Representatives from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have signed an agreement to share trade data with each other.

ICE will provide Customs and Border Protection access to their Data Analysis and Research for Trade Transparency System (DARTTS), which is a computer system that contains domestic and foreign trade data and allows users to see both sides of the trade transaction, making the transaction transparent.

This will help officers to identify international trade anomalies and financial irregularities indicative of trade-based money laundering, customs fraud, movement of counterfeit goods and other import-export crimes.

It is estimated that annual trade-based money laundering is worth billions of dollars and is growing each year.

Customs and Border Protection National Manager Compliance Assurance Anthony Seebach welcomed the partnership and said it would increase the capabilities of both agencies to target people or entities who tried to exploit global trade systems.

“DARTTS is yet another tool we can use to identify criminal and terrorist organisations who seek to disguise illegal activities, such as money laundering, as legitimate trade,” Mr. Seebach said.

ICE initiated the Trade Transparency Program and the use of DARTTS 2004  to better identify criminal activity utilizing trade.