Sub-function
Trade & Customs
Owns declaration work end to end inside Supply Chain. Runs 3 lines across 15 stations, drains the repeatable share into the M2D tower, and holds 2 human gates.
Estate rating
BBB
74 / 100
Screening and documentation are automated against a live watchlist. Classification carries personal liability for the named customs specialist, so they sign it.
Agents
8
Lines
3
Units / wk
13,428
Timetable vs actual
10.5h → 10.6h
Cost / unit
$4.68
was $11
Run-rate saving
$4.4M
annualized at this volume
The 8 agents running this sub-function
Grouped by what they are for, not by where they sit. The agent org is process-shaped.
Trade Compliance Orchestrator
Owns the trade & customs lane end to end. Sequences the other agents, holds the timetable, and decides what surfaces to a human.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Global Trade when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Classification Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of trade & customs inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Global Trade when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Documentation Agent
Runs the repeatable portion of trade & customs inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Global Trade when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Duty Optimization Agent
Executes the trade & customs step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Global Trade when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Origin Determination Agent
Executes the trade & customs step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates to Director, Global Trade when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Restricted Party Agent
Holds the rules that bind every other agent in trade & customs. Versions them, tests them against live decisions, and blocks work that breaches them.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates on any decision that would breach a live policy version, with the clause cited.
Trade Policy Agent
Holds the rules that bind every other agent in trade & customs. Versions them, tests them against live decisions, and blocks work that breaches them.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates on any decision that would breach a live policy version, with the clause cited.
Trade & Customs Challenger Agent
Adversarial reviewer for trade & customs. Argues the opposite case on every position and flags where the evidence does not carry the claim.
ceiling A3 · escalates to Escalates when a ratified position is still running against a break condition it flagged.
Estate rating breakdown
Seven control dimensions. Judgment readiness runs against autonomy on purpose.
People
What the humans stopped doing, and what they do now.
Redeployed into data stewardship and evidence quality.
Lines running in this sub-function
Each line is a workflow. Click a line to walk it station by station.
Strategy positions this sub-function holds
An agent that only executes is a robot. These are the calls it made, the argument against each one, and what would prove it wrong.
Trade & Customs Operating Position
Ratifiedv4Which parts of trade & customs should deliberately stay human, and how do we defend that against a cost argument?
Hold the ceiling at A3 for trade & customs. Screening and documentation are automated against a live watchlist. Classification carries personal liability for the named customs specialist, so they sign it. Raise it only after two consecutive quarters where the override rate stays under five percent and every override has a written cause.
confidence
72%
The challenge — Trade & Customs Challenger Agent
Trade & Customs Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 4 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 16 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per declaration stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No external comparator on a like-for-like unit definition
- ·Exception cases under $9k are sampled, not fully measured
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $387k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | not selected |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $831k to build controls | Override rate is 12 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $850k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | selected |
Ratified 5 months ago. Measured since: cost per declaration fell 25 percent against a forecast of 19 percent.
Policy register
The rules the agents above are bound by. Version, owner, approver, and the agents each rule constrains.
| Ref | Rule | Scope | Owner agent | Approved by | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SC7-POL-200 | Trade & Customs Decision Envelope Agents in this lane may act without a human when the declaration sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. Outside it, the unit holds at a gate with a named approver and a running clock. binds 4 agents · EU · UK | envelope | Restricted Party Agent | Director, Global Trade | v5.9 | Active |
| SC7-POL-201 | Trade & Customs Evidence Standard Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. An action with no evidence record is treated as a control failure, not a fast decision. binds 4 agents · EU · UK · US | evidence | Restricted Party Agent | Director, Global Trade | v2.3 | Active |
| SC7-POL-202 | Trade & Customs Escalation Rule Escalation is mandatory when confidence falls below the floor, when two options sit inside the confidence band, or when a break condition on a ratified position fires. Director, Global Trade owns the response clock. binds 4 agents · US · Canada | escalation | Restricted Party Agent | Director, Global Trade | v5.6 | Active |
| SC7-POL-203 | Trade & Customs Autonomy Ceiling The ceiling for this lane is 76 on the platform scale. Screening and documentation are automated against a live watchlist. Classification carries personal liability for the named customs specialist, so they sign it. The ceiling is a governance decision, not a technical limit, and only Director, Global Trade can propose moving it. binds 4 agents · APAC | ceiling | Restricted Party Agent | Director, Global Trade | v4.5 | Active |