The CRSPs, most of them small and medium enterprises fully devoted to customs handling in their National markets, decided to jointly analyse the new eCustoms procedures and to approach international environments, doing it by business collaborations with the other CRSPs instead of fierce competition to conquer their neighbour countries just by their own.
EurTradeNet started in 2002 as a forum of discussion of European CRSPs, all of them facing similar market needs but in dissimilar geographies, using different technologies and supporting tools, complying European regulations locally implemented, and following their own deployment methods and operational procedures.
The intensive efforts of the international regulatory bodies to have fully harmonised customs procedures Europe-wide, and the entrance of multinational integrators trying to cover the whole European diversity with a unique global system, convinced the CRSPs to join their forces tighter, defining interchanging standards among them and a network structure to approach trans-European environments by business collaborations with their neighbour companies.
The European Commission co-funded the early stages of EurTradeNet, its pre-commercial validation and business planning for further expansion. The Unified Interchange Data Standards, the UIDS developed by ETN, were very much aligned with the common-pivot concept from DG TAXUD, and acknowledged by this European authority as the seed of SEAP (Single Electronic/European Access Point).
After tough but really productive years of common work, in July 2008 EurTradeNet became an independent legal entity fully committed to global promotion and joint development. The challenge was to get listened to at the higher level of the European regulators and standardisation bodies, to show the overall expertise thus better influence the new ways of dealing with electronic customs in the future. EurTradeNet reached the global level, growing-up from the confidence gained by the ETN partners at the National level, the public and private stakeholders already validated their quality of service, their professional commitment and devotion to improvement.
The ETN Alliance is not a private club developing proprietary solutions; it is the Professional Association of European CRSPs, with clear obligations and collaboration rules among its partners and members. EurTradeNet expands through reliable searching and validation processes, to assure professional representation of the certified providers and integrators serving their products and services to the market place around Europe.
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