• Draft SOP’s regarding Risk Management, Post Clearance Audits and Authorized Economic Operators.
• The governance structure of the programme pre and post of the closure of the project.
• The content of the MOU that would be issued between the approved AEO companies and the Customs Administrations.
• The structure, organization and pilot sites of the upcoming pilot.

The overall comments from the participants were that the SOP’s needs to be further developed and detailed, however the present adopted version can be used for the pilot phase. The decision was to consider the SOP’s as guidelines and include them in the policy document. Regarding the content of the MOU the overall impression was that it was a good document. It needs to be developed with the benefits for the business and also it needs to be addressed to the business for their review.For the piloting different pilot sites was proposed by the project based on volumes, country representation and presence of adequate infrastructure. During the discussions it was finally agreed that more background information is needed to take decisions in this issue. The participants requested the project team to develop a detailed methodology to determine pilot sites. The draft should be sent to members for their input and consideration by the Steering Committee.

During the official Steering Committee Meeting the following decisions were taken:

• The documents (SOP’s) as presented to the SC pass as Standard Operating Guidelines and should be considered as such,
• The SOG’s as presented should be merged into the policies to form one document with both policy and framework,
• The process flowcharts should show the linkage between PCA, RM and AEO,
• The MOU should be reviewed by the legal minds in EAC and consultations conducted with private sector,
• The Project team should develop a detailed methodology for piloting.