Singapore Customs releases circular on Japan’s AECs

Singapore Customs has released a circular, alerting exporters to a change in Japan’s authorised economic codes (‘AECs’) and a reminder on proper declaration of AEO (‘authorised economic operator’)  information (19 March). Singapore Customs has had a mutual recognition arrangement (‘MRA’) in place with seven partner customs administrations since 2010. This means that AEO companies under these partner customs administrations are recognised as lower-risk and so goods can be cleared for export or import swiftly.

Under the Singapore-Japan MRA, Japan’s AEO companies currently use a 12-character alpha/numeric AEO code. From 1 April, this code will change to a 17-digit numeric characters. New 17-digit AEO codes for Japan will need to be obtained from Japanese trade partners and entered into the permit application.

For more information on the change in AEO codes, please see:
https://www.customs.gov.sg/~/media/cus/files/circulars/corp/2018/circular032018%20ver%201.pdf