The following is excerpted from an 8 February 2014 news release by CBP.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the European Union (EU) today announce the mutual recognition decision between CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program and the EU’s Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program was fully implemented January 31.
This final phase of the agreement provides reciprocal benefits to C-TPAT members when exporting to EU member states. These benefits which include lower risk score and less 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 by CBP Deputy Commissioner David V. Aguilar and European Union Taxation and Customs Union Directorate Director-General Heinz Zourek.
This release is available in its entirety at:
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/national/02082013_6.xml