BUS606: Operations and Supply Chain Management

• The ACI programs, the ISPS Code and the vessel tracking systems are compulsory. The latter are globally compulsory for IMO Member States, the former are compulsory on the specific trade route they are regulating.
• While most AEO certification programs are not (yet?) compulsory, an increasing market- and peer-pressure is and will be felt by the supply chain actors, mainly exporters, importers and logistics operators, to become certified. Since AEO-certified operators must ensure that their vendors, subcontractors and trade-partners are themselves implementing adequate security measures, it will become more and more commercially risky not to be certified.
  

As the European Shippers Council (ESC) puts it, these voluntary programs are becoming "mandatory by default or design".

The carrot takes the shape of privileged "green lane" treatment of certified operators' cargoes at border- crossing point, materialized by faster clearance and less frequent inspections.