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News in week 11: EU announced retaliatory tariffs in response to the tariffs imposed by the US; restrictive measures in respect of actions against Ukraine - high risk of circumvention when importing … plywood, consolidated FAQs on the implementation of Council Regulations No 833/2014, 269/2014, 692/2014 and 2022/263, amended list of sanctioned persons; anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of adipic acid; definitive countervailing duties on imports of certain aluminium road wheels; adoption of the VAT in the Digital Age package; and more updates.

News in week 11: EU announced retaliatory tariffs in response to the tariffs imposed by the US; restrictive measures in respect of actions against Ukraine - high risk of circumvention when importing … plywood, consolidated FAQs on the implementation of Council Regulations No 833/2014, 269/2014, 692/2014 and 2022/263, amended list of sanctioned persons; anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of adipic acid; definitive countervailing duties on imports of certain aluminium road wheels; adoption of the VAT in the Digital Age package; and more updates.

Due to the many crises in the world and the associated need for security, the demand for export control is increasing once again. Furthermore, we see the states’ efforts in the EU increasingly … investing in their defence. As a result, more and more companies are becoming suppliers to the defence industry. Therefore, we are starting our series on export control today, as already announced in our article “Don't let this happen to you! US export control law and re-export from the EU” from 14 January, 2025. In our first article, we address the basic questions: What does export control mean? Why is export control important for countries? What is controlled and according to which criteria?

The recent cover of the weekly The Economist issue had a picture of red tape and the title “The revolt against regulation”. Some statistics from the articles on the topic: in the US, federal … regulations now exceed 180,000 pages, up from 20,000 in the early 1960s; in the past five years the European Parliament has enacted more than twice as many laws as America; red tape costs the French economy close to 4% of GDP every year. In this interview with Vincent van Dijk, Senior Advisor on Norm engineering and rule-based solutions, we invite consideration of ‘norm engineering’ as one of potential solutions of the growing problem, which we, customs practitioners, are also witnessing in our specific field.

A food consignment arrived in Israel and was found to be damaged due to a lack of refrigeration. The importer uses the foreign forwarder who transported from abroad to Israel. Will the court … uphold the claim or will it decide that the claim should be adjudicated outside Israel? This will be discussed in this review in light of the court's recent decision.

The Pan-European-Mediterranean Zone was implemented in 2005. The idea was to create a cumulation zone between Europe and its neighbours and to encourage intra-regional integration by promoting … trade and cooperation. The PEM Convention allows for the cumulation of origin between different countries within the zone. Cumulation of origin is one of the ways to allow for greater flexibility when it comes to using raw and semi-manufactured materials in the production process. It allows a member of a trade agreement to use originating products from other members.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, which are considered the three main pillars of ESG frameworks. These pillars cover key areas that companies must address and report on. The … purpose of ESG is to identify and consider non-financial risks and opportunities associated with a company's day-to-day operations.

CBAM goods are all goods for which the embedded emissions must be reported. In the EU, they are listed in Annex I to the CBAM Regulation.

Companies are legally required to keep records related to their import and export transactions. That includes commercial, customs and shipping documentation. The company needs to obtain some … of the documents from its freight forwarder, customs broker or other parties involved.