Biosecurity Summit: MAF, trade and the cargo pathway
The Biosecurity Summit heard some pithy and clear commentary from those in the business of trade who must deal with MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) and other government agencies.
One-portal approach?
At a half-day session on MAF, Trade and the Cargo Pathway, Denise McCamish of FEDEX and the Conference of Asia Pacific Express Carriers told her audience that CAPEC members have had communications difficulties with MAF but that the situation has improved markedly over the past six months. And she said processing times for Biosecurity Authority Clearance Certificates (BACCs) have dropped from 24 to 12 hours. She says a one-portal approach will help the express industry, which at present must deal with MAFBNZ, Customs, Medsafe and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority separately,
This will all help to facilitate legitimate trade and catch the bad guys at the border.
Improvement noted
The New Zealand Managing Director of multinational express forwarding company DHL, Brian Broom, told of the efforts his company is making to meet biosecurity requirements. The company is training senior managers in the rules and regulations so they can work more efficiently with MAFBNZ.
"If people don't know the rules and regulations, then customers don't get their goods on time. That affects the economy if goods are not on the shelves."
Brian Broom told the Summit of some frustrations in dealing with MAFBNZ.
"Three or four months ago, trying to get hold of someone from MAFBNZ when there was a hold put on a product could take forever.
"If a spray is needed on a product, the customer's expectation is that MAFBNZ will come straight away. But there seemed to be no-one there to take the calls and faxes weren't answered. From a business point of view, that was very frustrating. The situation has improved greatly in recent times."
Documentation a challenge
An important biosecurity stakeholder is the trucking industry.
Martyn Freer of Tappers, who emphasised he was not speaking on behalf of the industry, said documentation is a major challenge. "It must always be clear with an ease of understanding and unambiguous communication – and too often that is not the case."
For instance, a BACC may contain no reference to the necessity for fumigation for a consignment when indeed just that is required.
A proposal by customs brokers and freight forwarders for streamlining the relationship between MAFBNZ and industry stakeholders received a warm welcome from the Summit.
Resources stretched
Rosemarie Dawson, Executive Director of the Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Federation (CBAFF) summed it up.
"CBAFF's proposals are for appropriately trained, MAF-accredited persons to take on a range of low-risk frontline functions currently carried out by the department, freeing MAF's highly qualified staff to perform more essential and important tasks. It's well known that MAF's resources are stretched to the limit keeping up with demand for its services.
"Unquestionably it would be better for these highly skilled people to be out completing the essential and technically challenging jobs they are so well qualified to do rather than spending much of their time ploughing through paperwork.
"In such pressured situations there is a danger that medium- and high-risk consignments may not get the biosecurity attention they should – and that becomes a problem for New Zealand as a whole."
CBAFF proposed that freight forwarding industry members would undergo a course run by approved trainers so they can become accredited by MAF to perform low-risk clearance, audited by MAF.
Rosemarie Dawson said an industry survey has shown that brokers and forwarders could take responsibility for a range of biosecurity functions, including Write Offs, Permits to Import, Personal Effects, Full Container Load and Less Than Container Load Clearances and Vehicle and LTSA inspections.
CBAFF has the infrastructure in place for its own courses and could offer training to meet the MAF standard, she said.
Fighting the paper war
MAFBNZ's Assistant Director Cargo Clearance, Charles Hatcher, updated the Summit on the efforts MAFBNZ is making for increased efficiencies and integration at the border.
"What we've tried to do is create supply chain managers. We've also changed to rely a lot more on our mobile officers so we can actually get out and do these inspections."
Charles noted some of MAFBNZ's achievements. He told the audience mobile data collection has been a significant first.
"In terms of clearing cars down on the wharf, we do it all using a PDA (personal digital assistant), a system we implemented quite quickly. We have also trialled other systems, including laptops in the field.
"We're also looking at some paperless clearances coming up shortly."
The Summit heard how MAFBNZ is trying to make its standards clearer. Charles highlighted the criticism MAFBNZ receives over its paper war.
He said using faxes means 245 staff are spending more time being clerks than doing biosecurity inspections.
"We have a bank of fax machines – nine in Auckland – and they turn out 15,000 faxes each per month. We have the highest number of fax machines in the country. We have to file every single fax."
And a single fax can run at up to 400 pages.
"We have 15-and-a-half storage containers – the half is rapidly filling up – across the country. If we need to check something we have to take a few days to have a look at it. So from our point of view, to make all that electronic is absolutely paramount."
He said officers have won approval for a virtual single window which will allow brokers and importers to submit their BACC applications electronically. The new system should be in place by June next year.
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Page last updated: 30 April 2008