countries adopt the data model and as software solution providers develop knowledge about the way the WCO Data Model is used as the common basis for customs reporting around the world, "they will offer more cost effective solutions, with possibilities of greater re-use of data between different actors in the supply chain, leading to reduced costs for all concerned," he said.
Additional information: sp.sahu@wcoomd.org