The SAFE (an acronym for “Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade”) was approved by the World Customs Organization (WCO) on June 2005 to promote the development of an international standard for the security of the supply chain, offering at the same time to those operators implementing effective measures of security within their supply chains, the opportunity to benefit from a series of trade facilitations (e.g. more rapidity in the release of goods and an access to more swift customs procedures, being them reliable and potentially low-risk operators). On 2007 this document has been complemented with a new section on the AEO (Authorized Economic Operator), which furtherly detailed the conditions for the access to the program, as well as the requirements for both Customs and operators that desire to be part of it.

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In the Federal Register of this morning, the notice of the definitive withdrawal of the "first sale rule" amendment proposal of 24 January 2008 has been published (see our article). It is undoubtely a confirmation of the fact that this mechanism is useful to US economic operators, as it allows them to obtain substantial duty savings on their imports.

We hope that a similar decision will be adopted also within the European Union, in order to avoid to the EU operators to be be cut out at all from benefits that can be obtained through this particular methodology of determination of the customs value.