Journal

News: International Customs Day 2021; complementary amendments to the HS Nomenclature 2022; EU authorisation mechanism for exports of COVID-19 vaccines; EU-UK trade: Trade and Cooperation Agreement, … regulations on the making out of statements on origin for preferential exports to the UK and on the determination of goods not at risk; application of the REX system; EVFTA: cumulation in Vietnam with fabrics originating in South Korea; and more!

At present, the Russian Federation is the third most important trading partner for the European Union (EU) in terms of international trade in goods and the EU is the most important trading partner … for the Russian Federation. In addition, starting from 2012, the Russian Federation is also a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), so its trade relations with the EU are also governed by the WTO law. Taking into account the fact that customs duties, especially trade defence duties, have a significant practical impact on the volume of international trade between the EU and the Russian Federation and on international trade business, this article discusses the legal issues of their application and possible solutions, based on the recent WTO trade dispute settlement practice.

After months of wrangling the EU and the UK agreed upon the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) on the 24th of December 2020. This trade agreement came as a huge relief to most traders and … businesses who have exposure to the EU/UK supply chain. However, it was not long before this ‘Christmas present’ revealed some very significant conditions that invalidated many of the benefits that most thought the TCA presented. For Customs and trade professionals, this would have been anticipated to some extent, but to regular business owners who had come to rely on the frictionless trade that the EU’s Customs Union and single market facilitated, these conditions came as a very unwelcome shock.

Highlights from the Global Trade and Customs book: different cultural approaches to litigation; import VAT/GST in countries with multi-level VAT/GST systems; customs value and transfer pricing. … The editor of the book Zsolt Szatmári also reveals challenges of a multi-jurisdictional comparative study. Dr. Karlis Ketners shares the reader‘s perspective.

The 3rd Customs Practitioners conference (national conference in Lithuania) was held on 10 December 2020 under the slogan: "There is no good supply chain without good customs!". We provide an … overview of the presentations, which covered international, EU and national legislation, Brexit, preferential origin of goods, import/ export VAT and post-clearance audits.

In view of the continuing spread of the virus that causes the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for and imports of protective equipment in the EU Member States has increased and continues to increase, … increasing the workload of both customs brokers and customs. In order to facilitate and speed up the customs clearance of such goods and to enable more accurate statistics to be collected, new TARIC subheadings were introduced corresponding to the more detailed characteristics of the different face masks. We also provide an overview of standards that specify requirements for such goods.

2020 has presented a new possibility for the trade with Ukraine – cumulation. Cumulation is one of the rules of origin, provided by the Regional Pan-Euro-Med Convention. This rule applies, when … two or more countries have identical rules of origin and trade agreements between each other. This possibility as well has to be acknowledged by the parties and published.

Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) took another decision regarding customs valuation and adjustment of transaction value. In this decision CJEU analysed legal importance of compensation … paid for the right to exclusively distribute goods. CJEU concluded that such compensation was the condition of sale and thus must be reflected in the customs value of goods. The fact that compensation was agreed on in a separate contract (not in a sale-purchase agreement) and that it was limited in time did not change conclusions of the CJEU. It is yet another signal for the importers to carefully examine all the payments between them and the seller and evaluate their possible influence on customs value of imported goods.

What does the EU-UK TCA mean for businesses that sell finished goods of EU origin to EU customers from the UK, and vice versa? This article addresses questions increasingly asked by businesses … with distribution centre models. Specifically, questions relating to how to mitigate customs duty when trading originating goods between the UK and the EU in 2021.

We overviewed the EU requirements for an EU exporter to get the Exporter Reference Number to include in the statement on origin (in Part I) and continue answering these questions: What is the … Exporter Reference Number of the UK exporter? Who may act as an EU/UK exporter? What is a “commercial document” on which the statement on origin may be made out?

Reader's questions: Does Northern Ireland belong (as of 1 January 2021) to two customs territories: the United Kingdom and the European Union? What customs formalities apply to the movement of … goods from the EU to Northern Ireland and vice versa? What about zero tariffs and preferential origin of goods?

Zero duties in the EU-UK trade will apply only to originating products. In most cases the proof of origin will be the statement on origin made out by the exporter in a commercial document. Reader’s … questions: „There is an Exporter Reference Number indicated in the form of the statement on origin. When and how should an EU exporter obtain it? How long does it take? May the exporter issue the statement on origin after exportation of the goods?“.

Juan David Barbosa is the author of the Tariff Classification chapter included in the global compilation on comparative customs law through the lenses of 50 authors from 11 countries in Latin … America and Europe (available in Spanish). The chapter provides insightful practical advice on how to handle the WCO Harmonized System (HS) amendments. Read the interview and/ or watch the video.

On 24 December 2020 European Commission announced that an agreement with the United Kingdom on the terms of future cooperation was reached. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement shall be … provisionally applied as of 1 January 2021. It provides for zero tariffs and zero quotas on all goods that comply with the appropriate rules of origin. What are these rules and the documents proving the originating status of the goods?

News 29 Nov - 26 Dec 2020. Brexit: EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, entry summary declarations and pre-departure declarations, controls at the border control post of products of animal … origin, General Export Authorisation for the export of certain dual-use items, tariff rate quotas and other import quotas, Union preferential trade arrangements; Covid-19: new CN codes and TARIC subheadings for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, protective face masks, diagnostic reagents and diagnostic kits; E-commerce: new guidance document on the import and export of low value consignments by European Commission, E-Commerce Package by WCO; and more news in other areas!

“Guide des procedures douanières” (available in French), written by Cyrille CHATAIL, is a compilation of articles that are constantly updated. It is a kind of encyclopedia of EU customs regulation … and its interpretation given by authorities, courts, practitioners, etc. The great advantage of this book is that it “moves” together with the move of the customs regulation! Read the interview and/ or watch the video.