Customs services monitor international trade to ensure compliance with regulations and laws, acting as a barrier against unscrupulous traders and preventing the trade of illegal items. They also enforce bans and quotas on certain products and can seize and destroy dangerous or substandard items.
The advent of globalization has made it easier to trade between various countries. The volume of this trade has grown to the point where regulations, both nationally and internationally, have been put in place to monitor the trade. Part of this monitoring process is the institution of customs services at different country borders or boundaries to ensure importers and exporters comply with these rules. As such, the main relationship between customs and international trade lies in the fact that customs acts as a check or enforcer of various trade regulations and laws.
One of the links between customs and international trade is that customs acts as a barrier against some unscrupulous traders in foreign countries who try to dump unwanted or even toxic materials within another country’s territorial borders. Some of these agents may try to infiltrate the country with toxic substances in a variety of ways. Without customs officials present, they may be able to do so. Some importers or exporters may try to export dangerously substandard products to other countries. Most of the time, customs agents seize these items and prosecute merchants and their agents. They can also destroy toxic substances.
Customs and international trade are connected by the fact that customs ensure that importers and exporters comply with various related national and international laws. For example, a country that has banned the importation of chicken products from another due to an avian flu outbreak will instruct customs to ensure that this ban is enforced. To that end, any related product discovered will be seized and destroyed. Some countries may impose trade quotas limiting the number or volume of an item that can be imported or exported in a given period. Once this quota limit is reached, customs will ensure that no importer or exporter is allowed to import or export the item.
Another connection between customs and international trade is the fact that customs prevent any international trade in illegal items. One example is that the white rhino has been declared an endangered species, with only a handful left in the wild. Some countries, however, still trade the animal, mainly for the horn, which is used in the manufacture of various mixtures as aphrodisiacs. Customs prevents trade in these prohibited animals, plants and other items.
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