In coordination with the Qatari Customs, a WCO SAFE – AEO programme assessment workshop was held in Doha at the General Authority of Customs' building with more than 20 senior officers and experts from the various sections of Qatar Customs. The workshop was conducted from 12 to 15 December 2016.

The workshop focused on Qatar’s AEO programme due to be implemented in the near future, through various exercises conducted together with all the participants. Special attention was paid to the gap analysis between the SAFE AEO and the forthcoming Qatar AEO programme. In addition, real life scenarios were created to conduct AEO validation before, during and after, including the different roles and responsibilities of the different sections such as the Risk Management team, the Single Window team, the AEO team and the Audit team. Lastly, the participants developed a work plan for the next steps.

Following the workshop and work plan, it is envisaged that the AEO self-assessment questionnaire and the Guidelines will be finalized early next year to allow the raising of awareness as well as the announcement and commencement of an AEO pilot to take place.