The Safety and Security of International Trade as a Determinant of the Business Strategy of the Polish Customs Service

The aim of the paper is to analyze the influence of safety standards in the international trade of goods on the activity of the customs administrations on the example of the Polish Customs Service.The safety of trade of goods in the international market is one of the main aspects affecting the actions taken by the customs administrations worldwide. The safety is most often defined as a condition in which the vast majority of risks associated with the conducted activity, have been identified, the prob­ability of specific adverse events has been defined, accepted and special measures have been taken to limit the risks. In the era of globalization and trade liberalization the concept of risk analysis in the international trade and improving safety in the international supply chains is particularly important for all areas of business, as well for the public administration activity. Therefore Author of the paper is going to search for answers to the questions: To what extent the need to increase the safety of in­ternational trade in goods determines the customs service's activity? What initiatives are undertaken by the customs administrations in order to define and to reduce the risk of goods trading? Searching for answers to these questions in first part of the paper Author will define the concept of safety of contemporary international trade by referring to the World Customs Organization Safe Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade (WCO, 2007). The second part of the paper deals with the nature of the customs service and its activity by stating that in the era of liberalization the inter­national trade of goods the competition and the role of customs authority has evolved. The third part of the paper is focused on the impact of safety standards in the international trade on Polish Customs Service activity. In this part of the paper specific strategic document: Business Strategy of The Polish Customs Service will be analyzed. The new business services offered by customs administrations, which aim is to ensure the safety of the international goods trade, will also be indicated and the effort to evaluate the effectiveness of these services will be taken.In this paper, the following research methods were used: a descriptive method, an analysis of litera­ture and a statistical inference