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EU and US plan mutual recognition of their respective trade partnership programs. The European Commission and the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have set up a joint working group of customs experts to discuss and draft a roadmap towards mutual recognition of their respective trade partnership programs. As the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) approaches the date of its formal commencement on 1 January 2008, efforts are under way to reduce the burden on economic operators on both sides of the Atlantic. Mutual recognition could involve the possibility of a reduced number of site visits of operators when CBP or an EU Member State Customs Authority is able to indicate that the operator is authorized as a C-TPAT member or AEO. The AEO program as outlined in the EU customs legislation focuses not only on imports, as does C-TPAT, but also on exports. Although guidelines have been published, containing detailed information on what Customs will have to do when an economic operator files for issue of the AEO certificate, there is still a lot of confusion not only among the economic operators but also among the EU Member State Customs Authorities, about the purpose of the certificate itself. Described as voluntary, the published guidelines indicate a much wider reach of the AEO certificate. This appears to be underestimated by some Customs Authorities. It is expected that after the introduction, trading without an AEO certificate will become increasingly more difficult, because it seems that more and more economic operators will want to deal only with other AEO certificate holders. |
