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.