From 28 to 30 September 2022, an online workshop was delivered on “Sharing best practices on AEO and MRA implementation and expanding benefits to AEOs”, attracting 80 participants from several Members in the WCO’s Americas and Caribbean (AMS) region.
Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) and mutual recognition arrangement/agreement (MRA) implementation requires a high level of political will, a strong commitment, and qualified resources with strong competencies in various areas of Customs administration. Recently, the WCO has received requests from a number of Members in the AMS region (including Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guyana) for the sharing of more best practices in this area, and for support on how to expand AEO benefits and engage with other government agencies, as well as with other Members, to leverage their AEO and MRA journeys more effectively. The online workshop was organized to meet that request and provide a forum for the sharing of regional and national experiences and best practices regarding various aspects of SAFE Framework of Standards and AEO and MRA implementation, as a first step in exploring the challenges and status of Members’ AEO programmes.
Workshop participants had the opportunity to hear presentations about the current status of their respective AEO and MRA implementation efforts, and exchange views with AEO accredited and pre-accredited experts to obtain more information about other Members’ practices in the area of AEO and MRA.
Information was provided on the latest SAFE/AEO instruments and tools and a number of key topics were explored, including integrity, exploring more benefits through collaboration with other government agencies (OGAs), expanding the scope of the AEO programme to embrace E-commerce, and Free Zone operators. The two final panel discussions offered some futuristic ideas on how to conduct joint AEO validations for MRAs and how AEO programmes could be further developed.
A special panel discussion on “Maintaining integrity in the implementation of AEO programmes, including measures to increase accountability and transparency” attracted many interventions. It was acknowledged that there was a connection between maintaining integrity and improving AEO benefits for legitimate trade by enhancing the accountability and transparency of AEO programmes, this being in line with the key factor of “Reform and Modernization” in the WCO’s Revised Arusha Declaration concerning Good Governance and Integrity in Customs. Therefore, the idea of combining the sharing of best practices on AEO and MRA implementation with the Integrity mission could provide some insights on how to bring more benefits to AEOs.
This was the first ever WCO workshop that brought Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) members and experts from other international organizations together with newly-accredited and pre-accredited WCO AEO experts from several regions of the world. The success of the workshop could be a useful lesson for other WCO regions in the future.