Imagine a cargo ship arriving at a Brazilian port. How long does it take from unloading to final delivery? This isn't just a logistics question—it's central to Brazil's competitiveness in global trade. On June 30, 2020, Brazil's Federal Revenue Office (Receita Federal do Brasil) unveiled its first nationwide Time Release Study (TRS), providing unprecedented transparency about this critical process.
A Milestone for Trade Facilitation
This groundbreaking TRS represents Brazil's commitment to transparency and border management optimization. Conducted using World Customs Organization (WCO) methodology and validated by the WCO, World Bank Group, and UK Prosperity Fund, the study establishes a crucial baseline for measuring future reforms.
WCO Deputy Secretary General Ricardo Treviño Chapa emphasized the study's significance during its launch, noting it marks Brazil's important step toward trade facilitation. He highlighted the particular relevance of maintaining smooth cargo flows during global health crises, suggesting Brazil's experience offers valuable lessons for the wider customs community.
Methodology: The WCO Gold Standard
The study applied the WCO's TRS framework, recognized as the benchmark for assessing cross-border goods movement efficiency. Key methodological components included:
- Scope Definition: Selection of representative ports, transport modes, and cargo types
- Data Collection: Standardized tracking of clearance process stages including declaration, inspection, and tax payment
- Data Analysis: Statistical evaluation of average clearance times and process segment durations
- Validation: Stakeholder feedback to ensure accuracy
- Recommendations: Targeted improvement proposals such as process optimization and inspection efficiency enhancements
Key Findings: Beyond Customs Control
The study revealed Brazil's average goods release time across sea, air, and land transport stands at 7.5 days. Surprisingly, customs clearance accounted for less than 10% of total time, while private sector activities constituted over half the duration. This indicates Brazil's primary clearance bottlenecks lie outside customs operations, particularly in:
- Warehousing: Storage facility limitations and management inefficiencies
- Transportation: Inter-port movement delays
- Documentation: Preparation and processing of required paperwork
Additional findings highlighted significant variations by:
- Transport Mode: Air cargo showed faster processing than maritime shipments, constrained by airport infrastructure limitations
- Cargo Type: Regulated goods like pharmaceuticals and food required extended clearance periods
- Port Facilities: Major ports demonstrated greater efficiency than smaller counterparts with infrastructure constraints
Transparency Through Data Disclosure
In an unprecedented move toward operational transparency, Brazil's Federal Revenue Office committed to publishing the TRS raw data. This disclosure enables:
- Deeper analysis of clearance process inefficiencies
- Informed dialogue between traders and customs authorities
- Data-driven process improvements
- Innovation in supply chain management solutions
Strategic Alignment with Global Trade Agreements
The study's launch emphasized the TRS methodology's critical role in implementing the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). By identifying specific process bottlenecks, the research helps Brazil assess its TFA compliance progress while pinpointing areas requiring focused attention to reduce trade costs.
Global Implications and Future Directions
Brazil's TRS establishes an important precedent for customs administrations worldwide, demonstrating how data-driven analysis can:
- Objectively evaluate trade facilitation performance
- Foster public-private collaboration in process improvement
- Create transparency through data disclosure
- Enable continuous operational refinement
This inaugural national TRS provides Brazil with both a diagnostic assessment and a baseline for measuring future improvements. The study's methodology and findings offer valuable insights for other nations pursuing trade facilitation reforms. The ongoing challenge remains translating these insights into concrete actions that benefit all supply chain participants while maintaining the study's momentum through regular updates.