Information such as the name of the business and nature of the shipment need not be reported again and again, as happens today, often in several different formats. Early on, the ITDS project team found that companies and individuals could save almost 2 million hours per year by consolidating just 25 international trade-related forms into one. There will be benefits for the agencies, too. They can assign fewer people to collect information, freeing them to concentrate on their enforcement, revenue collection and regulatory responsibilities. They will receive the information in electronic form, with all the advantages of eliminating paper forms and data entry.
Enforcement is likely to be more effective when more consistent information is readily available.
But the changeover will not be painless. ITDS will deliver the data to the user agencies, but some additional massaging may be necessary to get the information into an agency s existing computer systems. But the technical part of the project is easier to accomplish than the human part getting people working together, Treasury s Simpson told House subcommittee members at an October hearing. One of the problems has been getting people especially in the Customs Service to adjust to the prospect of not owning the source data nor collecting the money. A couple of agencies have had a hard time agreeing to a harmonized data set, is all Simpson will say about the issue.