AEO: 20 years today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AEO: 20 YEARS TODAY

It was 20 years ago today, on January 1st 2000, when Sweden launched the operational pilot of the Stairway Concept (Servicetrappan).

This was the first Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) and Trusted Trader programme in the world.

IKEA was the first AEO company, then came AKSO Nobel. KGH was one of the first ten pilots and certified companies of the Stairway programme. In total 40 companies participated in the developments and tests.

Now more than 100 countries worldwide have introduced AEO and Trusted Trader programmes and 100.000 companies are qualified for a certified status. Today we celebrate this historic day.

20 years ago today we had thoughts and new ideas about how we could conduct the central government’s core business, in this case the Swedish Customs Administration.

Today, the Stairwa, under its international name, Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) is a leading international standard for trade, introduced in more than 100 countries worldwide – and with more than 100,000 companies quality assured and validated as low-risk companies, Trusted Traders. The results are overwhelmingly positive.

In Brazil, where AEO was introduced in 2014-2017, an independent academic macroeconomic study has recently been conducted showing that AEO companies have already saved $ 1.5 billion and that Brazil’s economy will grow by $ 17 billion to 2030 thanks to the introduction of AEO in Brazil. Money that can be used to build the nations education system, healthcare and social developments.

Today, this Swedish innovation celebrates 20 years. I feel proud to have been on this journey from day one. After the development of the first model in Sweden, I worked on developing the international standard for the area, the World Customs Organization’s (WCO) SAFE Framework, and I have had the privilege of working with the development and implementation of AEO programs in more than 50 countries.

In March, WCO will host its fifth global AEO conference on in the Dubai and it is expected that more than 2,500 participants from 150 countries will participate.

I get the pleasure to yet another time talk to people from all around the world about the ‘baby’ who was once born in a conference room at Sturup Airport in 1998. A ‘baby’ that no longer crawls, or walks – but runs like a bureaucratic Usain Bolt across the world. One becomes humbly grateful for all the learning included in this 20 year journey.

There are people who say it is difficult to change how government works.

But nothing is impossible.

As Robert Kennedy once said:

“Some men see things as they are and say Why? I dream things that never were and say Why Not?”