According to an EC announcement, CPB Deputy Commissioner Jayson Ahern and Director-General Robert Verrue, of the EC's Taxation and Customs Union Directorate, adopted the US-EU Joint Customs Cooperation Committee (JCCC) Roadmap towards Mutual Recognition of Trade Partnership Programs at the 9th meeting of the JCCC.

Commenting on the adoption of the joint roadmap, CBP Deputy Commissioner Ahern, observed that: “This is an important step toward achieving the US and EU’s shared objective of enhancing supply chain security.”

Director General Verrue added: “European Customs policy aims at achieving mutual recognition of security standards with our major trading partners and in particular with the USA. Mutual recognition will bring benefits to reliable traders and customs administrations by reducing administrative burden and making trade smoother and quicker. Most importantly it will also bring benefits to all EU and US citizens by strengthening the safety and the security of the supply chain."

Customs Security Programs were respectively introduced by the US and the EU in order to support the development and implementation of measures enhancing security of the supply chain through improved customs controls.

The programs aim to balance controls with trade facilitation. Traders demonstrating compliant efforts to secure their part of the supply chain benefit from increased customs facilitation.

Mutual recognition arrangements allow the companies of one supply chain security program to receive benefits similar to those conferred to companies participating in another country’s program.

The Roadmap outlines several areas that the US and the EU will address to achieve the goal of implementing Mutual Recognition: political, administrative, legal, policy, technical/operational, and evaluation. The Roadmap sets forth key benchmarks for measuring progress in each area.

In 2007, the U.S. and the EU initiated efforts to implement Mutual Recognition of CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and the EU’s Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) supply chain security programs.

The initial steps consisted of completing an in-depth comparison of both the US and EU AEO programs, and conducting a pilot program in which CBP observed security components of the EU’s AEO audit process. The Roadmap was drafted and endorsed based on the conclusions drawn from this US-EU effort.