Warm congratulations to Samudy Precision Tool (Shenzhen) Co Ltd on successfully passing the customs review and officially becoming an AEO Advanced Certified Enterprise.
AEO is the abbreviation for Authorized Economic Operator, meaning "certified operator." The AEO system refers to an institutional arrangement that, by building a cooperative relationship between customs and enterprises, provides qualified enterprises with customs clearance facilitation measures from domestic and mutually recognized customs, shares compliance and security responsibilities, and ensures supply chain security and trade facilitation. There are two main backgrounds of the AEO system: first, the global repositioning of security after the September 11 incident in the United States; second, the planning and steady advancement of China's credit system construction. The AEO system strikes a balance between security and facilitation, emphasizes enterprises' responsibility for autonomous compliance, and reflects the principle of "integrity and compliance bring facilitation; violations and loss of credit bring severe punishment."
In 2014, the General Administration of Customs promulgated the Interim Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Administration of Enterprise Credit, replacing the original Administrative Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Classification of Enterprises, marking the official implementation of the AEO certification system by China Customs. Chinese AEO enterprise types are divided into Advanced Certified Enterprises (ACE) and General Certified Enterprises (GCE). At present, there are 3,239 Advanced Certified Enterprises nationwide, and 25,501 General Certified Enterprises, accounting for 1.94% of all registered enterprises nationwide. In a sense, AEO enterprises are the VIPs of customs and the golden signboard of foreign trade import and export enterprises, able to enjoy benefits from the three dimensions of "the most convenient customs clearance, the most preferential domestic treatment, and the broadest international recognition."
Most convenient customs clearance: General Certified Enterprises can enjoy benefits such as priority clearance of goods, lower inspection rates, and reduced customs duty guarantee deposits. Advanced Certified Enterprises, in addition to the benefits available to General Certified Enterprises, can enjoy the enterprise coordinator mechanism with customs, priority clearance after the resumption of interrupted trade, exemption from duty guarantee deposits, reduced audit and inspection frequency, as well as facilitation measures introduced by each directly-affiliated customs based on the actual circumstances of local import and export enterprises.
Domestic preferences: In October 2016, 40 central departments jointly signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on Implementing Joint Incentives for Customs Advanced Certified Enterprises with Integrity, and Advanced Certified Enterprises can enjoy 49 joint incentive measures. These are divided into four major categories: green channel and priority measures, reduced spot-check measures, and simplified procedure measures.
International recognition: China Customs has currently achieved AEO mutual recognition with customs of 42 countries (regions) across 15 economies, and the customs of both sides of the Taiwan Strait also implemented an AEO mutual recognition pilot in October 2016. AEO Advanced Certified Enterprises enjoy international mutual recognition and can also enjoy corresponding facilitation measures when clearing goods in partner countries.
The AEO system has broad content, high standards and strict requirements, making it extremely difficult to pass. The certification system is divided into four major modules with 31 items: internal control (mainly including internal training, organizational structure, document review, document retention, import and export activities, internal audit system, quality management, improvement mechanism, information system, data management, information security); financial status (mainly including accounting information and overall financial condition); compliance norms (mainly including personnel compliance, enterprise compliance, transmission norms, tax payment, management requirements, external credit); trade security (mainly including premises security, access security, personnel security, business partner security, cargo and goods security, container security, transport vehicle security, crisis management, security training). To pass certification, the following three conditions must be met simultaneously: First, no scoring item is completely non-compliant (-2 points); second, among the internal control and trade security standards, there are no more than three single standard items (denoted by 1, 2, 3) that are basically compliant (-1 point); third, the total standard score is 95 points (inclusive) or above.
From the establishment of the TKM customs AEO project team in July 2017 to the successful passing of the customs review, more than 700 days and nights passed. Everyone faced difficulties together and found ways to solve them, going through the process of studying the standards, understanding the standards, interpreting the standards, applying the standards flexibly and meeting the standards. It has indeed not been easy. This could not have been achieved without the guidance and support of senior management, the unremitting efforts and dedication of the project team members, the professional support of consultant teachers, and the careful coaching of customs experts. Obtaining the AEO certificate is not the end of the certification work, but the beginning of a new journey. We will carry out work in accordance with a more compliant and safer system, continuously standardize and improve according to local conditions, so as to remain consistently in compliance with the requirements of the AEO certification system.
The next priority is to implement the AEO policies in practice, rather than framing the certificate and hanging it on the wall. On the one hand, we should correctly fill in customs AEO information in import and export declarations in accordance with customs requirements, enjoy preferential measures such as fast clearance and low inspection rates, and directly approach the AEO enterprise coordinator for help in coordinating and resolving issues when encountering problems. On the other hand, we should strengthen publicity to customers, and indicate the AEO number on customs clearance documents provided to customers for destination countries, so as to enjoy clearance facilitation in destination countries. On the other hand, we should make full use of AEO certification to exempt customers from other audits and certifications (such as anti-terrorism certification and trade security audits). On the other hand, we should cooperate with and support other departments in applying to the government for awards and incentives, ensuring that preferential policies are fully enjoyed.
Regarding AEO certification, more and more enterprises are now recognizing its value, and many are eager to plan applications.
From a macro perspective, this shows that the AEO certification cultivation work in recent years has achieved good results. The joint incentive policies of the General Administration of Customs and even various national government departments for AEO certified enterprises have been pursued by enterprises, which is a good phenomenon.
However, there are inevitably some misunderstandings about AEO certification, mainly reflected in:
Misunderstanding 1: Believing that doing AEO certification only means preparing the certification application materials well and submitting a beautiful set of materials to customs. Guided by this view, enterprises naturally rush to find a consulting company to "handle everything on their behalf," sitting back and waiting for the certificate to arrive.
Misunderstanding 2: Once the certification certificate is obtained, everything is fine for at least three years, and no further AEO certification work is needed. Guided by this view, many enterprises treat passing certification as the end of their AEO certification work.
AEO certification is an effective means of improving competitiveness and better serving market development.
AEO certification is a management optimization project that strengthens internal capabilities and helps reduce costs and improve efficiency.
AEO certification is a systematic project in which all departments cooperate closely, enhancing corporate cohesion.
AEO certification requires the support of the CEO; it is a CEO project.
AEO is a method, a means and a process, serving the corporate mission of making customers successful and striving for Samudy to become a world-leading one-stop injection molding solution supplier.
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