At the invitation of the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI) SITPRO’s Policy Director, Graham Bartlett, addressed a seminar on Secure Logistics Chains and Competitiveness held in Sao Paulo in December. It attracted an audience of Brazilian business representatives both in the room and across the country via a simultaneous internet broadcast.
Brazil is in the process of developing its existing Blue Line security programme and the business community wanted to learn more about the international security environment, the WCO's SAFE Framework of Standards and in particular the European Union's Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) Scheme and the UK's experience of implementing it. In a wide ranging presentation, Graham referred to the spaghetti of existing security measures identified by SITPRO, the move away from trade facilitation post 9/11 and the uneven application of the SAFE standards. Lack of consistency was, he said, likely to be a main stumbling block to achieving mutual recognition of AEO schemes.
Graham noted that take up of the EU AEO scheme in the UK had been cautious and that many traders wanted to see evidence of real benefits before investing in securing AEO status. However, the problem was that mutual recognition would not be possible without AEOs to recognise! Despite this, the first authorised traders had been keen to point out that the status gave them a marketing advantage. They also felt the compliance health check was useful and the opportunity to mitigate a potential disruption of trade was an equally important benefit. These advantages were immediate and more realistic at this early stage of development.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 67, Winter 2008/2009
