Croatia will become the 28^th Member of the European Union, the result of a long process which began with their request to join the EU in 2003. Upon the conclusion of negotiations and the signing of the Accession Treaty in December 2011, Croatia was placed under a strict pre-accession monitoring arrangement, an innovation used for the first time by the EU, in order to ensure that the country reaches accession objectives.

Check out the interview with Lance THOMPSON on recommendation 14 (Video in English)

It’s already 20 years since the European Union decided to open its internal borders to the flow of goods between Member States. As a result, veterinary inspections, which had been performed upon crossing the internal EU borders until then, were purely and simply eliminated, as were the customs declarations which had included the goods’ customs commodity codes.

On 24th January, Nicole BRICQ, Minister for Foreign Trade, launched initial work towards the implementation a national single window for foreign trade procedures for export companies....

The “National Pact for Growth, Competitiveness and Employment” developed by the government of Prime Minister Ayrault, compiles 32 decisions aimed at making France and French companies more competitive. There are at least three that concern directly external trade. In this context, the Minister for External Trade, Mrs. BRICQ requested that a Customs-Trade Forum be organized in order to identify the main objectives.

The Republic of Turkey and the Republic of Croatia have signed the Convention on common transit with the EFTA countries. It aims to facilitate the movement of goods between the contracting parties and should promote competitiveness and economic growth.

For this second annual conference dedicated to mail & air-cargo security, CONEX reinforced its presence by being the sole sponsor of the event and by sending Lance THOMPSON to present the pertinent international norms in this field. A brief summary of what’s to come in air cargo.

AEO – C-TPAT Mutual Recognition for all?

Beginning of May 2012, the EU and the US agreed on a mutual recognition of their programs identifying secure operators. In Europe, this concerns the AEO-S and AEO-F (Authorized Economic Operators, Security and Authorized Economic Operators, Full). And on the other side of the Atlantic, this concerns C-TPAT registered companies (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism).

New nomination, Conex participates actively in international standards.

During the 19th UN/CEFACT Forum in Geneva in April 2012, Lance THOMPSON, International Development Manager for CONEX, was named “Project Chair” of the revision of the Recommendation covering electronic authentication (Recommendation 14).