Facilitating Trade:
Improving Customs Risk Management Systems
In the OIC Member States
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 Risk profiles/indicators and selectivity criteria - enforcement targets, high-risk
shipments, modus operandi, etc.;
 Pre-arrival risk assessment;
 Information on AEO;
 Information on high-risk traders/ status for importers;
 Best practices concerning tax compliance, assessment, audit, and investigation.
Such cross-border collaboration is a necessary underpinning of Customs Unions, where national
controls are incrementally replaced by controls at the entry into the Customs Union territory.
The EU, for example, adopted a Common RMF to provide an equivalent level of control at
external borders – se
Box 5: EU Common Risk Management Framework
The EU has progressively adopted a common risk management approach with the objective to
provide an equivalent level of protection in customs control at external borders and harmonized
application of customs control by MS. As the EU is a Single Customs territory Customs at the first
point of EU entry has a legal obligation to carry out the security and safety risk analysis of the
cargo regardless of the EU country of destination.
The CRMF provides a common risk management framework that controls for security, health
and safety, CITES, drug, financial, trade and counterfeit and in addition to that addresses risks
that could not be addressed efficiently at the national level, including community financial risks.
It also provides a necessary identical level playing field for legitimate trade as recognized by the
EU wide AEO status, and ensure a uniform and appropriate protection of the movement of goods
at external borders.
The EU Common Risk management framework (CRMF) comprises the identification of priority
control areas, the systematic and intensive exchange of risk information, the recognition of the
AEO status for RM and the pre-arrival / pre-departure security risk analysis based on cargo
information submitted electronically. It leads to the identification and control of high-risk goods
movement using common risk criteria that are applied in a decentralized manner by MS risk
analysis systems.
To provide support for the CRMF, the EU common customs legislation was amended – starting
with the security amendment 648/05 (Council regulation), and 1875/06 (Commission
regulation) and a common computerized system developed. The common customs legislation
now contains the following obligations for MS:
 Obligation to base their controls on CRM;
 Obligation to apply common risk criteria and standards for security and safety risk
analysis – adopted in Commission decisions and supported by non-legal guidelines;
 Compulsory electronic exchange.
3.1.4 Intelligence
Information is raw data which may be subject only to minimum analysis or processing. It is basic
statistical data used principally as management information on volumes of traffic, total numbers
of import entries, and the total value of imports in a given period. General trends, e.g.,
increase/decrease in traffic can be identified to enable management decisions on staffing
numbers at specified locations, etc. Information becomes intelligence when it is analyzed to
identify trends in risk areas or areas of potential fraud, or when it is used to build up a case
against a fraudulent or potentially fraudulent individual/organization. The intelligence is