How EurTradeNet International Association influences EU customs policy and system design

This interview with Maite Miret, General Manager and Secretary of the Board of EurTradeNet (ETN), looks at how a European association of customs IT service providers has shaped EU customs policy and system design over nearly 25 years, and what it expects from the upcoming EU Customs Data Hub — essential context for customs and trade compliance professionals following EU digital customs developments.

Topics covered:

• ETN's history and evolution, from five founding IT companies to an international not-for-profit association of almost 40 members
• How ETN engages with the European Commission, including its role in the Trade Contact Group and the Electronic Customs Coordination Group
• Lessons from past IT rollouts: NCTS, the Automated Export System (AES) and ICS2 (Import Control System 2)
• Data quality, standards and collaboration with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) on the Customs Data Model
• Expected operational impacts of the shift to a central EU Customs Data Hub, including risks for smaller service providers
• Recommendations for the Data Hub rollout: early developer involvement, incremental testing and training, and central help-desk support
• The rise of new market actors — digital marketplaces, platform economies and AI-based document automation — and ETN's approach to AI and e-commerce
• Views on centralisation versus a distributed or hybrid data architecture, and the need for education and skills development in customs

For a broader overview of the topic, please watch the full recording. The slides are available in the Resources section.

Please note that this summary was generated using AI, based on the recording and available slides.