YYS AND OKS ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

M. Altay YEGİN
Customs Consultant

"Authorized Economic Operator Status" (YYS) and "Approved Person Status" (OKS), which are among the applications to simplify customs procedures, have a very widespread use in customs and foreign trade practices.

In this article, the historical process, definition and advantages and disadvantages of both statuses for foreign traders will be discussed. I would like to give priority to YYS, which has become a "prestige document" today.

If we say, “Adventure was born from security,” we would not make a mistake. After the twin tower attacks, the fuse of a rapidly spreading practice, known as C-TPAT (Customs and Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) under the leadership of the United States in 2001, was ignited. Afterwards, AEO became a foreign trade instrument that the European Union integrated into AEO (Authorized Economic Operator) and more than fifty countries are involved in, and more than twenty countries are trying to integrate into their own legislation.

In our country, the AEO process was initiated with the provision added to the Customs Law with Law No. 5911 in 2009 and with the "Regulation on Facilitation of Customs Procedures" published in the Official Gazette dated 10.01.2013 and numbered 28524. As of June 2020, the number of companies holding AEO Certificate has reached 502. The number of businesses wishing to obtain this status is increasing day by day.

As the number of businesses holding certificates increased, simplification practices and new certificate requests increased in direct proportion. In order to convey the increasing demands to the public, certificate holder businesses came together under one roof in the "Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Association". "Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Association", which was established to bring together organizations holding AEO certificates, to provide information exchange, solidarity and coordination between them, to develop suggestions on the development of the rights and practices used within the scope of AEO and to contribute to the development of foreign trade in this way, as of 31.05.2019. started its activities.

AEO Certificate is an international status document that provides certain conveniences and privileges in customs procedures to reliable companies that fulfill their customs obligations, have a regular and traceable registration system, have financial sufficiency, safety and security standards, and can carry out their own self-control. We can list the advantages of this status certificate for foreign traders as follows:

Conveniences Regarding Simplified Transactions;

• On-Site Customs Clearance for Exports (Export customs clearance at the company's designated facility)
• On-Site Customs Clearance for Imports (Import customs clearance at the company's designated facility)
• In secured transactions; Application of partial or lump sum collateral instead of providing 0 collateral for each transaction separately,
• "Approved Exporter" authority, which gives the authority to issue and approve ATR Movement Documents Approved by the Customs Administrations issued by the Chambers,
• Regardless of the value of the goods, Invoice Declaration Eur-Med; “Approved exporter” authority, which gives the authority to issue and approve Eur.1 certificate,
• The deficiencies are to be completed within 1 month; Making a customs declaration with missing documents.
• Benefiting from on-board operations that do not differ depending on the type of goods.

Facilities According to the Control Type of the Declaration;

• GREEN line application in which there is no goods inspection and control in import-export
• Benefiting from the Green Line on Vehicle

Safety and Security Related Facilities;

• Issuance of a summary declaration consisting of reduced mandatory information.
• We can list it as a priority border crossing for transportation by companies with authorized sender authority.
• Advantages of the certificate at macro and micro level;
• Being more preferred as a supplier in international markets,
• Recognition as reliable in international markets,
• Being accepted as an authorized obliged party in countries with which a mutual recognition agreement has been made and being able to benefit from the privileges provided to authorized obliged parties in that country on the basis of reciprocity,
• Being recognized as a reliable person in the market and being preferred more,
• Elimination of costs such as unloading, loading, waiting for goods and vehicles,
• More advanced planning
• Decrease in cases of property damage,
• Reducing supply costs and increasing cooperation with suppliers,
• We can list it as a decrease in delays in shipments.

The most important disadvantages of the YYS Certificate are the investment costs that must be incurred to obtain the document. It is observed that businesses that do not have the necessary infrastructure to obtain the "ISO 9001" and "ISO 27001" documents, which are among the application documents, face high costs. In addition, when foreign practices are examined and compared with the Turkish practice, it is seen that the entire system, like its counterparts, is designed to be "integrated", that is, to include customs consultancy companies.

The OKS document, another simplification application, was made available to foreign traders in 2003. A-B and C statuses, which have undergone many changes over time, were finally replaced by OKS and 42/A models. Currently, OKS is a simplification practice in which the blue line is used only in certain regimes in exports and the blue line application is abolished in imports. The advantages of the document for foreign traders are as follows:

Conveniences Regarding Simplified Transactions;

• "Approved Exporter" authority, which gives the authority to issue and approve ATR Movement Documents Approved by the Customs Administrations issued by the Chambers,
• The deficiencies are to be completed within 1 month; Making a customs declaration with missing documents.
• In secured transactions; Application of partial and lump sum collateral instead of providing 0 collateral for each transaction separately,
• Benefiting from on-board operations that do not differ depending on the type of goods.

Facilities According to the Control Type of the Declaration;

• Only in export transactions, there is a BLUE line application for the 1000 regimes in the OKS document, and for the 1000-1040 and 3151 regimes in the 42/A status.

When we look at the disadvantages of the OKS Certificate, we observe that the scope of the application is narrowing day by day, the regimes in which the blue line is used are limited, and the minimum number of workers has been increased from one month to one year's average number of workers. In addition, the fact that the validity period of the document is not unlimited as in AEO, but is valid for two years and that it has to be renewed every two years, reduces the interest of tradesmen in OKS day by day.

When the two certificates are compared, it is seen that YYS is a more comprehensive application and OKS is gradually narrowing its scope. In addition, it is observed that the Ministry of Commerce has created the YYS-II model, which corresponds to the OKS 42/A document, considering the transition from the OKS document to YYS.

As a result, we can say that businesses that hesitate between two certificates should make their choices towards YYS, which is known abroad and is considered an international prestige certificate, when making their future plans.

Source:

Article 5/A of the Customs Law No. 4458,

Articles 22 to 26 of Customs Regulation No. 4458

Regulation on Facilitation of Customs Procedures

Customs General Communiqué on Approved Person Status (Sequence No.1)