Authorized Economic Operators

In the Islamic Countries:

Enhancing Customs-Traders Partnership

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Regional MRA efforts should increase across OIC countries to gain experience, to

harmonize AEO practices and to reach a trade volume that attracts third-parties for

potential MRAs.

The institutions such as rule of law and control of corruption should be improved.

ORGANIZATION and CAPACITY BUILDING

Challenge 7- Employing existing staff for the AEO design/implementation, which causes

scarcity or misallocation of resources.

The analysis conducted for this project show that none of the OIC AEO programs established

new Customs technical specialty positions for their AEO programs.

The transfer of existing personnel to the AEO design and implementation processes may cause

problems in at least two respects: (i) The transferred staff may not be endowed with the

knowledge and the skills necessary to successfully operate; (ii) As the numbers of AEO

companies increase, there might be a noticeable deficit in qualified personnel to handle the

verification, authorization and post-authorization processes.

Recommendation:

Existing staff of the Customs Authority should not be spread thin to design and

implement an AEO program.

The risk management departments should form a new AEO sub-department staffed

with AEO-devoted personnel.

The existence of an AEO program might reduce the staff-need on the borders but on

the contrary the management of AEO programs in the headquarters requires an

increase in the number of well-trained individuals in the risk management

departments.

Challenge 8- Sustainable and regular training programs

It is commendable that all Customs Authorities in the OIC economies are aware of the

importance of training related to the AEO programs. However, these training opportunities are

sparse and timed erratically.

Training of Customs officials are important for at least four reasons: (i) The staff that design

and implement the program should be knowledgeable in best-practice country experiences,

MRAs, risk analysis, validation and auditing; (ii) The staff is in need of skills-updating to cope

with the changing business practices along the international supply chains; (iii) For Customs

staff to implement AEO programs successfully, they need to be convinced about the benefits of

the program even before the private sector; (iv) To bring standardization to the

implementation of the AEO program and prevent the misperceptions about differential

treatment by different Customs officials, training should be provided to follow the rules to the

letter.

Customs Authority of Canada provides a formal training program for Customs officers in AEO

programs. These programs are endowed with background in commercial trade and supply

chain security and operational experience. One noteworthy feature of the Canadian experience

is that AEO self-learning tools and training online are incorporated to the training programs.

Furthermore, Customs officers are required to attend monthly teleconferences with

headquarters.