‘Authorised economic operator status is key to the frictionless border industry needs post-Brexit’

If there is one clar­i­on call which I con­sis­tent­ly rec­om­mend to gov­ern­ment, it is the imper­a­tive impor­tance of fric­tion­less bor­ders. It is vital that we achieve this to get UK prod­ucts and ser­vices effi­cient­ly to mar­ket, both with­in Europe and fur­ther afield. How­ev­er, the gov­ern­ment can­not do this alone – we all have our parts to play.

Fol­low­ing the vote to leave the Euro­pean Union, our pro­fes­sion has been in a peri­od of con­tin­ued uncer­tain­ty, but we must all be aware of the many oppor­tu­ni­ties that can arise from Brex­it, and be ready and able to seize them and add val­ue.

At the Char­tered Insti­tute of Logis­tics and Trans­port (CILT), we are cham­pi­oning autho­rised eco­nom­ic oper­a­tor (AEO) cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to aid mem­bers to gain a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage, recog­ni­tion for pro­fes­sion­al com­pe­tence and trou­ble-free bor­der cross­ings. Clear­ly, secu­ri­ty at all bor­der cross­ings is of vital impor­tance, but how this is man­aged is also crit­i­cal to com­merce.

A 21st-cen­tu­ry solu­tion is required if goods and vehi­cles are going to flow smooth­ly. AEO is the cru­cial tick­et to nego­ti­at­ing Brex­it. It indi­cates that your role in the inter­na­tion­al sup­ply chain is secure, and your cus­toms con­trols and pro­ce­dures are effi­cient and com­pli­ant.

Dis­cus­sions of a no-deal exit and recog­ni­tion that seam­less bor­ders are unlike­ly to be attain­able means the UK must gear up to deal with the EU as it does with the rest of the world, which recog­nis­es AEO as the stan­dard.

Through­out the indus­try, to be on the list for pre­ferred sup­pli­ers and ten­ders, the ques­tion increas­ing­ly asked is: “Do you hold AEO sta­tus?” So I am encour­ag­ing CILT mem­bers, gov­ern­ment and the pro­fes­sion to wake up to the advan­tage of being an autho­rised eco­nom­ic oper­a­tor.

Rea­sons for low par­tic­i­pa­tion vary and include indus­try com­pla­cen­cy, pres­sure on resources and cum­ber­some pro­cess­ing of appli­ca­tions. There is a loom­ing risk that non-AEO for­warders will be left behind as the author­i­ties, part­ners and cus­tomers world­wide choose to deal only with autho­rised com­pa­nies. Post-Brex­it, an army of AEO-accred­it­ed oper­a­tors will be cen­tral to achiev­ing the smooth tran­si­tion of bor­ders to our mar­kets.

The wide­spread adop­tion of a glob­al­ly recog­nised stan­dard such as AEO is essen­tial not only to pro­tect the UK’s posi­tion once we leave the EU, but also poten­tial­ly to enhance the UK’s sta­tus as the coun­try for inter­na­tion­al trade. The UK is well placed to be num­ber one in logis­tics.

AEO sta­tus should give com­pa­nies that have demon­strat­ed their com­mit­ment to secu­ri­ty in the sup­ply chain access to what would in effect be a green lane through UK ports and air­ports. This is a com­plex, for­mal accred­i­ta­tion to achieve with a very low pass rate so far. Very few UK com­pa­nies have it, very many will need it and I encour­age all organ­i­sa­tions to get on with it now.

Hold­ing this sta­tus is going to be key to expe­ri­enc­ing the fric­tion­less bor­der or green chan­nel that indus­try wants and needs, in what­ev­er shape is avail­able post-Brex­it. AEO offers an oppor­tu­ni­ty to demon­strate that the for­ward­ing sec­tor can lead the process in sup­port­ing the UK’s posi­tion in glob­al trade. If UK for­warders do not rise to the chal­lenge, the sec­tor will have lost its com­pet­i­tive advan­tage and will under­mine its val­ue to cus­tomers.

Now real­ly is the time to get start­ed. Those who have not yet decid­ed to get AEO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion should be giv­ing it seri­ous con­sid­er­a­tion and gov­ern­ment should think care­ful­ly about mak­ing this the must-have sta­tus for for­warders to enable the UK’s econ­o­my to thrive in a post-Brex­it world.