Under the auspices of the WCO-EAC CREATe project on 09th and 10th of June 2016, customs representatives from EAC Member-Administrations met with regional Authorized Economic Operators from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda to identify ways to intensify cooperation and to discuss main challenges in the roll-out of the regional AEO programme.

The consultations led to the agreement that a regional AEO working group shall be established, which will include representatives of Customs, regional AEOs, regional associations (East African Business Community, FEFFEA) as well as the EAC Secretariat. The parties were also able to develop and agree on draft Terms of Reference for this regional working group and decided that the regional working group’s launch and first official session shall take place no later than the end of October 2016.

The consultations also allowed represented Customs to take note of the challenges experienced by the regional AEOs at key border posts. Customs and the regional AEOs agreed to address these key challenges through a collaborative and results-oriented approach in the upcoming weeks. A critical issue identified was the absence of a specific identifier in Customs IT systems in the region for the “Regional AEOs”.

This working session, which took place in Kampala, Uganda, was opened by the Assistant-Commissioner Customs from the Uganda Revenue Authority and was funded by the Government of Sweden.

For more information about this activity or the project, please contact the WCO-Sweden Programme Director, Mr. Richard Chopra (Richard.chopra[@]wcoomd.org).