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European Union: Deforestation Regulation – New due diligence requirements to tackle deforestation and forest degradation

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In brief The new EU Deforestation Regulation (2023/1115/EU) will impose due diligence obligations from 30 December 2024 aimed at tackling deforestation and forest degradation. The Regulation will require companies dealing in in-scope products to undertake due diligence into the source of a wide range of commodities, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm-oil, rubber, soya and wood, to ensure that they have not been obtained as a result of deforestation. You can access a recording of our recent webinar…

New CBAM documents released by European Commission

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Next to the CBAM implementing regulation adopted by the European Commission on 17 August 2023 regarding the reporting rules applicable during the transitional phase of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) (please find a previous alert by our team here), the European Commission released a set of new CBAM documents in October.  These are in chronological order: Application User Manual – CBAM Declarant Portal on 3 October 2023; New version of the CBAM Communication template…

EU Court of Justice concludes that the European Commission has exceeded its powers when adopting delegated legislation concerning non-preferential rules of origin

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On 21 September 2023, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) gave its judgment in a case concerning the non-preferential rules of origin (“ROO”) as laid down in the European Commission’s Union Customs Code Delegated Act (“UCC DA”), which supplements the Union Customs Code (“UCC”). The ECJ concluded in this case that the ‘Change of Tariff Heading’ (“CTH”) ROO laid down in the UCC DA can be deemed invalid in the light of the Treaty of…

UK: Introduction of new border model postponed

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The UK government has released its final plans for the new Border Target Operating Model (“the Model”). The Model was initially set for implementation from October this year and has now been delayed to January 2024. The UK Government has agreed to this delay of three months following input from public consultation from the private sector and stakeholders. The Model which introduces the remaining sanitary and phytosanitary controls, as well as full customs controls for…

Reintroduction of the Voluntary Disclosure Programme in Malaysia for Direct and Indirect Taxes

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Following the re-tabling of the Malaysian Budget 2023 on 24 February 2023, the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board (IRB) and Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) have reintroduced the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP) 2.0 and the Voluntary Disclosure Programme (VDP) which apply to direct taxes and indirect taxes respectively. A similar programme was previously implemented in 2022 for indirect taxes and in 2019 for direct taxes, although there are some key differences in respect of the…

Malaysia’s Ratification of the RCEP and CPTPP

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The ratification of two of the world’s mega-regional free trade agreements, namely the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), marks a significant milestone for Malaysia in its pursuit of bolstering foreign investments and expanding its trade horizons. Malaysia has successfully ratified the RCEP on 17 January 2022, followed by the ratification of the CPTPP on 30 September 2022. Subsequently, the RCEP came into force on 18…

Japan relists South Korea as “White Country”

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On June 27, 2023, Japan’s Cabinet determined amendment to Export Trade Control Order, an supplemental regulations of Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, to add South Korea into the List No.3. Japan designates preferred trade countries (Group A Countries, formerly known as “White Countries”) in the List No.3 and provides preferential treatment for export of items from Japan to the listed countries, including granting general export license and exemption from catch-all controls. New Export Trade…

Germany: Munich court rules that a year-end TP adjustment does not justify additional import duties

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In our blog post “The Hamamatsu TP/customs valuation case comes to a surprising conclusion” we summarized the final judgment of the German Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof; “BFH”) in the “Hamamatsu” case. The BFH had ruled that taxpayers cannot claim refund of import duties in case of lump-sum TP adjustments applied at the end of the fiscal year that result in a subsequent lump-sum decrease in resale prices and thus in an intercompany credit note for…

Imposition of Sales Tax on Low Value Goods Imported into Malaysia

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Following the passing of a suite of legislations, sales tax at the rate of 10% will be imposed on low value goods (i.e., all goods outside Malaysia which are sold at a price not exceeding RM 500 and brought into Malaysia via land, sea or air modes) (“LVG”) sold by a seller (i.e., a person who sells LVG on an online marketplace or operates an online marketplace for the sales and purchase of LVG) (“Seller”).…