President Obama signed an executive order this week that he believes would streamline the export/import process. The International Trade Data System (ITDS) is designed to cut from days to minutes the processing and approval times for U.S. businesses that export American-made goods and services.
United Parcel Service (UPS) released a statement supporting this action.
“This Executive Order will be beneficial to improving our supply chain efficiency and moving goods and services that cross our borders,” said Scott Davis, UPS chairman and CEO, and a member of the President’s Export Council. “This change will be particularly meaningful to our small and medium-sized customers that depend on global trade to grow their businesses and reach the 95 percent of consumers that live outside U.S. borders.”
The Executive Order streamlines the export/import process by allowing businesses to electronically transmit, through a “single window,” the data required by each of the U.S. Government agencies to import or export cargo. It instructs all agencies to be compliant with the system by December 2016.