Korea Customs Authority to Test Blockchain Clearance System for Imports, Exports

The Korea Customs Service (KSC) is reportedly due to test a blockchain-based system to verify data and shipments during imports and exports with over 50 companies domestically.

According to the Korea Times, the KCS is developing a customs data platform powered by blockchain technology in an effort to boost enhance the efficiency of a customs-clearing process that has long-relied on paper and is notoriously inefficient due to human error.

Specifically, the real-world test will check if a distributed blockchain ledger boosts accuracy and transparency in issuing Certificates of Origin, a crucial international trade document that certifies that goods in a particular export shipment are wholly obtained, produced, manufactured or processed in a particular country. The certificate also contains details of the product, its destination and the country of export and can also serve as a declaration by the exporter.

While details surrounding the in-house blockchain are scarce, the customs authority has already recruited five working groups and 50 companies domestically on the exporting side and five working groups and 10 companies based in Vietnam and Singapore for imports, to test the system.

If the test proves successful, the KCS said it will apply the technology to other services.

The developments come at a time when a consortium of logistics companies, government authorities including the KCS and shipping operators in Korea concluded a successful 7-month blockchain logistic pilot of real-world imports and exports.

Powered by a blockchain product developed by Samsung SDS, the IT subsidiary of Samsung, the project took off a year ago and delivered its first successful trial of a shipment from Korea to China in September wherein the entire process of booking the shipment domestically to delivering the cargo in China was facilitated over a blockchain.