It is unclear what the eventual impact of the Internet will be on society as a whole. There are indications, for instance, that the actual take-up by the private sector in Australia of the Internet as a business tool is slower than one would expect. Nonetheless, we have argued that Customs needs to adapt and maximise its to fulfil our regulatory obligations, maximising our efficiency and ability to contribute to international trade facilitation. Issues Please note that these have been kept as general as possible and examples from Australian Customs experience have been used. We would very much like to extend this by feedback from other APEC Customs administrations.
Security is clearly a major issue for the eventual conduct of electronic commerce over the Internet.
There is a great deal of activity both internationally and in individual economies. Public key encryption can be used for digital signatures and may be used to ensure confidentiality of a document. There are a number of legal, privacy, regulatory and audit concerns in keeping with increased use of e-commerce and the Internet. These will affect Customs and other Government agencies in most cases guidelines and regulations will be set across all Government agencies. In Australia the Attorney-General's Department and the Office of Government Information Technology have taken the lead in close consultation with the National Office for the Information Economya.