NEW EU GUIDANCE PROMOTES COOPERATION BETWEEN CUSTOMS AND BUSINESSES TO TACKLE ILLICIT TRADE
The European Commission has issued new guidance on “AEO – Customs Cooperation to Detect, Report and React to Suspicious Activities”, aimed at strengthening cooperation between customs authorities and economic operators to combat illicit trade, drug trafficking, and organised crime.
The initiative promotes enhanced two-way information sharing between customs and industry, including the use of whistleblowing mechanisms and dedicated 24/7 contact points, enabling faster detection and response to suspicious activities. By encouraging economic operators to report irregularities, such as unusual movements of goods, unauthorised access, or anomalies in transactions, the guidance seeks to improve targeted risk management and support more effective enforcement actions. At the same time, customs authorities are encouraged to share relevant intelligence, including insights into criminal trends and modus operandi, helping companies to better anticipate and identify risks.
While building on existing partnerships with Authorised Economic Operators (AEOs), the guidance explicitly encourages all businesses, regardless of AEO status, to adopt a more proactive and structured approach to reporting and cooperation. This reflects the recognition that economic operators are often best placed to detect suspicious patterns within supply chains, given their operational role and direct access to information.
The document also highlights the importance of strengthening internal controls within companies, including clear reporting procedures, staff awareness, and secure communication channels. In this context, internal and external whistleblowing systems are identified as key tools to detect potential wrongdoing at an early stage, particularly in light of risks linked to internal actors or compromised processes. The guidance underlines that fostering a culture of transparency and trust is essential to ensure that such mechanisms are effective in practice.
In addition, the guidance points to existing national initiatives and best practices that demonstrate how structured cooperation can be operationalised, including dedicated reporting platforms, formalised agreements between customs and operators, and awareness-raising programmes. These examples illustrate the benefits of a more systematic approach to information exchange, not only in improving security outcomes but also in enhancing efficiency and predictability in supply chain operations.
More information is available here.