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World Customs Journal March 2012 Volume 6, Number 1 International Network of Customs Universities World Customs Journal Published by the University of Canberra, Australia and the University of Münster, Germany in association with the International Network of Customs Universities (INCU) and the World Customs Organization (WCO). The World Customs Journal provides a forum for customs professionals, academics, industry researchers, and research students to contribute items of interest and share research and experiences to enhance its readers’ understanding of all aspects of the roles and responsibilities of Customs. The Journal is published electronically and in print twice a year. The website is at: www.worldcustomsjournal.org. Guidelines for Contributors are included at the end of each issue. More detailed guidance about style is available on the Journal’s website. Correspondence and all items submitted for publication should be sent in Microsoft Word or RTF, as email attachments, to the Editor-in-Chief: [email protected]. ISSN: 1834-6707 (Print) 1834-6715 (Online) Volume 6, Number 1 Published March 2012 © 2012 University of Canberra, Australia and University of Münster, Germany Both universities are founding members of the INCU, an association that provides the WCO and other organisations with a single point of contact with universities and research institutes that are active in the field of customs research, education and training. Copyright. All rights reserved. Permission to use the content of the World Customs Journal must be obtained from the copyright owner. Please apply to the Editor-in-Chief. Disclaimer. The views expressed in the World Customs Journal are those of individual contributors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, the INCU, the World Customs Organization or its individual membership, or the publishers. ii Volume 6, Number 1 World Customs Journal Contents Editorial ................................................................................................................................................ v SECTION 1 – ACADEMIC CONTRIBUTIONS Excise taxation of key commodities across South East Asia: a comparative analysis ahead of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 Rob Preece ....................................................................................................................................... 3 The impact of customs procedures on business performance: evidence from Kosovo Mario Holzner and Florin Peci ...................................................................................................... 17 De minimis thresholds in APEC Stephen Holloway and Jeffrey Rae ................................................................................................. 31 Coordinated border management: the experience of Asia and the Pacific region Sandeep Raj Jain ............................................................................................................................ 63 SECTION 2 – PRACTITIONER CONTRIBUTIONS The Time Release Study as a performance measurement tool for a supply chain and an international corridor Shingo Matsuda .............................................................................................................................. 79 The standardisation of customs services in the European Union Ewa Gwardzińska ........................................................................................................................... 93 Warehousekeepers: bridges connecting Customs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Dafang Liu.................................................................................................................................... 101 SECTION 3 – SPECIAL REPORT Lines and flows: the beginning and end of borders Assistant Secretary Alan D Bersin, US Department of Homeland Security ................................ 115 SECTION 4 – REFERENCE MATERIAL Guidelines for Contributors ............................................................................................................ 129 Editorial Board................................................................................................................................. 130 Volume 6, Number 1 iii International Network of Customs Universities iv Volume 6, Number 1 World Customs Journal Editorial At first glance, this edition of the World Customs Journal comprises what appears to be a disparate array of topics. However, I invite your attention to the underlying theme of contrasting approaches to universal imperatives which permeates several of the contributions. Rob Preece, for example, introduces his comparative analysis of excise taxation across the ASEAN region and identifies the need for standardisation in readiness for the impending introduction of the ASEAN Economic Community. Stephen Holloway and Jeffrey Rae present the results of their research into the diversity of de minimis arrangements in the APEC region, highlighting their impact on economic benefits and costs. Sandeep Raj Jain examines a variety of regional approaches to coordinated border management, and Ewa Gwardzińska examines the introduction of the EU’s electronic customs environment as a means of achieving regional standardisation. The underlying commonality of border management imperatives is also reflected in this edition’s Special Report. In his insightful article ‘Lines and Flows: the Beginning and End of Borders’ Alan Bersin challenges the traditional concept of international borders, and introduces a paradigm that views global cooperation as a fundamental requirement for effective border management. The Editorial Board would like to thank Mr Bersin for his valuable contribution. In response to the requests of many of our readers, the next edition of the Journal will focus on excise policy and practice, and will include papers presented at the World Customs Organization’s Global Excise Summit which will be held on 2-3 July at the WCO Headquarters in Brussels. Another important date for your diaries is this year’s PICARD conference that will be held in Marrakech, Morocco in the last week of September. I look forward to seeing you there! David Widdowson Editor-in-Chief Volume 6, Number 1 v International Network of Customs Universities vi Volume 6, Number 1 Section 1 Academic Contributions International Network of Customs Universities 2 Volume 6, Number 1 World Customs Journal Excise taxation of key commodities across South East Asia: a comparative analysis ahead of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 Rob Preece Abstract As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) moves towards the formation of its Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, it is worth considering the extent, if any, of any major differences in the excise taxation systems across the ASEAN membership. The issues which could arise will ultimately be determined by the actual final ‘shape’ of the AEC on its commencement, and the extent to which the ‘single market’ objectives of the AEC will allow for the free movement of goods and investment. Without harmonisation or indeed any form of standardisation or at least coordination of excise and like taxes, there could well be issues for ASEAN members to manage in the areas of local production and distribution moving across borders; import and regional distribution arrangements being reviewed; and cross-border ‘shopping’ or trade in non-commercial volumes of excise duty paid goods. Each of these issues potentially requires a regional level policy discussion, as well as local policy consideration, but most importantly, the need to look at various administrative arrangements to monitor the movement of excisable goods across ASEAN. This paper looks at various analytical approaches to comparing the differences across the ASEAN excise tax systems. In 2003, the leaders of the various states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)1 agreed to the formation of an Economic Community (AEC) as part of its larger ‘ASEAN Vision 2020’ plan.2 A ‘road map’ for implementation was then laid out in 2007 in a document titled the ‘ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint’ in which the following ‘characteristics’ of the new regional economic integration were outlined as being:3 • the creation of a single market and single production base • a highly competitive economic region • a region which is equitable in terms of economic development • a region which is fully integrated into the global economy. As this paper is focused on the area of excise taxation, of interest in this study is the first of these characteristics: the formation of a single market and a single production base with the ASEAN region. Excise is primarily a tax on the production (or import) of certain goods, although it can also be found being applied to some services. Significantly, excise taxes represent different priorities for different countries in terms of being a source of revenue, and increasingly, excise taxes are now often being set by governments to meet certain policy objectives around the consumption of those goods, for example, tobacco excises may be utilised so that retail pricing meets a certain level and reduces demand, or fuel excises may have exemptions on alternative clean burning fuels to stimulate demand for those fuels over fossil fuels. Volume 6, Number 1 3 International Network of Customs Universities In terms of a move towards the ‘single market’ aims of the AEC, there is the potential for issues to arise in policy particularly where production (or import) of excisable goods

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