The EU Commission recently published specific guidelines on Authorised Economic Operator status (AEO) for multinational or large businesses (EU established or not). Most of the time they consist of a parent company and subsidiary companies and/or Permanent Business Establishments/branches. In these guidelines the Commission clearly defines:

• Subsidiary = an incorporated entity created in the host EU country (national business legal forms! ), its capital is fully owned by the parent company or it is controlled by a company in collaboration with minority local partners (a joint subsidiary). Subsidiairies are legally independent from their mother company.
• Branch = is not an individual legal entity and has no legal personality. A branch is an office/premise/another location of the company itself. A branch forms part of the company’s total assets.
• Permanent Business Establishment  = is a fixed place of business through which the business of an enterprise is wholly/partly carried out.

Regarding AEO application for the multinational or large business of an enterprise, the following scenarios are now foreseen:

• all subsidiairies/PBEs being separate legal entities shall apply separately for an AEO status.
• all branches/PBEs which are not individual legal entities cannot apply separately for an AEO status and one single application covering all of them shall be submitted by the parent company considered as a person according to the EU legislation.

Customs4trade assisted and assists several large and multinational companies with their AEO certification process in different Member States. Our own developped C4T AEO tool makes complex situations manageable:

• many different stakeholders
• stakeholders in different locations
• different legal entities
• different sites or business units
• different member states
• different languages

The C4T AEO tool is designed to reduce your project time for getting the AEO status and reduces efforts for your internal and external ressources. With the easy status reporting, you are in control of the process.

Click here to read more on these specific guidelines !

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.

The purpose of the Self-assessment is to support economic operators in evaluating the requirements necessary for obtaining the AEO status. It provides Customs with additional information about the economic operator in order to facilitate the customs evaluation of the AEO-application and the subsequent examination.

Complexity of the Self-assessment

1. All departments are involved (HR, Production, Logistics, Sales, Customs, Security, Safety, IT,…). The internal communication is time consuming before a final agreed answer is written down on the Self-assessment questionnaire.
2. An EU model of the self-assessment questionnaire is available, but specific national provisions have forced Member States to create adapted assessment models.
3. Different languages can be involved.
4. It is nearly impossible to get an overview of the status of the self-assessment when it is in process.
5. The Self-assessment must be updated in case of changes, it is a continuous process.

C4T AEO-tool: the solution to match your needs!

- User-friendly web-based tool
- Interactive communication platform
- Upload documents related to the questionnaire
- Manage your complex organisational structures
- User management
- Secured portal
- Flexible, available at any time and any place
- Status of questions and overview of the Self-assessment is known at any moment
- Significant reduction of project time, external and internal resources
- Less travel time
- Re-activation of the assessment
- Tailor-made assistance

Interested in more information? info@customs4trade.com