In order to simplify administration and facilitate the people, the Ministry of Finance revised the "Quality Enterprise Certification and Management Measures"

In order to simplify administration and facilitate the people, the Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance has announced the amendment of the "Qualified Enterprise Certification and Management Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as these Regulations), stipulating that Authorized Economic Operators (hereinafter referred to as AEOs) in the warehousing industry who submit their annual self-inspection results to the Customs for record in accordance with Article 29 of these Regulations are exempted from preparing annual audit reports in accordance with Article 12 of the Regulations on the Implementation of Self-Management by Warehouses, Container Terminals, Bonded Warehouses, Logistics Centers and Customs-Designated Operators (hereinafter referred to as Self-Management Regulations), thereby simplifying the administrative operations of operators. The notice period for this draft amendment has expired on April 25, 2015, and it will be revised and released in the near future.
The Customs Administration further explained that according to Article 12 of the Autonomous Management Regulations, autonomous management operators should incorporate customs audit items into their internal management audit mechanism and prepare an audit report every year and submit it to the customs for record. In addition, in accordance with Article 29 of these Measures, safety-certified quality enterprises shall conduct self-inspections at least once a year in accordance with the safety review items and verification standards set forth in Article 10, Paragraph 1, Item 4 of the same Measures (hereinafter referred to as verification standards), and submit the inspection results to the customs for record. In view that most AEO warehousing operators are self-managed operators and the AEO certification standards can already cover the audit items of the customs on self-managed operators, the draft has amended the provisions of Article 20, Paragraph 2, Clause 2 of these Regulations to specify that AEO warehousing operators who submit self-inspection results to the customs for record may be exempted from preparing annual audit reports in accordance with Article 12 of the Self-Management Regulations, thereby saving manufacturers' operating costs.
The Customs Administration added that my country’s AEO system was developed in accordance with the standards set by the World Customs Organization’s Secure and Facilitated Trade Framework (WCO SAFE Framework). Since its implementation in December 1999, my country has had 948 high-quality enterprises, including 524 general high-quality enterprises and 424 safety-certified high-quality enterprises, whose trade volume accounts for about 50% of my country's annual total trade volume. In addition to providing AEO importers and exporters with preferential customs clearance measures such as low document review and cargo sampling ratio, and monthly tax payment (the average customs clearance time is more than 3 times faster than that of general operators), the customs also provides AEO preferential measures for other industries such as manufacturing, customs declaration and warehousing in accordance with the relevant provisions of these measures, which will help improve the service quality and competitiveness of manufacturers. In addition, safety-certified high-quality enterprises exporting to countries that have signed mutual recognition agreements with Taiwan, including 10 countries including the United States, Singapore, Israel, South Korea, Australia, Japan, India, New Zealand, Guatemala and Canada, can enjoy the same convenient customs clearance benefits as AEO operators in the above countries. Especially under the impact of US tariff policies, the AEO system can not only enhance the security and convenience of the international supply chain, but also reduce the administrative costs of businesses and enhance their logistics management and export competitiveness. Businesses interested in joining are welcome to visit the agency’s “AEO Zone” ( http://aeo.customs.gov.tw ) for more information, and contact the nearest AEO window at the customs ( https://aeo.customs.gov.tw/portal/aeop12?language=chinese ) for application matters.

Contact person for press release: Section Chief Yang Contact number: (02) 25505500 ext. 2540