The EU has held political talks on a law that will ban the sale on the EU market of products made with forced labour, as well as the export of such products from the EU. On 22 January 2024, the EU Council and Parliament held negotiations to agree the final text of the regulation, the proposal for which was published by the EU Commission in September 2022. The Committee on International Trade and the Committee on…
On 25 January 2024, the EU Commission confirmed and adopted the Delegated Regulation no. 5831/24 (“Regulation”) that incorporates binding valuation information (“BVI”) decisions in customs legislation. Under the new Regulation, operators may apply for a binding BVI decision from the relevant customs authorities in the EU (which would be binding across all Member States of the EU), in order to obtain certainty about the customs value of goods imported into the EU. This move, announced…
The recent amendments to the Russian iron and steel sanctions that came into effect across Europe on 30 September 2023 have had a significant impact across sectors. We previously reported on the business consequences and recommendations on the tightened restrictions in our blog post available here. Although the latest restrictions are still in their early days, it is becoming increasingly clear that cooperation between sanctions and customs teams within businesses is crucial to ensure that…
On 15 February 2023, the World Customs Organization (“WCO”) hosted a Symposium on E-Commerce and Customs Valuation. Several key challenges were identified: the fragmentation in the system due to data overload from low level shipments; the consequent shortfalls within data systems and processing; and compliance and enforcement challenges. The sessions provided a high level overview from the WCO and World Trade Organization (“WTO”) of the current scope of challenges and questions to consider, and…
In November we reported that the European Commission announced plans to include binding valuation information (“BVI”) decisions in its customs legislation. The Commission has published the draft Delegated Regulation and obtained feedback from a public consultation, which ended on 18 January 2023. The Commission describes this move as the completion of an already well-established legal and operational framework for issuing decisions relating to binding tariff classification information (“BTI”) and binding origin information (“BOI”). The aim…
The United Kingdom has agreed with the European Union a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland which seeks to significantly reduce the number of checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework would create two ‘lanes’ for goods which are arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain: A green lane for goods remaining in Northern Ireland (for which there will be minimal checks or paperwork); A red lane for goods…
In line with what we previously reported[1] regarding the expanded obligation to maintain electronic registers, a series of new rules were rolled out on 13 February 2023 which will make the taxation of alcohol, tobacco and energy products fully paperless across the EU. They are part of a wider expansion of the common excise duty provisions in the EU. The aim of this new standardised electronic system is to alleviate some of the rigorous procedures…
On 6 February 2023, the European Council published Council Regulation (EU) 2023/246 on the exchange of information in electronic registers in the Official Journal of the European Union. The (recast) regulation extends the obligation to maintain electronic registers relating to economic operators who move excise goods between Member States for commercial purposes from 13 February 2023. Prior to the amendment, Member States were obligated to maintain electronic registers of authorisations of economic operators and warehouses…
The UK government has introduced a bill to help bring into force the UK-Australia and the UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreements (“FTAs”). The bill is a key step in ratifying the FTAs but before they come into force, Parliament must scrutinise the FTAs, agree the bill and pass secondary legislation to make the changes required to the UK’s procurement regime to meet the terms of the FTAs. The FTAs will remove tariffs on all goods…
Operators may request a binding information decision from the relevant customs authorities in the EU, in order to obtain certainty about the application of customs legislation in respect of the tariff classification or the origin of imported goods across the EU. Currently, EU customs legislation does not facilitate the issuing of a binding information decision in respect the value of imported goods. This can present real challenges for importers where customs authorities across the EU…