International Home Page

• What is the International Trade Data System (ITDS)?
• How will ITDS affect transportation and trade data?

What is the International Trade Data System (ITDS)?
The International Trade Data System (ITDS) is a federal government information technology initiative to coordinate, standardize, and ultimately simplify our Federal border clearance and other international trade and transportation processes. Its goal is to create and implement an integrated, Federal system for the electronic collection, use, and sharing of international trade and transportation data.

How will ITDS affect transportation and trade data?
The ITDS system will facilitate information processing for businesses and the over 100 federal agencies involved in international trade. With ITDS, traders will submit standard electronic data for imports or exports only once to ITDS. When fully developed, ITDS/ACE will distribute this standard data to the pertinent federal agencies that have an interest in the transaction for their selectivity and risk assessment. The ITDS will provide each agency with only information that is relevant to its mission. Thus, the ITDS system will serve as a government data collection and distribution facility, a "single window" system through which information necessary to trade transactions can flow efficiently from traders to agencies. ITDS will offer the transportation and trade data communities improved data quality and reduce the number of critical data gaps that currently exist.