Between the EU Member States and the European Commission, a new AEO Self-Assessment Questionnaire was agreed in order to guarantee a uniform approach throughout the Member States. It aims to simplify and to speed up the AEO application.

The new Self-Assessment Questionnaire is harmonized at European level. However, depending on whether the Customs Administration of a Member State already disposes of access to information (e.g. sections 2 and 4), not all questions have to be answered in every Member State.

The Member States dispose of a transitional period till 31 December 2010 to adapt their internal procedures and language versions. They can start to use the new Self-Assessment Questionnaire before the end of this transitional period, but they have to keep in mind the needs of the economic operators.

Customs Authorities of the Member States will ensure smooth processing of the applications already submitted with the old version of the self-assessment questionnaire.  Of course our C4T AEO tool will keep up with the most updated information.

As soon as a Member State starts using the new Self-Assessment Questionnaire, this will be published here.

Good Manufacturing Practices (or GMP) is a quality system used by the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industry, including also GMP Animal Feed. GMP’s are guidelines that outline the aspects of production and testing. Records of manufacture (including distribution) that enable the complete history of a batch to be traced are retained in a comprehensible and accessible form.

The basic GMP rules:

1. GMP certified companies need to dispose of written work methods:  Procedures, instruction sheets, forms, … This set of documents is the “quality manual” and describes e.g. how to purchase, transport, store, produce and a series of other activities take place;
2. GMP certified companies have to follow the work methods: The written procedures have to be applied. This means that the reality has to correspond with the written work methods;
3. GMP certified companies have to provide evidence: GMP companies have to prove to the internal and external auditor that they apply to the identified rules in the written procedures. Documents to guarantee any kind of control have to be created.

These 3 basic rules are very useful for the AEO certification process, but the overlap goes even further: Setting up a GMP system cannot be done without the support of the executive board. This support is also crucial for the AEO certification process.

For the GMP certification inventories of e.g. vehicles, equipment, inbound and outbound flows, staff … are needed. These inventories, as well as the schematic overview of the activities, are useful for the AEO certification. Very interesting is the risk analysis. This GMP risk analysis is concentrated on the potential risks regarding food and feed safety. The extension to safety and security in AEO isn’t far away.

AEO certification needs ?

C4T has developed the AEO tool to support your AEO certification process. This webbased tool decreases the efforts of internal/external ressources and reduces the project time. Our AEO tool is an interactive platform assuring a user-friendly and flexible way of working and can be used for your AEO certification needs in 27 EU Member States.

The C4T AEO-tool can be ordered with or without C4T AEO assistance. Upon your request, our competent AEO team guids you through the AEO certification process:

• Self-assessment: guidance, co-ordination, review or validation procedures;
• Identify remediation measures;
• Develop and implement an internal control plan;
• Draft and submit your application;
• Assistance with the audit by the customs authorities.

If you want more information, contact us  info@customs4trade.com

The EU is developing the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) to carry out control of transit of excise goods within the Member States. The computerized EMCS system is used for movements of excise goods under suspension and replaces the paper Administrative Accompanying Document (AAD)  by an e-AD (electronic Administrative Document). Each Member State develops its own national EMCS application, which is connected to all other countries.

According to the Belgian planning of the EMCS roadmap, the roll-out would be performed as follows:

1 April 2010:  

• e-ADs from other Members States to Belgium have to be discharged electronically
• submitting e-Ads from Belgium to any other Member State is possible

 1 Juli 2010:

• realization of the link between PLDA and EMCS for import and export movements

 1 january 2011:

• all movements of excise goods under suspension of excise duty shall be carried out using EMCS

Belgian Customs will postpone the deployment milestone “1 July 2010″.  Probably the date will be shifted to 31 December 2010.

Specialist software suppliers have developed solutions based on the country specific requirements which allow fully automated exchange of messages with the authorities’ systems of the different countries. Belgian Customs Authorities have also made available a free EMCS web application.

Upon request, we can assist you with your decision which solution is best for your company. Customs4trade, being an independent customs and international trade advisory company, has guided national and international companies to the EMCS web and has assisted several clients to assess excise and/or customs activities. It is our aim to realize streamlined and uniform customs/excise authorizations and procedures.  This facilitates your software decisions and can lead to substantial savings on implementation and operational costs.

Whether your company is using an EMCS software solution or the EMCS-web, in both cases the  Authorized Economic Operators and AEO-candidates have to install control measures in order to make sure that their import/export process and procedures are AEO compliant.

 If you are interested in our EMCS services, just give us a call on +32 15 46 08 46 or send an e-mail to info@customs4trade.com

The Dutch Institute for Advanced Logistics “Dinalog” was established earlier this year to realize the Dutch ambition to become European market leader in controlling flows of goods  passing through one or more European Countries by 2020. 

The Dinalog network consistis of many private and public organizations and knowledge institutions. The ‘Extended Single Window – Information Gateway to Europe’ is a Dinalog research project to develop solutions to issues faced by international logistics industry:

1.     Need for seamless and reliable supply chains;

2.     Compliance to revised European coordinated border management procedures;

3.     Need to reduce the costs of compliance to governance requirements.

The aim is to develop an integrated coordinated border management solution for ports and airports integrating with previous and subsequent procedures for reliable, secure, and cost effective logistic chains as a prerequisite for the Netherlands to serve as an excellent gateway to Europe.

This coordinated border management, ‘Extended Single Window’, requires efficient and reliable information for effective joint supply chain planning by shippers, goods owners, transport companies, forwarders, terminals and other logistic service providers and to use this information to meet government laws and regulations in a cost effective way. The main purpose of the Extended Single Window is re-usability of business data by all government authorities for all types of goods movements  and enabling existing Port Community Systems to behave as one Information Service Bus with innovative IT.

The projects needs to identify which safeguards for government controls need to be defined and how they can be supported by advanced IT with contribution of business and government authorities and in close cooperation with various demonstration projects (single window, Authorized Economic Operator (AEO)/system-based controls, centralized clearance/Single Authorization for Simplified Procedures).  It  is expected to lead to a drastic reduction of physical inspections of goods in the mainports by coordinated  planning of government authorities, reliable transport to and from hinterland hubs and administrative cost reduction.

We will keep you informed about this ambitious  Dutch project.

Source: www.dinalog.nl

On June 24^th the EU and Japan have signed the Decision establishing mutual recognition of AEOs. This offers enhanced trade facilitation opportunities provided by customs to certified trustworthy traders on both sides who have invested in securing their supply chains. In this way customs can also concentrate on high risks.

With this Decision, the EU and Japan establish the equivalence of their AEO programmes and provide for recognition of each other’s security certified operators. Japanese AEOs will receive benefits by European customs that are comparable to those received by EU AEOs. Japan will apply the same for EU AEOs in Japan.

This Decision on mutual recognition of AEOs is an important milestone both in trade facilitation and in securing the global supply chain.

Source: Press Release 24/06/2010 Taxaation and Customs Union DG