How to secure international trade?
2nd November 2009 by Richard Gunawan
With the proliferation of trade security initiatives showing no sign of abating, there is an urgent need to adopt a common architecture to manage the assurance requirements essential to the public and private sectors, says Peter Boyce, LRQA’s security expert.
For most state-backed regulators the overwhelming emphasis is on countering the potential for terrorism or terrorist activities by securing the borders. They target high-risk consignments such as nuclear materials and illegal drugs by grading the plausible risks of consignment movements through a specific jurisdiction.
On the other hand, the private sector uses security risk assessments to focus on performance, cost, loss-reduction and the bottom line. This focus often translates into an industrial-security program – with an emphasis on preventing theft, maximising the use of security resources, safeguarding intellectual property or brand protection and protecting people, all within a budget.
All types of programs can vary from country to country, and even from county to county or state to state. There are currently 157 countries potentially developing their own variant of the World Custom Organisation’s Authorized Economic Operator (AEO). In general, organisations with AEO recognition will be given lower risk score and in a stronger position to get faster movement of goods through the borders.
Nevertheless, there too many rules and interpretations that can make it more difficult for private–sector operators to assure compliance, especially on a global basis. Boyce says ISO 28000 can deliver simpler solutions for the legislator and the private sector, because it is a security-management system, not just security criteria.
As such, it can be used to manage any and all regulatory requirements of industry and national authorities. National customs authorities can realise measurable resource-utilisation and cost benefits by auditing and managing a relatively small number of certification bodies, as opposed to thousands of businesses.
At the same time, customs authorities will have confidence that security certificates from other counties have been assessed to the same standards and requirements when the certification bodies are approved using the same criteria as used with the audit bodies.
For the private sector, the advantage of using ISO 28000 to confirm compliance with the plethora of global AEO schemes comes from greatly reducing the duplication of resources and the cost of implementing multiple processes when trading between countries.
ISO 28000’s risk-based approach also pays proportionate attention to the operational and protective security requirements of the operator and its place of business. Boyce says the application of ISO standards will standardise operational and business processes. In return, it will help private operators to control their business costs.
Richard Gunawan is Vice President for business and sustainability development for LRQA Asia. He has more than 15 years of commercial experience and is committed to assisting businesses in Asia to mitigate risks and to grow in line with CSR principles.