Interview by Henry Habegger, published on 10 February 2026 in the Swiss media of the CH Media group. Italian translation by Franzosini SA. The original in German is available as an attachment.
Mr Tepoorten, you are a freight forwarder active internationally in Ticino and one of the few who openly criticises the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS). You recently spoke of 'chaos' and a system that 'invites fraud'. Where does your criticism come from?
For me, the turning point was 2022, with the transformation of the former Federal Customs Administration into the current FOCBS. It was not a simple name change, but the start of profound structural changes: merging of professional bodies, new IT systems, a new philosophy in the relationship between customs and economic operators.
Since then, procedures have not become simpler, as promised, but more complex and prone to malfunctions. Processes that previously worked reliably now have to be continuously adapted, corrected and reworked. For those of us who work with customs on a daily basis, this is a concrete problem.