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Authorized Economic Operators

In the Islamic Countries:

Enhancing Customs-Traders Partnership

2

When the trade facilitation impacts of operational AEO programs in the OIC region are

considered, it is observed that average time and cost to import and export during 2014-2017 is

much lower for the countries implementing an AEO program compared to the ones without an

AEO program. Nonetheless, time to export and import on average for the AEO programs in the

OIC region is much higher than the best practice countries.

The synthesis of the best practice experiences, country convergence analysis and three case

studies conducted during this study identified the success factors in the OIC AEO Programs as

follows:

Active participation of at least one best-practice-developed country in the design

process of the AEO program

Regional AEO design and implementation to align the programs from their

inauguration

Development of bilateral/subregional/regional MRAs to increase the benefits to the

AEO certificate holders and reduce the costs of designing the agreement

Consultation with Customs prior to application

Awareness about the importance of private sector partnership

Adoption of Client Relations Management

Challenges in the design and implementation of AEO programs in OIC countries emerged as a

result of the analyses conducted are as follows:

Lengthy AEO approval times

Difficulties in communication of Customs Authority with private sector

Difficulties in communication of Customs Authority with other government agencies

Employing existing staff for the AEO design/implementation, which causes scarcity or

misallocation of resources

Lack of sustainable and regular training programs

Difficulties in identification of tangible benefits

Scarce participation of SMEs

Insufficient number of MRAs

Low level of data security

The policy recommendations emerging as a result of this study are discussed at length at the

end of the report. Note that those recommendations are not tailor-made to each country and

should be used with caution. In other words, no single prescription should be used for every

AEO program.