The new Union Customs Code (UCC) opens up additional benefits for Authorised Economic Operators (or AEOs).
The UCC is based on the use of processing techniques and data storage for most information exchanges between the customs authority and the economic operator. Under these circumstances, the AEO status becomes crucial for those companies, whose business activity involves international trade, since there are numerous competitive advantages to being AEO-certified.
The Authorised Economic Operator status is key to secure and facilitate international trade. The main aim is to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the import and export customs clearance procedures, as well as create global convergence that aims to bring more security to the international supply chain of goods, as imagined by the World Customs Organization (WCO).
AEO-certified companies already had a lot of advantages under the Community Customs Code (CCC), but with the new UCC, they will be able to gain additional advantages, which will lead to a more predictable and more efficient international logistics flow, as follows:
- Centralised clearance: an AEO can lodge his summary and/or customs declaration in electronic form from his premises, irrespective of the Member State in which the goods are entering into or leaving the EU, hence allowing companies to do customs clearance in any location within the European Union;
- Self-assessment: an AEO will take responsibility for and perform certain formalities/controls normally undertaken by customs. Under self-assessment, economic operators will, for example, determine the amount of import duty payable (in a similar way to VAT reporting).
These two new benefits under UCC will only be implemented at the end of the implementation period (from May 1st, 2016 to December 31st, 2020), but to take advantage of these, being AEO-certified will be a prerequisite. Companies with the AEO status will therefore be in a good position to take advantage of these new options, whenever they become available.
The newsletter of the Freight Forwarders Association of Portugal (APAT) talked about the new Union Customs Code (UCC) and the advantage of becoming AEO-certified:
‘It has become crucial for companies, whose activity directly involves international trade - such as the case of the freight forwarders - to obtain the Authorised Economic Operator status, since all these simplifications and dematerializations of procedures, under the new UCC, will become a real competitive advantage for the majority of economic operators, of the above-mentioned status, starting from the importers/exporters, to the carriers, freight forwarders and other entities of the supply chain.’
To learn more about the AEO status and what its requirements are download the infographics:
Pedro Paulo is the Import Supervisor of Multicargo, managing sea, air and land import shipments, whilst providing a service customized to the clients’ needs. He has been with Multicargo since its establishment in 2010.
