4th Global WCO AEO Conference

This week the World Customs Organization (WCO) together with the host Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) organized the 4th Global AEO Conference in Kampala, Uganda – following Seuol 2012, Madrid 2014 and Cancun 2016.

More than 1100 decision makers and experts, Government and Private Sector, from all around the world (95 countries) joined for three days to discuss Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) and Trusted Trader Programmes (TTP) as well as Mutual Recognition of these programmes.

Great crowd of 1100 plus attending the event

The conference had high level participants from 95 countries, leaders and expert gathered to discuss the future of AEO, MRA and Trusted Trader Programmes.

The conference was opened by the President of Uganda, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of Uganda, opening the 2018 Global WCO AEO Conference in Kampala.

This was in my mind the best Global WCO AEO Conference arranged so far with an excellent agenda and programme.

The panels was of a high quality level and many of the workshops were excellent. There is no doubt that AEO, MRA and TTP now has taken off globally.

The new elements discussed were areas like;

• new programmes,
• broadening of programmes to include more stakeholders of the supply chain (like Freezones),
• new types of system and software support for AEO/TTP managment (both for Governments and Private Sector),
• Single Window – AEO/TTP integration,
• AEO SME initiatives,
• movement from focus on accreditation/validation to monitoring /management, new types of benefits,
• the importance of measurement and KPIs for benefits, and
• development of regional AEL programmes, and
• The experience of new integrated programmes using coordinated border management (CBM) to create a Single Government AEO status.

For me the last element ‘Single Government AEO programmes’, where Single Window and AEO are merged to an integrated AEO programme covering all border agencies – is maybe the most interesting topic.

After our workshop on ‘Safe,Safer – The SafeZone Concept for FreeZones”

In one of my four speeches during the event I presented the latest research in the area of AEO/MRA and TTP. In the PhD work I have identified 4 new AEO megatrends:

1. Regional AEOs/TTPs

2. Border Agency Coordination – Single Government AEO Status

3. SupplyChain coverage

4. Bilateral Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs)

Delivering a workshop on AEO/MRA/TTP global trends

My three words summary of the 4th Global WCO AEO Conference: development, innovation and progress.

It was special to have the event in Africa and there could be no better place to organize a Global AEO conference than in Kampala. Uganda has one of the best AEO programmes on the continent and it can be compared with any programme globally.

The Uganda AEO programme has been developed under the leadership of URA Customs Commissioner, Dicksons Kateshumbwa. Katesh is pioneer for AEO in Africa. He was also the host of the AEO Conference.

With Uganda Customs Commissioner Dicksons ‘Katesh’ Kateshumbwa, an old friend of mine

In addition East African Community (EAC) has, with help from WCO and Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA), developed an excellent regional AEO programme. I was a part of starting this process once during my years as WCO Director Capacity Building. To se it now fully operational and constantly developing is amazing. EAC signed during the Conference an AEO MRA with Korea.

EAC AEO certified companies on the main stage

15 East African Community companies received their certifications for the East African Community (EAC) regional AEO programme. A landmark for a great AEO programme in Africa.

With one of the newly certified companies, Farmers Choice Ltd from Kenya. Congrats!

We in KGH were sponsors of the event and we had a stand at the Exhibition. We also delivered three workshops and I participated in the final debate on the Future of AEO, TTP and MRA.

Here one of our experts, Mr. Mohamed Raafat from our Dubai Office

KGH is the global market leader on AEO-MRA/TTP and we have worked with more than 40 of the AEO/TTP programmes that exists today. We have the last years designed, developed and implemented ten programmes and we are for the moment working with eight different countries.

KGH – Global Market Leader on AEO, MRA and Trusted Trader Programmes

The next Global WCO AEO Conference was announced during the event and it will held in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2020.

Suoud Al Agroobi, Head of International Affairs of UAE Federal Customs Authority announces that they are hosting the Global AEO Conference in The United Arab Emirates.

The organization of the conference was excellent, absolutely top class. The arrangements and hospitality from our hosts Uganda Revenue Authority was indeed outstanding. Thank you URA!

During the event I met hundreds of colleagues and friends from all around the world.

With the Chairperson of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Dr. Enrique Canon, Enrique is also the Director of Customs in Uruguayo

Finally I want to send my gratitude to the WCO and to Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) for organizing this wonderful event. The conference took AEO – which is also one of the pillars of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement – to a new level.

This months it is exactly 20 years since we designed the first ever draft version of a Trusted Trader and AEO programme in Sweden 1998.

It was very emotional and amazing for me – on a personal level – to see so many distinguished experts discuss the instrument I and my team once developed in Sweden in the late 90s.

See you all in Dubai.