Institutional resonance: Brazil is more in tune with the new import process

The advancement of coordinated border management in Brazil: the full adherence of the consensus-making bodies to the NPI

Introduction – When the State listens, music is born

Some processes transform systems. Others fine-tune institutions. And there are those, rarer still, in which the workings of the state become a shared guideline—not just functional, but musical. The New Import Process (NPI), anchored in Brazil's Single Foreign Trade Portal, is today one of those works.

Inspired by the symbolic-musical aesthetics proposed by Rosaldo Trevisan — who read Brazilian Customs Law in a single-note samba key — This article explores another, equally harmonious, tone: that of interoperability as an institutional chord. Because by integrating compliant organizations, private operators, and multilateral frameworks, the NPI ceases to be a mere electronic system and ultimately becomes the score of a new governance.

More than a digitalization of procedures, the NPI represents a structural change in the way Brazil organizes the flow of goods, decisions, and responsibilities across its borders. It not only interconnects systems: it articulates institutional timelines, equalizes competencies, and establishes a new way of listening.

By allowing the full integration of consent-granting agencies into the Single Import Declaration (DUIMP), the country is taking an unprecedented step. In June 2025, the National Committee on Trade Facilitation (CONFAC) announced that all agencies will be integrated by September, consolidating an unprecedented milestone in Brazilian customs governance.

This integration, however, is not a spontaneous or superficial movement. It is the result of years of technical accumulation, institutional debates, systems development, and the maturation of stakeholders. It requires maturity, interoperability, and trust in the process on the part of all stakeholders, both public and private.

Today, the NPI ceases to be a project and is consolidated as a state policy.

But like any long work, this score wasn't composed without pauses. There were moments of hesitation, long silences during the COVID-19 pandemic, and institutional noise that sometimes threw the composition out of tune. These were years in which improvisation replaced the score and fragmentation threatened the melody.

It is precisely this past of pauses that makes the current chord more powerful.

And so, at the right moment, the institutions learned to listen. The rhythm began to flow again. And Brazil began to refine its borders with the world, with technique, ethics, and harmony.

Track 1 – Prelude to listening: when interoperability begins in shared silence

As a private sector player, I can't hide my enthusiasm when I observe the maturity of Brazilian institutions in the customs transformation process. The implementation of the New Import Process (NPI) is more than a systemic response to the demands of modern foreign trade: it demonstrates that Brazil has begun to operate its borders in harmony, in terms of listening, coordination, and shared intelligence.

For decades, Brazilian customs logic was structured on fragmented pillars. Parallel systems, disconnected channels, overlapping controls, and redundant flows created a scenario in which operating also involved deciphering. The very management of the approval agencies reflected this dispersion: each agency at its own pace, each requirement at its own time.

The NPI's innovation lies not only in its technology. Its strength lies in its guiding principle: interoperability as an institutional practice. What was once a dissonant symphony is now beginning to sound like a unified technical agreement.

And this transition wasn't determined by decree, but by consensus: in technical meetings, in successive validations, in real-life tests. Listening ceased to be a protocol and became a method.

In Brazil, in 2025, talking about customs means talking about relational architecture. About connections without noise. About borders that learn to listen before acting.

Because every great work begins in silence: and it is in institutional listening that the first chord is written.

Track 2 – The Ruling State: between score and baton, the public compass of transformation

 

In every orchestra, there is a listening and decision-making center that doesn't dominate, but rather leads. In Brazil, this leadership is shared. The Federal Revenue Service (RFB) and the Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex) act as technical co-directors of a model that aspires to be harmonious, coordinated, and mature.

While the Federal Treasury built the systemic foundations, structured flows, and strengthened control intelligence, it was up to Secex to fine-tune the attributes, review requirements, engage in dialogue with the relevant agencies, and constantly listen to operators and representative associations. It was this combination that allowed the logic of a customs system based on risk, predictability, and technical rationality to be transferred from the regulatory agenda to digital implementation.

It wasn't always this way. Between 2018 and 2022, progress faltered: there were interruptions, areas of silence, and unclear priorities. The pandemic generated noise and slowdown, and at times, leaders lost their ability to listen. But the last two years marked a new era. The arrival of new leaders, such as tax auditor Fabiano Coelho, currently general coordinator of the RFB Customs System, brought with it not only a renewal of methods but also greater institutional sensitivity.

Today, NPI management reflects the principles enshrined in international forums such as the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, the WCO SAFE Framework, and the Kyoto Protocol: collaborative governance, technology as a means (not an end), and interoperability as the foundation.

Customs is no longer just an authority.

It also becomes a conductor of connections.

And like any conscious director, he doesn't impose the rhythm: he listens to the group, breathes with it, and only then does he direct.

Track 3 – Consent Chord: When different timbres align on the same pitch

Interoperability is only achieved when there is a collective will to abandon institutional cacophony. No score can stand without listening among musicians, and, in the Brazilian customs context, this listening has matured.

In June 2025, the National Committee on Trade Facilitation (CONFAC) confirmed that all consent-granting agencies will be fully integrated into the New Import Process (NPI) by September. But more than a technical integration, this announcement reveals a symbolic milestone: the State, in its multiple instances, begins to operate under the same digital compass, with a shared score and a harmonious rhythm.

From fragmented demands to synchronized decisions, the institutional trajectory has undergone a long process of testing. What was once a mismatch between systems and timelines is now being readjusted around a common architecture: the DUIMP. The gradual entry of the ANP, ANEEL, ANM, Correios, Defesa, Decex, Inmetro, MCTI, PF, CNEN, and CNPq consolidates this effort, while Anvisa, Mapa, IBAMA, and the Army finalize their entry with their own, but compatible, agreements.

This movement is more than just a simple endorsement: it's an institutional transformation. Each agency needed to adjust its processes, harmonize its standards, and accept the collective's qualifications.

In the new Brazilian costumbrista essay, plurality is not noise: it is sonorous richness.

And when institutions become more aligned, the border ceases to be a barrier and becomes an instrument.

Track 4 – Treble Clef Catalog: From improvised chords to structured reading of merchandise

Every musical score requires precise notation. In the customs arena, the merchandise is the fundamental sound, and its description is the score that guides the entire logistical and regulatory process. With the New Import Process, Brazil abandons documentary improvisation and definitively adopts the structured attribute declaration, anchored in the DUIMP Product Catalog.

This movement was consolidated through a series of regulations that repositioned consent-granting agencies within the logic of interoperability. A paradigmatic example is Anvisa's RDC Resolution No. 977/2025, which establishes a new administrative control model for products subject to health surveillance in foreign trade. This is a legal and operational framework that profoundly transforms the relationship between the regulator and the regulated: what was previously a textual request is now translated into technical, objective, and automatable parameters: a language unique to the new digital customs.

Siscomex News No. 059/2025, in turn, reaffirms this standard by presenting the convergence of requirements between Anvisa and Mapa, promoting attribute alignment, table compatibility, and the construction of a common vocabulary. This is a change that goes beyond formality: it transforms regulatory thinking itself.

But these are not isolated notes. Other approval agencies—IBAMA, INMETRO, Defense, Federal Police, ANP, ANEEL, ANM, CNEN, CNPq, MCTI—have also published regulations and lists of attributes that align their analyses with the Product Catalog, collectively forming a unified technical score. Each new guideline is an additional key, necessary for the NPI to sound integrated and accurate.

In this new institutional framework, documentary improvisation no longer has a place. Nor is there room for careless outsourcing or for services that treat description as a mere formality. Cataloging is a technical declaration. It means assuming, from the outset, joint responsibility for the fluidity of the chain.

Therefore, the moment demands a change of attitude: more technique, more awareness, more training.

In this scenario, training initiatives such as the Educomex platform, created by SINDASP, play a leading role in training operators capable of describing accurately, understanding in depth, and making responsible statements.

Because in the New Import Process, describing well means playing well.

And there is no symphony possible with out-of-tune instruments.

Track 5 – Counterpoint of Agencies and Purposes: each body in its own tone, each mission in its own time—and all on the same agenda—

If track 3 presented the tuning of the State as an orchestra, this track is dedicated to the specific timbres of each instrument. Because the harmony of the NPI doesn't come from uniformity, but from the conscious coordination of different purposes.

Customs, by its very nature, is multisectoral. Health, environment, energy, technology, defense, science, and public safety: all these issues are part of the international flow of goods. And each of them has a voice in the authorizing bodies with specific and irrevocable missions.

The beauty of the New Import Process lies in the logic of the institutional counterpoint:

• • Anvisa, with its public health surveillance;
  • The Map, guardian of agricultural security;
  • Ibama, voice of the environment and responsible use of resources;
  • Defense, which guarantees sensitive control of strategic products;
  • Inmetro, which ensures technical and metrological compliance;
  • The Federal Police, which protects logistics channels from illicit activities;

ANP, ANEEL, ANM, CNPq, CNEN, MCTI: each with its own agenda, mission and compass.

This diversity, often translated into overlaps and noise, now finds a common thread in the Product Catalog, preliminary declarations, and attribute tables. Importers can predict, with unprecedented precision, which agency will intervene, when, and based on which standard. This reduces duplication, qualifies the public decision, and respects the timeline of the chain.

It's not about silencing the organs. It's about governing them with listening, technique, and maturity.

And, above all, with respect to its purposes.

When each agency fulfills its role without breaking the institutional tone, control turns into trust.

And customs cease to be a conflict and become a composition.

Track 6 – Cooperation sounding board: CONFAC subcommittee and the technical-institutional mix of borders

In any band worth its salt, there's a crucial moment before the performance: the soundboard. This is where volumes are balanced, frequencies are equalized, and channels are tested. Every instrument matters, but it's the tuning that transforms the rehearsal into a show.

In Brazil, this collaborative adjustment role between the State and the market was formalized with the creation of the CONFAC Technical Cooperation Subcommittee in 2024. For the first time, trade facilitation policy now has an institutionalized and permanent channel for structured consultation with the private sector, specifically focused on the challenges of DUIMPs and coordinated border management.

In addition, local COLFACs have emerged, regional committees that act as true local reconciliation forums, whose contributions are directly reflected in national debates. Of particular note is the experience of the São Paulo Transversal COLFAC, which brings together four of the five largest customs authorities in the country. Its solid and cross-cutting action provides practical and innovative solutions that inform and enrich the Subcommittee's national dialogue.

The Subcommittee was created in response to the maturing of a new institutional moment: consultation is not enough; it is necessary to dialogue, experiment together, and review decisions. Its existence, although still under construction and with challenges to its effectiveness, represents a turning point. After all, recognizing the existence of a sounding board is the first step toward fine-tuning the sound.

We know there's no magic in collegial bodies. Decisions still face noise, silence, and discrepancies. So far, the Subcommittee has had limited influence on central systems. But it's also true that its creation paves the way: every digital transformation requires co-authorship.

More than deliberation, the Subcommittee generates legitimacy. And legitimacy is the channel through which technical listening can flow, even when the institutional rhythm fails.

Because when a country decides to operate through complex arrangements—such as interoperability and multi-agency pre-screening—it needs a place to test, correct, and modulate.

Brazil is learning to play together.

Whistling is still audible, but the volume of the dialogue is starting to rise.

Track 7 – Solo Operator: The private sector and cultural change in customs responsibility

There are times when the collective arrangement gives way to a single one. Not because the whole is lost, but because the prominence of one instrument helps to understand the complexity of the work. In the New Import Process, this responsibility falls solely on the private operator—especially the importer—who now assumes direct responsibility for the quality of the information.

The DUIMP Product Catalog has become the new tool for reading goods. Its accuracy depends on the technical precision of the person completing it. Pre-analysis by approval agencies will only be viable if the description is accurate, the attributes are complete, and the information meets regulatory requirements.

In this new scenario, documentary improvisation no longer has a place.

Nor is there room for careless subcontracting or services that treat the description as a mere formality. Cataloging is a technical declaration. It implies assuming, from the outset, the condition of joint responsibility for customs clearance.

In this harmonious field of transformations, a new declarative grammar emerges, closer to an evolved G2B, where the State listens and responds, but also demands precision and preparation.

The following entities stand out in this institutional transition effort:

• • São Paulo Customs Agents Union (SINDASP): validated critical NPI functionalities in thematic technical groups (DUIMP, ANVISA, MAPA) and leads sector training through the Educomex platform;
  • National Confederation of Industry (CNI): articulates industrial interests in regulatory forums and promotes dialogue between the State and the productive sector;
  • National Federation of Customs Brokers (Feaduaneiros): technical link in the trade system in the CNC, unites the tradition of the category with the new declarative paradigm;
  • Procomex Alliance Institute: a benchmark in integrated border management, acts as a technical bridge between operators and the government;
  • Brazilian Council of Import and Export Trading Companies (CECIEx): offers specialized analysis on specific customs regimes and practices;
  • American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil (AmCham Brasil): promotes business forums and strategic studies on economic integration;
  • Association of Women Specialists in Foreign Trade (AMECOMEX): strengthens the female technical presence, in line with the best practices of the WTO and the WTO;
  • Association of User Companies of Recof and OEA (AER): provides applied intelligence to special regimes and authorized economic operator programs;
  • Brazilian Association of Customs Terminals and Facilities (ABTRA): represents facilities in building solutions for physical and systemic interoperability;
  • Brazilian Association of Logistics Operators (ABOL): works on the design of solutions for private customs logistics, with a focus on efficiency and compliance.

These voices form the technical and institutional fabric of a new era: that of conscious declaration. That of shared responsibility between those who control and those who operate.

As Fábio Freitas Ciocca wrote in his study on customs and civil protection:

“The effectiveness of the smart border depends on overcoming the dichotomy between control and facilitation, based on mutual trust and responsible sharing of functions.”

This trust is born with a click and is consolidated by the quality of the information.

In the new rhythm of Brazilian customs, whoever operates, plays.

He who declares, answers.

And whoever understands the new score… tunes in.

Epilogue – The Last Chord: When the system learns to listen, a new institutional score is born

We have reached the end, not as an end, but as the continuing reverberation of a transformation that will not be reversed. The progress of coordinated border management in Brazil is not the result of a solitary wake-up call or political improvisation. It emerges as a counterpoint to a long construction, based on attentive listening, institutional maturity, and the courage to work together.

The full integration of the DUIMP consent bodies symbolizes more than an operational objective: it is the consolidation of a State policy, rooted in multilateral commitments such as the Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO), the SAFE Framework (WCO), and the modernizing principles of the Kyoto Protocol.

In this context, Brazilian Customs is repositioning its role: from a scattered score to a harmonious core of functional interoperability. The Secretariat of Federal Revenue (SEF), in line with the new technical management, now shares the baton with the Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex), in a shared leadership, where every decision counts, and so does every silence.

But there's a new frequency in the air: that of the private sector, no longer a passive listener, but a technical interpreter of legality. It is emerging as a co-author of the regulatory agenda, guardian of descriptive clarity, and conduit of its own data.

This transition is not decreed. It is established.

With interoperable systems.

With reliable catalogs.

With auditable processes.

With public ethics and collaborative intelligence.

And above all, with the people.

People who decipher the rules like someone reading sheet music.

People who, amidst the scale of demands and rhythms of delivery, understand that security and fluidity are not discordant notes.

People who, even in the face of institutional noise, insist on a common melody.

Because if Brazil has finally learned to listen to its own instruments, it is a sign that it has overcome the era of normative cacophony and unilateral rule.

And perhaps, as Yuri da Cunha Ferreira suggested when analyzing the UNECE White Paper on Regional Single Windows, it is possible to dream even bigger: with Latin American customs exchange platforms, where the orchestra plays not only in national unison, but in a continental symphony.

The score is written.

The arrangement is collective.

The execution, inevitably plural.

The stage is set.

The light is on.

The attentive public.

The New Import Process is no longer a rehearsal: it's a show in action.

And all of us, absolutely all of us, are part of this orchestra.

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Highlighted

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