Improving the Border Agency Cooperation
Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade
16
ministries and policy making bodies that are responsible for oversight and financing of border
management activities.
International cooperation may take place locally at both sides of a border. One-Stop Border
Posts (OSBPs) are border crossings managed jointly by two neighboring countries and key
examples of such cooperation.1617
1.2.3. Areas of integration
Technical integration often entails improving connectivity and interoperability of
information and communication technology systems within and across organisations. Single
Window solutions are typical outcomes of technical cooperation as they enable automatic
exchange of electronic trade information among border control agencies. The UN Centre for
Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, UN/CEFACT, is an important international
organisation helping to build connectivity across countries and between business and
governmental stakeholders. UN/CEFACT, for instance, develops and maintains globally
recognised standards for EDI messages18.
Operational integration is largely about coordination of inspection and auditing activities
among border control agencies. Benefits of synchronised activities are evident: organising
necessary controls at one place and at the same time reduces delays and administrative
burden that trading companies and travellers face at borders. A simple and powerful example
of operational integration is coordination of opening hours and days of customs offices at both
sides of a border. Operational integration also covers provision of mutual administrative
assistance, joint criminal investigations and prosecution, and sharing of customs intelligence
and other information.
Legislative integration seeks to remove legal barriers and ambiguities that prevent border
control agencies from exchanging information, sharing responsibilities or otherwise deepening
their cooperation. Essentially, most forms of Border Agency Coordination require some degree
of legislative harmonisation and political commitment. For example, Article 8 of the WTO/TFA
to the WTO Members requires that national authorities and agencies responsible for border
controls and dealing with the importation, exportation and transit of goods must cooperate
with one another and coordinate their activities in order to facilitate trade.
Institutional integration is about restructuring the roles and responsibilities of border
control agencies. An example of a major restructuring is the annexing of US border control
agencies – including the US Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security
Administration and Coast Guard – into the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, a body that
took over the key governmental functions involved in the US non-military counter-terrorism
efforts in the aftermath of the September 11 th, 2001 terrorist attacks.
16 We will elaborate on such cross-border arrangements in Chapter 2 of this report.
17 While all three levels of BAC are important, the focus of this report is on the international BAC (iBAC)
18 EDI stands for electronic data interface, the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard
electronic format.