Earlier this week, a new bill proposed to the US Senate aims to postpone to 2015 the entry into force of the contested law on the mandatory scanning of containerized imports destined to the US territory. The motivation of this proposal is to give more time to the ports outside the US for adopting adequate X-ray or other non-intrusive detection technologies for the examination of containers outbound.

(continues... in Italian)

Time Release Studies (TRS) are a trade facilitation tool utilized by Customs to quantify the average times taken for the clearance of goods at the various entry locations in a territory (e.g. ports, airports and land borders). Their adoption dates back to the beginning of ninetiees of 20^th century, on initiative of the American and Japanese customs. At international level, their adoption is recommendend since 1994 by the World Customs Organization (WCO), that on 2002 issued also guidelines to guide their members in the correct use of such a tool.

TRS allow in particular to customs administrations to measure and break down into separate phases, time required from the arrival of goods in the importing Country to their release, in order to identify bottlenecks, delays and constraints in the customs clearance process and implement adequate corrective actions.