The European Commission and China have agreed to strengthen co-operation in order to increase security and trade facilitation throughout the supply chain.
As a first step, they are going to run a pilot project with the aim of creating smart and secure trade lanes between the European Community and China.
Once successful, the co-operation could be expanded step by step to the whole of the European Community.
This initiative takes place in the framework of the EU-China Agreement on Customs Co-operation and is the outcome of the meeting held on 19 September between the European Taxation and Customs Union Commissioner L szl Kov cs and Chinese Customs Minister Mu Xinsheng.
This strengthened co-operation should in the long term lead to increased security and trade facilitation by:
Reciprocity and mutual recognition of security standards, control results and authorised economic operator concepts.
Use of latest technology to secure supply chain.
Improved information flows, improved risk assessment and targeting of controls.
Quicker release of goods upon arrival, better predictability of delivery times for business partners and reduced control efforts for Authorised Economic Operators.
