• 3 min de lectura
• 3 min de lectura
Chile faces a challenge that demands long-term decisions: strengthening its control capabilities against smuggling and organized crime, without affecting the fluidity of foreign trade, which is strategic for our economy.
In this context, the announcement of a plan to modernize the National Customs Service opens a necessary discussion.
The incorporation of technology, artificial intelligence, non-invasive inspection systems, and better risk management tools can represent a significant advance in building a more efficient Customs service, prepared for current challenges.
However, modernizing does not simply mean incorporating more controls or more technology. It means controlling better, intelligently using information and concentrating resources where risks actually exist.
A more sophisticated inspection should allow low-risk cargo to move more quickly and with greater certainty, while the State concentrates its capabilities on operations that require more exhaustive review. In this way, security and trade facilitation cease to be conflicting objectives.
However, amidst this discussion, there is a question we must also ask ourselves: What place will customs brokers occupy in the Customs of the future?
The answer should not be that digitalization makes them unnecessary. On the contrary, the more complex, technological, and information-based the customs system, the greater the need for specialized knowledge to correctly interpret regulations, anticipate risks, ensure compliance, and facilitate legitimate operations.
The customs broker performs a specialized function within the foreign trade chain. They participate daily in its processes, know its demands and difficulties, and contribute to import and export operations developing in accordance with regulations.
In this role, they coordinate with the various agencies involved in the operation and manage, together with importers and exporters, the necessary documentation for the correct development of their procedures, providing experience, certainty, and greater fluidity to foreign trade.
Therefore, the debate should not focus on whether modernization replaces the customs broker, but on how modernization can enhance their contribution.
Digital transformation offers precisely that opportunity. Brokers can play an increasingly relevant role in matters such as regulatory compliance, information quality, traceability, risk management, and trade facilitation.
Technology can automate processes, but specialized knowledge remains fundamental for interpreting information, detecting inconsistencies, and understanding the particularities of operations.
This requires, of course, that all actors evolve. The customs broker must also accompany technological transformation, incorporate new tools, and permanently strengthen their capabilities. Modernizing the system implies also modernizing the way we participate in it.
The same applies to the State. A modern Customs requires technology, but also efficient processes, trained officials, interoperability between institutions, and clear rules regarding the competencies of each agency. Modernization cannot be reduced to infrastructure or equipment; it must translate into better processes and results.
From Anagena, we believe that this transformation must be built with a comprehensive vision and with the participation of those who know the daily operation of foreign trade. Customs brokers can contribute from that experience to a discussion that should not only worry about how to control more, but how to control better and facilitate more.
Chile has the opportunity to move towards a more technological, secure, efficient, and connected Customs service that meets the needs of foreign trade. To achieve this, we need to combine State capabilities, technological innovation, and specialized knowledge.
Modernizing Customs does not mean dispensing with those who know foreign trade. It means integrating technology, institutional capacity, and specialized knowledge to build a safer, more efficient, and more facilitating system. In this challenge, the customs broker does not lose relevance; they evolve and can assume an even more strategic role.
