Authorized Economic Operators

In the Islamic Countries:

Enhancing Customs-Traders Partnership

2. GLOBAL TRENDS AND PRACTICE

This chapter will first present a general overview of AEOs across the globe and focus on three

case studies from different regions (the European Union, Canada and Japan) in order to

withdraw the most important recommendations for a successful AEO program.

2.1 Global Trends

The updated edition of the WCO (2018) identifies 77 operational AEO programs, 17 AEO

programs under development, 57 MRAs in effect concluded and 35 MRAs and 4 plurilateral

MRAs being negotiated. Furthermore, there exist 31 operational CCP and 2 CCPs to be

launched. Figure 2.1 shows the development of AEO programs over the years.

The first country implementing an AEO was Canada in 1995. This program was called

“Partners in Protection (PIP)/Customs Self-Assessment (CSA)” and it includes 1,838 operators

(importers, exporters, carriers {rail, sea, air and highway}, Customs brokers, couriers,

warehouse operators, freight forwarders, shipping agents) as reported in WCO (2018). The

second AEO was the one initiated by the US in 2001 with 11,605 operators as of 2018. Yet,

starting 2011, the number of AEO programs surged: 8 countries in 2011, 5 in 2012 and 6 in

2016 to reach a total of 46 countries having an operational AEO program.

Figure 2.1. Number of AEO Programs (by year)

Source: Constructed by the authors using WCO (2018). The AEO program of the EU countries counted as 1 in the

Figure. WCO (2018) does not contain information on the launch dates of AEO programs in Andorra, Brunei

Darussalam, Nicaragua and Oman, hence they are not presented in the Figure.

At the geographical level, as it is shown in Figure 2.2, the Americas and Caribbean have the

largest number of countries with an AEO program (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada,

Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama,

Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, USA) followed by Asia (Australia, China, Hong Kong-China, Israel,

India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam), Europe

(Azerbaijan, EU (28 countries), Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia),

Middle-East and North Africa (Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Saudi-Arabia) and East and

Southern Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Mauritius).

1 1 1 1

3 3

1 1

1995 2001 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018