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LOL. Hey, I had to read a lot of press reports to arrive at the conclusion I did! Tory gov has no proposal. Tory gov has objections to every EU "backstop" drafted since December.

EU is bent over backward on this "trust" problem. Look closer at the so-called solution. EU is offering the tech and that involved applying one label per TEU (container).

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Sep 19th, 2018 at 06:41:43 AM EST
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The barcode on a container solution works ok provided no one changes what's inside the container! Presumably the barcode would be linked to a database containing an inventory of what's inside the container. Few companies have the systems in place to generate an inventory per container load - most invoices contain orders for one customer which can be but a small part of a container load or indeed consist of many container loads.

But you often don't know how many containers or what proportion of a container is required to load the goods until you actually start loading them. At best someone might guess what goods have ended up in what container, but if a customs official opens up a container and checks contents against inventory who is to say any discrepancies aren't balanced out by the contents of other containers?

What is the difference between customs fraud and merely having put some goods in a different than expected container - something handled on the shop floor by fork lift drivers without access to any logistical database... Very few companies have logistical systems capable of handling container level inventories - Tesco, Guinness, some big pharma companies perhaps. It works for very high volume single product shipments, or container loads all destined for the one customer.

But don't expect your average small company operating across the border to implement such systems. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN...

Index of Frank's Diaries

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Sep 19th, 2018 at 11:52:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The barcode on a container solution works ok provided no one changes what's inside the container!

yeah, That's the main joke. It writes many hilarious follow on jokes.

One of them is, EU agreeing to a Tory gov "honor system".

Another is, the impossible operating system needed to track goods by RFID or passive bar codes. You know, I worked at AMZN for two years. Inventory control and quality assurance, in fact. I scanned hundreds of units every hour that crossed BORDERS.

These are a few realities behind my remark, EU is bent over backward ... to encourage Tory gov crazy to sign a pro forma "deal" that obviates physical inspection of goods traded between UK and EU merchants.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Sep 19th, 2018 at 03:48:30 PM EST
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Particularly funny when it comes from Britain, a nation of self-checkout thieves.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Sep 19th, 2018 at 04:24:51 PM EST
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The containerized cargo isn't really an issue - containers are numbered and sealed with tamper-resistant seals, people are already supposed to declare what goes in them, and there are ways to do randomized customs checks that presumably address these concerns. And customs enforcement of containerized cargo is anyway based on an honor system supplemented with spot audits.

Which means you can have a more or less frictionless border... but only if you make it in the seaport or railhead. As soon as you move the border out of the well-defined, fenced-in logistics hubs, you lose the ability to track consignments by tracking the containers and cross-referencing consignee data against shipper data, and then the whole thing breaks down.

You can have a land border, or you can have a frictionless border. Pick one.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sat Sep 22nd, 2018 at 01:52:41 PM EST
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