4. Legal Issues Grouped by Business Processes
In the previous Section, legal matters were examined in terms of the life-cycle of the Single Window
operation. In this Section, legal issues are considered from a business process perspective. The
business processes in a Single Window are described below, along with the corresponding legal
issues.
4.1 Registration/Regulatory Authorization
The typical ‘Customs Act’ begins with a section on definitions for the entities that will have legal
obligations in international trade, including where, how and by whom goods should be entered for
import, export and transit. The same is true in the legislation for partner CBRAs, which defines the
entities that have obligations regarding, for example, traded goods. These laws and regulations also
cover means of transport and crew.
Registration/regulatory authorization processes are at the core of the Single Window. Data about
parties, locations, transport means, etc. are first recognized by the national Single Window operator.
The registered entities have a legal existence in the respective legislations of the CBRAs. These
registration processes may also be viewed in conjunction with regulatory pre-verification processes
in which the respective regulatory authorities have the opportunity to verify information provided by
users as part of the registration process. These pre-verification processes may be determined by a
combination of regulatory and administrative imperatives.
Before access is granted to any of the Single Window services,
certain regulatory requirements of
the Single Window operator need to be fulfilled. These conditions are part of the registration
processes in which the Single Window operator establishes a legal relationship with the various
actors that use the Single Window services. Typically, these would be the legal agreements to be
entered into between the responsible official from the Single Window operator and the relevant
official acting on behalf of the registering entity. There could also be multiparty agreements, for
instance, between the trade/transport actor (subscribing party),
Customs/the partner CBRA with
authority to issue regulatory approvals (‘relying’ party), and the National Single Window operator
(service provider). The parties with whom Customs interacts are called actors, and are divided into
the following broad groups:
National Single Window operator: It is assumed that a ‘Single Window operator’ will be
established as a legally enabled entity, with the mandate to provide Single Window services. In
describing the Single Window business processes, it is perhaps necessary to mention the existence of
national Single Windows in different jurisdictions. There may be a national Single Window in
existence in the country of origin (NSW at departure), in the transit country (NSW at transit) and the
destination country (NSW at destination). The interaction between national Single Window
operators provides the G2G dimension in a Single Window.
Economic operators: Economic operators are parties from trade and transport that play a role in a
Single Window environment.
They often use intermediaries called agents, who play certain roles on
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their behalf. These roles are defined under cross-border legislation. Any compliance-related activity
that is supposed to be performed by an economic operator can also be carried out by its agent.
The business processes and legal issues involved are listed in the table below:
Table 1: Registration/Regulatory Authorization.
REF Business Process Brief Description
R1 Bringing a new
cross-border
regulatory agency
(CBRA) into the
Single Window
environment
The Single Window operator captures the necessary information and
performs certain actions to register a cross-border regulatory agency. (This
use case describes how a CBRA is brought on board a Single Window
environment.)
Legal Issues:
Regulation defining the facility provided by the Single Window operator.
Regulation that the installation is a legally valid means to fulfil regulatory
obligations.
Regulation establishing the right of the operator to host Single Window
services, and the operator’s corresponding roles and responsibilities.
R2 Adding a new
service to the
Single Window
The Single Window operator makes arrangements to provide a service on
behalf of a CBRA.
Legal Issues:
Obligations of the Single Window operator and the CBRA in relation to
the hosted services.
Legal agreement between the CBRA and the Single Window operator on
security, privacy, data management life-cycle, standards of service, etc.
R3 Registering
authorized Single
Window users
The Single Window operator makes arrangements to provide the Single
Window information system to users belonging to a CBRA or to an
economic operator that is the recipient of a service defined in R2. The user
is an individual belonging either to an economic operator or CBRA that is
an entity distinct from the economic operator for governance within a
Single Window.
Legal Issues:
Regulation covering onboarding procedures.
Granting rights to the users (individuals from trade and CBRAs) for
accessing the information resources (e.g. web/EDI applications) offered by
the Single Window operator.
Regulatory definition of what constitutes user identification and
authentication, use of digital signatures, etc.
User’s conditions of participation regarding each of the services.
R4 Registering an
economic operator
in the Single
Window
The Single Window operator in relation to cross-border regulation captures
all relevant particulars of an economic operator and registers the economic
operator for the requested services. Registration leads to the creation of a
‘trader account’ which needs to be managed by the Single Window for the
lifetime of its existence.
Legal Issues:
Harmonizing legal definitions for business entities that deal with
CBRAs.
Regulatory verifications concerning economic operators, identity
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management processes.
Managing identities for different CBRAs.
Managing identities between NSWs and community systems.
Managing identities globally between national Single Windows
implemented in various regulatory territories (ISW and GNC scenarios).
R5 Bringing a new
authorized IT
system into the
Single Window
environment
The Single Window operator makes the necessary arrangements to register
the IT systems linked with the operation of Single window services.
Legal Issues:
Regulation granting rights to the IT applications and IT devices
(belonging to economic operators and CBRAs) for accessing the
information resources (e.g. web/EDI applications) offered by the Single
Window operator.
Regulation specifying the conditions of participation for each of the
services.
R6 Adding a new
regulatory location
The Single Window operator in relation to cross-border regulation captures
all relevant particulars of a regulatory location.
Legal Issues:
Legally defined locations where goods (and transport means) are
approved for crossing the border, for storage, warehousing, examination
and testing, or are otherwise dealt with in the course of international trade.
Different CBRAs define these locations differently in their respective
legislations.
R7 Adding a new
regulatory facility
The Single Window operator in relation to cross-border regulation captures
all relevant particulars of a regulatory service.
Legal Issues:
As for R6.
R8 Registering a
regulatory product
The Single Window operator in relation to cross-border regulation captures
all relevant particulars of a regulatory product.
Legal Issues:
Regulatory processes that register products; recognize the product
identities, attributes, regulatory classification, regulatory restrictions,
conditions for import and export, etc.
Each CBRA may have different ways of identifying and classifying
tradable goods/products.
R9 Registering a
regulatory transport
means
The Single Window operator in relation to cross-border regulation captures
all relevant particulars of a regulatory transport means.
Legal Issues:
Laws dealing with regulatory certification of transport means that are
used to carry goods in and out of a regulatory territory. These are subject to
