AEO, the way towards secure and competitive growth
Seoul, 17-19 April 2012
Report
Over 800 delegates from more than 90 countries attended the WCO Global AEO Conference with the theme ‘AEO, the way towards secure and competitive growth’ in Seoul, Republic of Korea from 17-19 April 2012, which was jointly organized by the WCO and the Korea Customs Service, focused on engaging all relevant stakeholders in discussions on the implementation of Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programmes.
The welcoming address was given by Joo Yung-Sup, Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service. In his congratulatory remarks, Shin Je-Yoon, Korea’s Vice Minister at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, reiterated that in order to respond to rapidly changing circumstances and to achieve continued growth, close cooperation and coordination between all relevant stakeholders is essential.
In his keynote address, Kunio Mikuriya, the Secretary General of the WCO, spoke about the importance of AEO as a concrete programme for Customs-Business partnerships in meeting the challenge of rapidly increasing trade volumes that require risk management for Customs and compliance for traders.
The Secretary General also emphasized the need to develop Mutual Recognition of AEO to connect Customs administrations and thereby the global trade of compliant traders. He suggested that the way forward was to involve other government agencies in the AEO programme. This is exemplified by recent WCO work with ICAO and other stakeholders in seeking synergy of comparable programmes with AEO in the air cargo security area.
The two and a half day event included a choice of attending seven different workshops with topics covering AEO and Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRA) at a global and operational level, progress on AEO implementation by Customs authorities and regional entities around the world, the challenges of implementing AEO and MRAs, and other relevant issues relating to supply chain security and trade facilitation.
Whilst in Korea, the Secretary General also visited the WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Office (RILO) for the Asia Pacific region, which moved from China to Korea at the beginning of the year. He underlined the need to tackle evolving and emerging risks at borders through the exchange of information among regional Customs administrations.
More information
WCO Secretary General’s speech