Abstract:
This paper was presented at the Inaugural INCU Global Conference “Trade Facilitation Post-Bali: Putting Policy into Practice” 21–23 May 2014 in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. The author considers the Taxation and Customs Union Directorate-General (European Commission) (TAXUD) Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) Database supplemented with company data to make a census of AEO certifications per company size (in terms of employees and revenue) and export/import quotas in the case of Austria 2008-2013 in order to find out who takes most benefit from AEO certification. Most of Austrian AEO certified companies from the manufacturing industry can be classified as small and medium enterprises in the EU sense but being heavily
export-orientated at the same time they are in need of an AEO certificate to smooth their export/import operations. Transport and logistics service providers also take benefit from AEO certification, but they are being pushed to apply for certification by their customers. Some background is provided about the AEO certification on the EU-level and its implementation in Austria before results of an explorative data analysis of companies listed in the TAXUD AEO Database are presented and discussed.
