The following is from the 11 February 2013 edition of Journal of Commerce.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the European Union recently implemented a mutual recognition decision between Customs’ Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program and the EU’s Authorized Economic Operator program, which provides reciprocal benefits to C-TPAT members when exporting to EU member states.
These benefits, which include lower risk score and fewer exams when shipping cargo, were provided to members exporting into the U.S. in Phase I of the agreement, which was implemented in July 2012. The agreement was first signed in May 2012.