Adtran sits at the nexus of a host of recent trade challenges, from keeping up with a rapidly shifting export control landscape to ascertaining AI’s risk-reward ratio.
The company, which provides communication products and services, such as cutting-edge hardware for information-sharing networks and services that enhance and maintain them, boasts customers including telecommunications service providers, metro systems and other major infrastructure operators.
Maintaining the company’s compliance and delivering secure, trustworthy products to their customers is no small feat in the current landscape of ever-increasing controls and customs scrutiny.
Global Trade Today spoke to Adtran’s trade compliance specialist Charlotte Richardson to learn more about how the business keeps on top of compliance, as well as tech-forward opportunities that could boost efficiency.
Export control compliance
Increasing export controls have become a compliance challenge for many firms in recent years. Richardson says that the Adtran team was prepared for restrictions on trade with Russian actors, finding themselves “ahead of the curve” on more recent measures introduced on Russia and Belarus.
She says the intensive customs audit required to maintain Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status, necessitated robust internal procedures.
Sanctions screening data is reviewed and refreshed weekly, with Adtran’s systems automatically blocking shipments to sanctioned individuals, companies and countries.
However, increased controls bring increased risks, and Richardson says there’s now heightened due diligence required when it comes to reviewing end-users.
“We always check, not just the customer, but the customer’s customer, so that we understand who’s the true end user.”
China diversification
One security area that has required greater change in recent years is trade with China. High security standards apply to the products Adtran supplies because they facilitate communication and data-sharing.
As a result, a number of customers are not comfortable using products containing parts sourced from China, and many have strict, ‘no-dealings’ policies in place.
The UK government’s decision to block equipment produced by Chinese technology giant Huawei from being used in the UK’s 5G network was a watershed moment, says Richardson.
“Since then, we’ve had a lot of customers putting pressure on us not to be so heavily reliant on China.”
However, “you can’t just make the decision today and stop production in China tomorrow,” she adds. The process of resourcing and restructuring took time. Amid disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has pivoted towards other South-East Asian suppliers over the past five years.
Adtran’s decision, and the pressure faced by other actors in their sector, is especially interesting in light of recent government efforts to bolster trade ties with China, she reflects.
“Whether a new trade deal would make a difference, we shall see, but I think it’s more of a global trend.
“Certainly, for the moment, [diversifying] was the right decision to make.”
Single trade setback
To sum up the ‘pause’ of the Single Trade Window (STW) project, she says the news was “disappointing”.
She adds that the government’s decision to halt development of the STW undermines the UK’s ambition to be a big player on the global stage, and was essentially a “backwards step”.
“If we want to trade successfully and responsibly with other countries, we need to be able to do so on a level with them, and I think that investment into our supply chain is important to achieve that”.
Moving from the big picture to the everyday, she says that it’s smaller firms who stand to lose the most, given that a single entry point for all customs documentation would have offered the biggest time-savings to resource-stretched SMEs.
“Big companies might have budgets for trade compliance teams, but for smaller companies trade compliance is tacked on… so for those companies to have a more streamlined process, rather than the laborious efforts that it takes at the moment, it just makes sense”.
“It would have helped a lot of businesses in agriculture, or anyone dealing with Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS),” she adds.
Since Brexit, those seeking to export SPS goods to EU markets have been required to submit a raft of paperwork evidencing compliance with Brussels’ regulations, with importers facing similar requirements since the introduction of the UK’s Border Target Operating Model in 2024.
AI advances
As a tech-forward firm, Global Trade Today was keen to understand how Adtran approaches AI within customs. As with most industries, the benefits and pitfalls of using the technology are still emerging, and shifting with each new release.
Richardson says she’s enthusiastic about applying AI to customs processes. She’s already reviewed AI programmes claiming to classify products and commodity codes, although she says it wasn’t yet up to scratch. The same was true of similar providers offering services for calculating product values.
However, there’s more immediate applications for reviewing shipments. She’s currently set herself the long-term “goal” of using it to “achieve 100% validation of all shipments”. The technology would be used to identify issues and discrepancies, as well as provide an overview of any postponed VAT accounting, duty or special amendments.
While she’s still experimenting with where AI can be deployed accurately and efficiently without constant oversight, she subscribes to the idea that it will eventually be able to take on rote work, reduce human error and free professionals to focus on more meaningful projects.
“I believe we'll get to a point where shipments are processed accurately and efficiently every time, supporting businesses of all sizes, not just the big ones.”
“It feels like we’re in the middle of a technical revolution,” she adds, and as with previous revolutions, welcoming change is the surest path to sustaining and developing your career.
“I think there’ll be three types of people: those who embrace it, those that don’t and, maybe, those who embrace it begrudgingly.”
Membership means a ‘genuine voice’
Being adaptable and embracing change is familiar territory for Richardson, who moved into trade compliance having previously trained in legal compliance.
“I had plenty of transferable skills but no customs experience.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic she worked her way through the Chartered Institute and Maersk’s Global Customs Academy qualifications, “up to Level 5” and has continued engaging with Lunchtime Learning webinars to stay in the loop.
“The Chartered Institute is brilliant at providing both formal training and timely, digestible updates on regulatory changes,” she says.
She adds that she values being given a “genuine voice” through the Chartered Institute’s advocacy work, praising the efforts of director general Marco Forgione and UK public affairs lead Grace Thompson.
“Their schedules must be nearly as gruelling as the prime minister’s,” she jokes, “they’re here, there and everywhere.”
“Whatever we can’t change individually, we can do collectively through them.”
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of becoming a member of the Chartered Institute, you can explore here.
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