Our Chairman of the Board of Directors Mehmet Altay YEGİN's article titled If the World is a Village, Who is the Headman? was published in the "What Kind of Economy" newspaper.

Our Chairman of the Board of Directors Mehmet Altay YEGİN's article titled If the World is a Village, Who is the Headman? was published in the "What Kind of Economy" newspaper.

When it comes to customs, the umbrella organization that comes to mind is the World Customs Organization (WCO). The World Customs Organization (WCO), an intergovernmental organization, is an independent organization established to ensure and develop the effective and efficient work of national customs administrations.

The work of the Working Group formed by 13 European countries in 1947 to monitor and develop the implementation of the provisions in the GATT Agreement resulted in the agreement establishing the "Customs Cooperation Council", which was signed in Brussels on December 15, 1950 and entered into force on November 4, 1952.

The first meeting of the Customs Cooperation Council, whose founding agreement we were the first country to ratify, was held in Brussels on January 26, 1953 with the participation of 17 founding members, including our country. In 1994, the name of the organization was changed to the "World Customs Organization". Today, 184 states that carry out more than 98% of international trade are members of the World Customs Organization.

The AEO concept is the first of the main building blocks in the WCO "SAFE Standards Framework". The standards mentioned were adopted in 2005 and with this regulation, a series of rules were determined for customs cooperation and customs and business partnership-based harmonization approach.

The World Customs Organization (WCO) defines “Authorized Economic Operator” (AEO) as “customs administration and commercial enterprise partnership”.

With this regulation, it is aimed for foreign traders who meet the specified criteria to work in close cooperation with customs administrations in order to ensure supply chain security. In line with this goal, the relevant traders are also entitled to benefit from the simplification practices provided by AEO.

This approach always emphasizes the fact that there should be a sustainable relationship between the customs administration and foreign traders. This relationship should be based on the principles of mutual transparency, accuracy, fairness and responsibility.

The AEO regulation is open to all supply chain actors as a program that aims to increase international supply chain security and facilitate legitimate trade. It includes customs simplification (AEOC), security and safety (AEOS) or “Authorized Economic Operators” (AEOF) regulations covering both.

Within the framework of the determined standards, the AEO certificate provides the privilege of customs administrations to perform fewer or no inspections on imported or exported goods.

On the other hand, the AEO concept was added to the European Union (EU) Customs Code in 2005. The AEO concept was added to the Customs Code with Regulation No. 648/2005 (EU) dated April 13, 2005; a period of 3 years was foreseen for the systems to start operating completely and the process was completed in 2008. As of 2024, the authorized liable program in the EU7 has completed its 19th year.

All these facilitation approaches also have a cost. In order to obtain AEO (AEO) status, businesses endure high investment costs and go through a difficult process to obtain the certificate.

In our country, the AEO Association is taking firm steps towards becoming an international non-governmental organization that conducts research abroad, compares and questions simplification practices, and also acts in line with the demands of its members.

Our association statute authorizes us to work on the following issues:

Participating in international meetings through its representatives,
Conducting research on the level of different countries implementing the Authorized Economic Operator System (AEO), collecting all kinds of information and statistical data and sharing this information with its members,
Conducting meetings with the World Customs Organization and the European Union, and following up on implementation and legislation with foreign organizations.
The 30th “SAFE Working Group” meeting to be held at the World Customs Organization (WCO) Headquarters in Brussels will be held between November 6 and 8. It is obvious that such a strong international working group will add strength to our future goals and vision in the meeting we will participate in.

Then the following question comes to our mind; “If the world is a village, who is the headman?” It seems that the umbrella organization that determines the main rules, without prejudice to the security and customs measures of all the world's customs administrations, is the World Customs Organization (WCO).

In this context, our biggest goal will be to closely monitor the decisions to be taken regarding the integration of SMEs to the AEO program, the expansion of the AEO concept to include cross-border e-commerce, the expansion of the AEO concept in Free Zones, the introduction of simplification practices in AEO programs to Free Zone stakeholders, the discussion of the report of the sixth Global AEO Conference held on May 8-10, 2024 and the draft "Shenzhen Action Plan" and to follow up on the implementation of the decisions taken.

There is no mistake in the comparison. Supporting the headman, so to speak, will be the greatest responsibility of us, the members of the “Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Association”, living in the world village we are in.