IN Brief:
- APEC economies are examining AI customs supervision, electronic bills of lading, digital certification, and automated risk management.
- Around four billion paper documents still circulate through global trade each year, with less than one per cent fully digitalised.
- Customs authorities are pairing faster digital processing with work on algorithmic transparency, data security, and cross-border recognition.
APEC customs agencies are accelerating work on artificial intelligence, electronic trade documents, and data-driven border systems as Asia-Pacific economies try to reduce clearance friction without weakening regulatory controls. The programme was discussed at a two-day Customs-Business Dialogue in Dalian, where customs authorities and companies examined how digital processes could improve the movement of goods across a region with widely different legal and technical systems.
The agenda reaches beyond replacing paper forms with online versions. Participants discussed AI in customs supervision, electronic bills of lading, blockchain-based trade platforms, large AI models, electronic inspection and quarantine certificates, and automated risk management. Authorised Economic Operator programmes and mutual recognition arrangements are also part of the work, linking digitalisation with the treatment of companies that have established compliance records.
Paper remains a large part of international trade administration. APEC says around four billion paper documents still circulate through global trade each year and less than one per cent are fully digitalised. Ocean carriers issue tens of millions of bills of lading annually, with most still handled outside fully electronic systems, leaving shippers, banks, carriers, ports, and customs agencies to manage repeated documentation across organisational boundaries.
The harder problem is interoperability. A digital document can still create manual work if it has to be re-entered, printed, or separately validated when cargo crosses into another jurisdiction. Different rules on electronic signatures, document ownership, data formats, and authentication can turn a national digital system into another isolated platform rather than a genuinely cross-border process.
Electronic bills of lading are therefore receiving particular attention because they sit at the centre of commercial and transport transactions. A recognised electronic record can reduce physical document handling and shorten some administrative steps, but only when carriers, banks, traders, and authorities accept the same legal and technical basis. APEC’s wider work also covers certificates of origin, invoices, and customs bonds, all of which can become bottlenecks when systems do not connect.
Perishable cargo provides a practical test of whether digitalisation improves operations rather than simply modernising administration. Customs delays can consume a meaningful share of a product’s usable life, so electronic inspection and quarantine certificates can support faster processing while preserving food-safety controls. The same principle applies to time-sensitive industrial inputs, where a documentation delay can interrupt production even when the physical transport leg has performed as planned.
E-commerce creates a different pressure. Border agencies must process very high numbers of relatively low-value consignments while collecting revenue, protecting consumers, and identifying prohibited or non-compliant goods. AI-assisted risk assessment could help target inspection resources more selectively, but the Dalian discussion also addressed algorithmic transparency and data security, reflecting the need to explain and govern automated decisions.
Eduardo Pedrosa, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat, said: “Customs administrations must continue evolving, not only as regulators, but as strategic partners supporting economic growth, resilience and innovation.” That role increasingly connects customs performance with wider supply chain reliability, particularly when businesses are trying to plan inventory and transport around variable border processing times.
The region’s 21 economies are unlikely to adopt the same tools at the same pace. Digital infrastructure, legal frameworks, customs capability, trade volumes, and business readiness differ considerably, while mutual recognition depends on authorities trusting each other’s controls. Progress therefore relies on common standards and reciprocal acceptance as much as on the underlying software.
For smaller exporters and importers, the administrative benefit could be substantial because duplicate data entry and document handling consume resources that larger organisations can absorb more easily. At the same time, new digital requirements can impose costs if businesses have to connect separately to multiple platforms or maintain parallel paper and electronic processes during a long transition.
AI adds a similar trade-off. Models can identify anomalies across larger datasets and help customs teams focus on higher-risk movements, but a faster decision is not automatically a better one if the logic is opaque or the underlying data is poor. Traders need a route to understand holds, classifications, or risk decisions, while authorities need auditability and controls around the use of commercially sensitive information.
APEC’s current programme is a cooperation and implementation agenda rather than a single regional customs system. Its practical measure will be whether documents can move across borders without repeated conversion, whether compliant traders see more predictable clearance, and whether agencies can use AI without creating an additional layer of unexplained decisions. The technology is available; the slower work is making legal recognition, data standards, and operational trust line up across the region.
