Combatting Illicit Trade E-Commerce
Australia's approach and experience
Gerry Rodrigues
Counsellor (Brussels)
Australian Border Force
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 2
• rapid growth in e-commerce • Industry expectations for rapid clearance, and ‘light-touch’ law
enforcement • Potential fraud • illicit transactions • growing presence of the ‘DarkNet’• New routings• Poor information
Environment
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 3
Current Environment
• RKC contemplated increasing volumes and impact of e-commerce in the drafting of Transitional Standards 4.13 and 4.14 of the General Annex
• RKC Guidelines recognises that increasing volumes will lead to increases in low value goods and increased revenue leakage and on-line trading in illicit goods
AUSTRALIA:• Major reforms in place to deal with increasing mail, cargo and
traveller, o and traveller volumes, increasing sophistication of crime and industry expectations for rapid clearance of legitimate trade
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 4
Department of Immigration and Border Protection
Subheading• Dot point 1
SEIZURES OF CRYSTAL METHAMPHETAMINE BY AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION
LAST 15 YEARS
5
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 6
• Government priorities
• Portfolio Budget Statement Targets and funding– AIR– SEA– International Mail
• Current Practices• Drivers
Current Enforcement Policies
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 7
• Complexities of import processing• Growing volumes• Electronic reporting not available at item level• Maintaining cost-effectiveness• Diversity of e-commerce industry• Differences across import streams – competitive neutrality• Documentation and information management differences
between streams
Challenges
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 8Department of Immigration and Border Protection
The National Border Targeting Centre (NBTC) commenced operation in July 2014 with the vision to safeguard our national interests and enhance community safety via a more connected, whole of government approach to border security.
NBTC aims to protect the safety, security and commercial interests of Australia and its citizens by providing an enhanced approach to identifying mala fide and high-risk border movements involving travellers, cargo, vessels and other goods.
National Border Targeting Centre
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 9
NBTC
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 10
Whole of Government Approach
NBTC will provide a more comprehensive and robust basis upon which to identify, target and respond to threats at the border.
Working together to fuse disparate intelligence and information, each agencies will bring their own data sets, including:
• Visa application data; • Passenger name record data; • Cargo data; • Financial intelligence holdings; • Biosecurity data; • Fraudulently obtained genuine passport data; • Serious and organised crime intelligence; and • Counter-terrorism data.
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 11
• Multi Function
• intelligence-led, risk-based • consists of six functions owned and shared between
Intelligence Division and SBC. • Intel is responsible for Information services, Tactical
Intelligence, Watch listing and Profiling services. • The Targeting-NBTC section is also responsible for two other
key functions
– The Behavioural Risk Assessment Module (BRAM
– The National Logistics Cell (NLC)
NBTC
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 12
Future Technology Programs
To support the NBTC, the Intelligence Reform Program will deliver the following technology capabilities over the next 2 years:
An Enterprise Profiling System for:
Air & Sea Travellers
Cargo
Strengthening of our Advanced Analytics with:
Real-time analytics
A geospatial analytics capability
A visualisation capability
A social network and web analytics capability
Enhancements to our off-line analytics
NBTC facility with multi-classification connectivity
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 13
• Incentives for Cooperation• Clearance Modernisation Plan• Tax reform• Electronic Data Interchange• This reform will require Customs and Border Protection to
undertake significant remodelling of business practices and systems to support electronic reporting (item-level reporting). There will also need to be review of legislation and regulations to ensure that this new level of electronic reporting is supported.
Way Ahead
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 14
• Partnerships• Working ahead of the border• Trusted Trader Program• Divesting of non-compliant clients• enhanced e-tracking options
Cooperation to reduce delivery of Illicit Goods
Department of Immigration and Border Protection 15
• An international cargo clearance modernization plan is part of the DIBP Reform Programme.
• The key features of the plan include:– electronic item-level reporting;– leveraging electronic reporting of EMS items, and sea and air
parcels, to significantly reduce the volumes of mail requiring real-time assessment;
– a nationally-consistent framework for risk assessment and prioritization for both electronically and manually reported mail;
– a robust sampling programme to monitor and assess leakage;– review of Australia’s ‘low-value threshold’ (the de minimis
threshold)
Clearance modernization plan
Thank You
Questions?
Illicit Trade and
E-Commerce
Australia's approach and experience