Relaunch of the “Authorized Economic Operator” Program

In 2017, by means of General Resolution No. 4150, the Argentine Tax Authority had started to implement the Authorized Economic Operator (“AEO”) as a pilot program. The authorities invited large operators to apply for this program and enjoy the benefits it provides to enhance their management of foreign trade operations, reduce costs and carry out a more efficient customs control on their imports/exports.

The core of the program relies on how trustworthy the operator is for the administration based on their prior customs operations and the need to focus more intensive controls on less reliable importers/exporters. The AEO Program is one of the issues contained in the World Customs Organisation directives under the Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade (SAFE).

By means of General Resolution No. 4451/19, the pilot program was approved  and has been relaunched taking into account the demands of global trade, learnings from the pilot program and the need for more economic sectors to be included in this program.

Importers/exporters who apply for the AEO Program must submit a formal request and show that they have no outstanding debt in relation to customs duties, federal taxes or social security obligations. Moreover, applicants must have a specific training program for their employees, contingency plans for the goods they import/export and  full traceability of their logistics. The AEO Program benefits may apply to all of the import/export operations, including those carried out in the Special Customs Area (Tierra del Fuego).

The AEO Program has a progressive array of benefits depending on the level of trustworthiness  which the operator has: 1) AEO – Compliance; 2) AEO – Simplification; 3) AEO – Safe operator. Requirements for the applicants depend on the bracket they are applying for, as are the benefits granted by the AEO Program. Some of the benefits of the Program include: exclusive attention in Customs for beneficiaries, priority attention upon contingencies, priority at border checkpoints, having a single global guarantee for all operations, lowest risk factor for customs checks, etc. It is worth mentioning that even the lowest AEO level has some advantages over regular operators, such as the exclusive attention Customs officer.

Operators that want to apply for the AEO Program must also designate a special agent that will be the link between the AEO and Customs. The application is non-mandatory and free of charge, and it requires that the operator has had the same registered activity before the Argentine Tax Authority for at least the last three years. Once the application has been submitted it can be either approved or rejected by Customs, given that the resolution is well-grounded and that the in-house legal counsel has duly intervened.

In order to maintain the register as an AEO, the operator must comply with a series of requirements to maintain trustworthiness with Customs, such as: compliance with its fiscal obligations, a digital and sound register for all commercial operations that allows for stock to be checked in all of the operators’ facilities, economic soundness, minimum safety and technological standards, and the contingency plan of the supply chain.

If any AEO does not comply with its undertakings under the Program, Customs will impose sanctions. These special sanctions include: demotion (and the loss of some of the benefits), disabling the operator temporarily as an AEO, and deregistration from the AEO Program.

The Argentine Tax Authority is seeking to have a more efficient control on less reliable imports/exports by granting benefits to those trustworthy operators that prove to have few issues in their regular operations. Thus, both the administration and the operators would enhance their performances, the administration by a better allocation of public resources and more effective control, and the operators by a reduction in their daily operations.