Welcome

I feel fortunate to write these words about the organisation we all are part of and which I have the honour of being its leading representative.

In a few months, when you read the first report of the Association presenting the full account of activities undertaken during our first two years, the script will be communicating two messages that we have been conveying on every occasion that we have been given the floor at international meetings:

On one, the argument that we need all supply chain actors to be included in Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programs in order to have the supply chains envisaged by the WCO’s SAFE Framework of Standards and to be a competitive business in international trade.

On the other, that the International Association of AEO, Customs and Logistics is an inclusive international network of competitive, responsible and proactive supply chain actors, from customs agents and logistics service providers to shippers, and ready to articulate our Members interests in AEO as an enabler of secured trade facilitation.

Today we are launching a new communication tool. The e-newsletter adds to the information on our website and, most importantly, to the conversations you may have with peers and invited speakers at events and meetings.

We trust this e-newsletter shall feature many experiences, interests and perspectives, as many as the diversity of our Members, partner organisations and public sector stakeholders. We encourage every one of you to participate.

Thank you very much to the first contributors. Your articles and interviews are the starting point of a fruitful conversation to inform, suggest, share knowledge, experience and proposals about the AEO in customs, logistics and foreign trade.

Occasionally people are kind enough to ask me how the Association has grown so fast in two years. I reply that this is a continuous, hard, incremental process of which Members themselves are the key drivers. What you get out of the experience generally reflects what you put in.

If you’ve stuck with me and read this far I will ask you one more favour. If you’re not a Member check out our website and think about what you could get out of belonging. And if you are already a Member think about informing someone else who could join in and make the team stronger and more capable to support and influence the AEO role in secure, efficient and competitive supply chains.

There really could be no better time to promote AEO together.