On May 4, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) signed a Mutual Recognition Decision (MRD) with the European Union (EU). This is CBP’s sixth Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) to date. The other five MRAs include New Zealand (2007), Canada and Jordan (2008), Japan (2009), and Korea (2010).- C-TPAT will start to recognize and accept the status of an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) company in the EU in its overall validation process. If a C-TPAT validation visit is necessary as part of your validation or revalidation process, no such visit will need to take place in order for your company to be in the “Certified/Validated” status if that foreign facility is AEO certified. Less redundant validations and a faster validation process are two of the benefits under Mutual recognition. A further benefit is that it will be easier for your company to document to your C-TPAT Supply Chain Security Specialist (SCSS) that your business partners comply with the C-TPAT program’s securitycriteria because these partners are AEO certified and the US recognizes that foreign program as one compatible to C-TPAT by the fact that the US signed a MRA with that country. There will be a period after July 2012 when C-TPAT validation visits to AEO members may occur from time to time; the reason for this is that some of these validations have already been scheduled by the C-TPAT SCSS and the C-TPAT partners. But as the MR Decision matures, redundant validations will be dramatically reduced or eliminated. Only from time to time will CBP conduct a C-TPAT validation visit on an AEO certified company in order to ensure that both programs remain compatible.
- CBP will start to recognize AEO shipments as secured shipments in its internal risk management system. As a secured, trusted shipment, AEO shipments will receive a reduction in their risk scores in CBP’s Automated Targeting System (ATS) whether or not that shipment is being imported by a C-TPAT importer member. ATS is a state of the art risk management system that CBP has had in operation for many years now; it does not recognize the EU’s EORI number, but it does recognize ashipment’s Manufacturing Identification Number or MID number.
Important: If you are a C-TPAT importer sourcing from an AEO certified company in the EU, your AEO supplier does not need to input its MID numbers as the targeting benefit for that shipment from the EU will be applied by CBP’s targeting system to your IOR number. If, however, that supplier also ships to non-C-TPAT importers, then they should input the data into the system.
So, for example, if AEO Company A ships to C-TPAT importer 1, then AEO Company A does not need to input the data.The CBP targeting benefit is being applied to that shipment’s IOR number.
If AEO Company B, on the other hand, ships to C-TPAT Importer 1 and US Importer 2 (not C-TPAT), then by all means AEO Company B should input its MIDs into the system.When that shipment arrives in the US, it will receive a targeting benefit through its IOR if its being imported by the C-TPAT importer member or through its MID number if it’s being imported by the non-C-TPAT member.
Mutual Recognition is based on security only. Only companies in the EU with a security certificate (AEOS) or a full certificate for both security and compliance (AEOF) will enjoy benefits under this Decision.
As always, C-TPAT thanks you for your efforts in securing the international supply chain and your support to the C-TPAT program.