Time for AEO 2.0

On the third and final day of the conference WCO organized a round table discussion. A panel of AEO experts were asked to summerize the conference and to outline the way forward under the title ’What is the future for Trusted Trader Regimes including AEOs and MRAs’.

Participating in the round table future talk

The panel concluded that we are already seeing a new AEO paradigm taking shape and that it is ”Time for AEO 2.0”.

Time for AEO 2.0

Important advice to take away from this high-level discussion was:

• Upgrade old AEO legacy systems,
• Develop national MRA models,
• Transfer focus from accreditation/validation to monitoring/management,
• Update benefit programmes, “make it worth while for business”,
• Include a SME track on the programmes,
• Get AEO system support,
• Expand AEO/TTP to other border agencies
• Watch out so we are not creating a spagetti bowl of bilateral AEO MRAs,
• start to measure all outcomes from AEO, AEO MRA and TTP (speed, predictability, services, costs).

A final comment, that I also made during the panel round table – AEO, AEO MRA and TTP is the future. It will be the platform for Trusted Trade Lanes, eCommerce and Blochchain applications.

If you want to be a part of the bew global value chains – become an AEO/Trusted Trader. You are in good comapny: in a few years there will more than 100.000 AEO companies in the world.