Our speakers provided a global overview of the hot topics and key trends across customs law and policy. A diverse range of regional trends were spotlighted across the US, EU, UK, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Africa and Middle East. This included the ‘new era’ of digitisation and data sharing between customs authorities in the EU, the focus on trade facilitation across Latin America and Africa to promote regional economic growth, the convergence with the Russia…
On 14 April 2025, the European Commission accepted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/778 (link), which lays down (additional) retaliatory measures to counter balance those imposed by the US on EU steel and aluminum: At the same time, the European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/786 (link), formalizing the 90-day suspension of retaliatory tariffs on imports of US-originating products listed in Annex I, II and III of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/778 (link) until 14 July 2025 (see…
Yesterday, following the adoption of Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/664, the European Commission has extended the ongoing suspension of retaliatory tariffs until 14 April 2025. These tariffs were initially adopted in 2018 (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/886) and 2020 (Implementing regulation – 2020/502 – EN – EUR-Lex) and were supposed to reapply and come into effect tomorrow. This decision was already announced by the EU trade commissioner during a hearing at the European Parliament on…
There is never a dull moment in the ongoing trade war. With effect of 12 March 2025, the US reinstated the June 2018 Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum products at a rate of 25% and extended these tariffs to a larger scope of steel and aluminum products (see our prior blog post on the US Section 232 tariffs here). On 12 March 2025, the EU announced countermeasures which shall protect European businesses and…
For the third week, we continued our Annual Compliance Conference with key customs developments impacting on businesses today. Specifically, we discussed the reform of the Union Customs Code in the EU, key trending customs developments in EMEA, and different methods of driving significant financial savings in global supply chains. EU customs reform: biggest overhaul since 1968 Tuesday 14 May SPEAKERS: Nicole Looks (Partner, Amsterdam), Thomas Kukanza (Senior Trade Advisor, Brussels), Sylvain Guelton (Senior Associate, Brussels),…
Uncertainty reigns over the impact of post-entry adjustments of provisional customs values, mainly in the context of retroactive transfer pricing adjustments. Part of this uncertainty stems from the landmark Hamamatsu case (C-529/16) of 20 December 2017. Though the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) had the chance to provide more clarity on the customs treatment of retroactive transfer pricing adjustments, the outcome only provided partial guidance while leaving room for altering interpretations among…
We’re reaching out today as we believe the publication of the 11th package of sanctions against Russia deserves your utmost attention! Particularly as it relates to the new anti-circumvention tool and the addition of entities registered outside of Russia on the list of natural or legal persons which are military end-users, form part of Russia’s military-industrial complex or which have commercial or other links with or which otherwise support Russia’s defence and security sector (i.e.…
On 15 February 2023, the World Customs Organization (“WCO”) hosted a Symposium on E-Commerce and Customs Valuation. Several key challenges were identified: 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 featured substantive presentations on the challenges faced by national Customs Authorities (including the European Commission, the CBP and Indian Customs) with input from the private sector in…
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…
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…