On 28th of April 2016, the EAC Partner States and the EAC Secretariat adopted a manual for standard operating procedures which guides the administration of the regional AEO programme. In the roll- out of the regional AEO programme, all member administrations will apply the standards of the regional AEO programme to facilitate trade in the region as well as to other trading blocks.
In order to ensure that the EAC successfully establishes and operates a globally recognized regional AEO programme, the WCO, under the WCO – EAC CREATe Project, supports the Customs administrations of the region to assess their capacity to operate the regional AEO programme and to draw up work plans to address possible gaps. The first diagnostic mission in the region was therefore conducted in Kenya from the 16th – 20th May 2016.
The mission engaged with the various stakeholders comprising Customs Officials, Cross Border Regulatory Agencies, Trade and other staff from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). In order to facilitate a complete diagnostic, the experts consulted with representatives of the following fields: AEO, Post Clearance Audit, Risk Management, IT, Legal, Compliance and Stakeholder Engagement. During the debriefing, the Commissioner Customs expressed gratitude to the WCO and the two experts for the meticulous exercise they undertook to identify gaps within his administration and further underscored the important partnership that has been existing between the two institutions. The WCO – EAC CREATe Project is financed by Sweden.
For more information, please contact the acting regional project manager of the WCO – EAC CREATe project, Mr. Martin Ojok (mojok@ura.go.ug).