China's customs authorities said they will expand the pool of companies certified under the Authorized Economic Operator, or AEO, program and broaden mutual recognition arrangements with more Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation economies, aiming to help more businesses benefit from streamlined cross border trade procedures. The comments came at a seminar organized by the General Administration of Customs on the sidelines of the third APEC Senior Officials' Meeting in Dalian, Liaoning province.
Widening the benefits for smaller firms
The AEO program, promoted by the World Customs Organization, is designed to strengthen international supply chain security and ease customs clearance for compliant goods. Lazzat Daniyarova, a technical officer at the Brussels based World Customs Organization, said bringing more small and medium sized enterprises into AEO programs would make the system more inclusive and give smaller businesses greater access to secure trade and sustainable growth.
Lin Jiantian, director of the GAC's department of enterprise management and audit based control, said China will pursue mutual AEO recognition with more economies so businesses across the Asia Pacific can benefit from faster, more efficient customs clearance. All APEC economies except Papua New Guinea now have AEO programs in place, and China has established mutual recognition arrangements with 10 of them, including Australia, Singapore and South Korea.
The numbers behind the program
China's AEO certified companies recorded 16.76 trillion yuan, or about 2.49 trillion US dollars, in foreign trade over the first seven months of 2026, accounting for 44.2 percent of the country's total trade and up 5.77 percentage points from a year earlier. Their trade with other APEC economies rose 21.87 percent year on year to 9.19 trillion yuan.
Olgun Basel, supply chain director at Einhell Germany AG, a German industrial goods trader based in Shanghai, said the company's import clearance times have fallen by 80 percent since it earned AEO certification in February, adding that preparing for certification also pushed the company to tighten internal controls, documentation and risk management, helping it build trust with overseas customers. Officials said Chinese customs will also hold talks with counterparts from Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, as well as the ASEAN Secretariat, to speed up mutual AEO recognition and map out priorities for the next phase of cooperation. China had more than 15,450 AEO certified companies as of the end of July and has signed 34 mutual recognition agreements covering 60 countries and regions.
