The Mexican Association of Freight Agents (Amacarga) estimated that it will be until 2025 when the figure of Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) will be available from the Tax Administration Service (SAT) , meanwhile, it continues working on the implementation of the standards international security with the aim of protecting the supply chain.
Juan Pablo Pacheco, president of the organization, explained that having this scheme would allow them to be an important actor within the chain, would dignify the freight agent and contribute to the economic growth of the country.
“It gives him competitiveness. In fact, we go to the UN, they invite us to work to avoid cargo contamination. Definitely yes (in 2025) first we have to do the pilot tests and check that the freight forwarder fits,” he said.
He specified that there are currently five companies that carry out a pilot program on the Guide for Freight Agents that was prepared by the Amacarga Security Committee and establishes the 10 international standards in asset security.
“We have to attack the vulnerability of the supply chain and we developed 10 criteria for freight forwarders, where we go to business partners and see who their carrier is, verify who it is, the company’s workers, how they are, what they are doing. doing. We have to see the processes, who they are working with and if it is not known with whom the information leak goes to them,” he argued.
It is worth remembering that the 10 standards that the organization seeks to promote are:
- Supply chain security planning.
- Physical security.
- Physical access controls.
- Business partners.
- Process security.
- Safety of cargo vehicles, containers, trailers and semi-trailers.
- Personnel security.
- Information security and documentation.
- Safety and awareness training.
- Incident management and investigation.
In this sense, Pacheco explained that among the first actions they seek is to be “the Safe Freight Agent”, so within their commitments a diploma in Supply Chain Security was carried out, in which more than six companies and Amacarga personnel.
“We celebrate the graduation of the first generation of the diploma, a job that took more than eight months, we still have a lot of work to do to convince that security is fundamental for the country’s competitiveness,” he indicated.
In addition to the diploma, he specified that there are five companies that will begin to work on the 10 mentioned criteria.
However, he noted that having such schemes will provide more security to customers, in addition to creating confidence in freight forwarders and “seeing them as a key axis in the supply chain.”
“Mexico is a country that will present growth potential in the coming years but we must adapt and prepare for it. In recent years it has come to invade an informal market, there is a lot of merchandise that does not comply with regulations or labeling and that is an indicator of how smuggling comes to permeate the markets,” he explained.
For his part, Carlos Eduardo Farfán, vice president for the Americas of the International Federation of Authorized Economic Operators (IFAEO) , said that Amacarga has already taken the first step to have this figure , this by training and developing skills in its members.
“That they know why the importance of the physical security of the environments where the merchandise is stored, of the logistics and traceability of the cargo, of the movements from a point of origin to a point of destination, of the reliability of personnel, of security with information but also of what or how it can be prepared for an event that occurs, on the one hand preventing events from happening and on the other hand mitigating the impact, it is an effort to generate within their association a culture of security that allows the protection of cargo agents and of course the owners of the merchandise, importers and exporters to generate safe international trade,” he mentioned.
He recalled that this model has already been applied to the country’s industrial parks , which have AEO certificates and stricter safety standards.
It should be remembered that AEO certification is aimed at various participants in supply chains .
The SAT has almost a thousand of these certifications , including importers and exporters (584), customs agents (189), cargo motor carriers (166), controlled premises (13), courier and parcel companies (two) and industrial parks (two). .
The Mexican government adopted this measure in the middle of the last decade as part of its commitments to increase security in supply chains and goods transported globally – more than anything after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
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