Last week, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and HM Treasury launched a public consultation on the introduction of a UK carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), following its announcement in December 2023. The CBAM proposal forms part of the UK government’s wider strategy to tackle carbon leakage. To achieve this it will impose a carbon price on imported goods with the aim of levelling the playing field and ensuring that imported goods are subject to a…
On 13 March 2024, the European Parliament adopted its first reading position on the proposal from the European Commission to repeal and significantly reform the EU Customs Code (which we originally reported on in our blog available here). On 17 May 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for the reform of the EU Customs Code, which aims to change the way that EU customs authorities operate, in particular due to the significant growth in…
On 7 December 2023, the government announced a package of customs simplification measures to simplify export and import processes for traders. These measures are aimed at supporting the UK government’s goal of having “the world’s most effective border” under its 2025 UK Border Strategy (our previous blog on that here), developed in 2020 to “simplify processes to traders, improve the security and biosecurity of the UK, and embrace innovation”. Together these improvements in the following…
The most significant updates to the Combined Nomenclature (“CN”) relate to – amongst others: The declaration of goods upon import, export, or when subject to intra-Community trade statistics between EU Member States is based on the CN. This sets the customs duty rate that is applicable as well as determines how the products are handled for statistical purposes. Therefore, the CN is an essential working instrument for industry and the customs departments of the EU…
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 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…
The UK government published an evaluation report for the six pilot initiatives on an ‘Ecosystem of Trust’ (“EoT”) on 29 August 2023, which was first set out in the government’s 2025 UK Border strategy. Aimed at using technology to create the so called EoT around the border, the UK proposed an automated assurance and reliability model that could allow a simplification of the current customs and border processes. Such an ecosystem would be built on…
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…
On June 19, the UK’s new DCTS entered into force, replacing its previous Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) regime. Under the WTO Agreements, developed countries can grant non-reciprocal preferential treatment to products originating in developing and least developed countries, referred to as “special and differential treatment” (S&D) provisions, normally referred to as a GSP. Countries that grant preferential treatment through a GSP determine eligible countries and S&D provisions unilaterally. Along with a rebrand, the DCTS simplifies…
World Trade Organization (“WTO”) Members laid out several key principles for determining the customs value of imported goods in the 1995 Customs Valuation Agreement (“CV Agreement”) with the aim of ensuring that the value of Members’ tariff concessions would not be nullified or undermined. Nonetheless, the WTO is – incorrectly – seldomly considered as a relevant forum for addressing customs valuation issues. This blog post highlights two avenues at the WTO for dealing with customs…