The Efficiency of Document and Border Procedures for International Trade

Abstract

In many countries, document and border procedures create trading barriers, thereby impairing economic growth. These can range from insufficient transshipment facilities to unsupportive institutional arrangements. To address this, countries have taken reforms to improve their procedures by introducing electronic documentation systems, strengthening border infrastructure, and enhancing customs procedures. However, the efficiency of the document and border procedures in each country remains unclear, as well as how new reforms can affect these. This study investigated the efficiency of document and border procedures in each country, defined as the trade volume and value per required cost, time, and documents in the trading procedures. The efficiencies were calculated through a data envelopment analysis with cross-sectional data from 2019 and a window analysis with panel data from 2014 to 2019. The study found a positive change in export procedure efficiency after all three types of reforms were instituted in a country, but a positive change in import efficiency only after the introduction of electronic documentation. All countries were classified according to their document and border procedure strengths and weaknesses.

The impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on the resilience of established cross- border supply chains

“…Extant literature confirms supply chain resilience is multi-dimensional and dynamic (Adobor and McMullen, 2018) with the development of resilience approaches to robustness, adaptability, and agility in the SC based on common operational goals (Han et al, 2020). The case study and research address a gap in the literature (Adobor and McMullen, 2018;Dubey et al, 2020) in considering the effect of Industry 4.0 technologies (Ivanov and Dolgui, 2021) on the SC resilience capabilities within cross-border supply chains (Grainger et al, 2018;Hiraide et al, 2022). This paper supplements current SC resilience literature, building on the established resilience principles (Christopher and Peck, 2004;Dubey et al, 2019;Sheffi and Rice, 2005) and capabilities (Castillo, 2022).…”

“…The case study analysis highlights the de-coupling of approaches and capabilities between the core business SC, the logistics company and the UKG departments at the UK customs border, Figure 3. This is the first example of an empirical case study of the effect of Industry 4.0 blockchain and IoT technologies on SC resilience within multi-participant cross-border supply chains (Hiraide et al, 2022). The research analysis framework provides empirical evidence and explanatory research to support theoretical studies on the effect of Industry 4.0 on SC resilience (Qader et al, 2022;Ralston and Blackhurst, 2020) and builds on initial case study research into the impact of blockchain on SC resilience (Kolmykova, 2022) (Queiroz et al, 2019) for resilience across the supply chain at a data and information level, which reduces de-coupling at the customs border and enhances the operational performance (Qader et al, 2022) of the cross-border SC.…”

“…The resilience capabilities are aligned with the operational characteristics and performance of SC in the context of disruption and friction at the UKG customs border (Hiraide et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2021). The case research finds a de-coupling of the SC resilience between the participant groups [UKG departments, the logistics companies and the core business SC], where each adopts a different proactive and reactive approach (Elluru et al, 2019) and a combination of resilience capabilities (Castillo, 2022;Wieland and Durach, 2021).…”

“…Current policies requiring physical paper records will need to adapt for the benefits of Industry 4.0 technology to be realised (Hiraide et al, 2022). UK Government policy, cultural resistance and existing business processes appear to be significant barriers (Patel et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2019).…”

“…Focus is placed on the capabilities that underpin the collaboration (trust and information sharing), agility (visibility, velocity, innovation and adaptation), SC (re)engineering (flexibility, efficiency, redundancy and security) principles (Table 1) and the effect of Industry 4.0 technologies on the use cases of cross-border SC. The resilience capabilities are aligned with the operational characteristics and performance of SC in the context of disruption and friction at the UKG customs border (Hiraide et al , 2022; Zhang et al , 2021).…”