A Design Proposition for the Information Infrastructure of International Trade

Regulators in international trade are facing a seemingly impossible challenge of increasing control and security while at the same time lowering the administrative burden for traders. The European Commission has introduced the concept of “trusted trader”, referring to a trader that is certified as being in control of his/her business. Trusted traders are supposed to obtain trade facilitations such as periodical reporting of import/export data instead of declaration of every shipment, fever physical inspections, and faster border crossing. To enable the use of trusted traders in practice, changes are required to the information infrastructure of international trade. Following the principles of IS design research, this research-in-progress paper presents a design proposition for the information infrastructure of international trade. Using theories of information infrastructure development and change as kernel theory, our proposition contains redesign suggestion in IT, Organization, Human, as well as Change and Collaboration elements. The design proposition was evaluated and verified with proof of concept installations and a stakeholder value assessment, but lacks real world testing and evaluation. Theoretical contribution is made towards the domain of information infrastructures and how they may be enhanced to meet new requirements.