In 2020, Cementos Progreso was authorized as an Authorized Economic Operator – AEO – by SAT. This allows Cementos Progreso to integrate financial and operational solutions, promoting transparency, and competitiveness, while boosting export and import trade activities, guaranteeing a secure international logistics chain.
Alejandro Flores, San Miguel Plant’s storage manager, indicated that SAT carried out an audit to guarantee the system’s proper use and operation by Cementos Progreso to this end.
«SAT verified our processes to ensure that they comply with international regulations so that we could continue exporting our products and generate a cooperative link between customs in Guatemala and customs in the United States.»
Flores stated that Cementos Progreso is a benchmark for AEO system application on an international level and that U.S. authorities were satisfied with the implementation of current procedures.
Diego Sacahuí, head of processes at the Procurement Support Area, indicated that these procedures are applied in all Cementos Progreso’s imports and exports.
«All of this ensures the safe and efficient fulfillment of the logistics chain with other certified operators, guaranteeing security at a global level.»
In 2010, SAT’s Customs Department created the Guatemalan Authorized Economic Operator Unit, OAS-SAT, to generate control and assurance mechanisms for the international logistics chain.
The objective of this unit is to develop and implement a program that focuses on private-sector users who meet certain requirements and conditions. While doing so, they secure the goods and facilitate international trade within the current legislative framework.
In order to receive AEO status, Cementos Progreso complied with more than 150 requirements which were validated by SAT’s Authorized Economic Operator Unit in 2020. Each year the AEO evaluates Cementos Progreso to ensure that it applies program-relate controls. As of December 2022, there are 91 AEOs authorized in the country.
