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What we’ve learned from business

Overall, business have told us that Australia’s cross-border trade relies on outdated and complex regulation and ICT systems. Businesses said they face challenges navigating complicated and siloed import and export processes without a whole-of-government and user-centric approach. This costs them time, effort and money.

  • A large logistics company advised they use approximately 360,000 pieces of paper each year for cross-border trade processes.
  • A seafood exporter from Queensland described how they dealt with many government touchpoints each day, as they typically worked with multiple people across 2–3 government agencies, as well as state and local governments.
  • A small meat exporter explained that minor errors in documentation, which can happen through manual data entry, paper forms or transferring information between ICT systems, can cost money to reprint or risk product being held up in the importing countries.

Business experience highlighted the need for an integrated, whole-of-government approach.