U-Freight Taiwan, the U-Freight Group’s (UFL) Taiwanese partner, has been certified by the Taiwan Customs Authority as an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO).  U-Freight Taiwan’s accreditation follows that of U-Freight Holland in 2012, U-Freight’s Spanish (Tracosa) and German (Alpha trans Luft- und Seefrachtspedition) partners in the same year, as well as Conroute Air & Sea, its partner in Sweden, in 2014. In the USA, U-Freight America had its U.S. Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) status revalidated last year, some ten years after it was first certified. UFL’s oceanfreight forwarding division in the USA, U-Ocean USA, is also C-TPAT certified. U-Freight Taiwan will see tangible benefits of AEO accreditation including fewer physical and documentary examinations of cargo, priority use of non-intrusive inspection techniques when examination is required, priority processing by Customs whenever security is heightened, an exclusive consultancy centre providing assistance when cargoes encounter customs processing problems and privileged benefits under mutual recognition agreements. Simon Wong, CEO of UFL says: “For UFL, supply chain security is of enormous importance, both for our own subsidiaries and for our exclusive partner network around the world. “The AEO scheme is one of a series of measures being co-ordinated by the World Customs Organisation as part of a multi-layered approach to facilitating trade whilst making supply chains more secure and controlled. “The scheme provides legitimate businesses with a quality mark, which demonstrates that their internal controls, staff training and procedures are effective and compliant and certified AEOs receive benefits when trading internationally.” Taiwan has signed mutual recognition agreements with the United States, Singapore and Israel and expects to sign further MRAs with several other countries and trade blocks such as: the EU, China and Japan.