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The World Customs Journal is the leading international academic journal on customs. How was the idea to start the journal born? What are the challenges and rewards of being an editor of the journal? … Prof. Dr. Hans-Michael Wolffgang kindly agreed to answer these and some more interview questions for the CCRM journal.

Place of origin of import VAT obligation - the final destination of the goods entering the territory of the Union or entering the economic circulation of the Union? This question was further … explored and answered by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

It often happens that customs declarations are incorrectly filled out. Such errors are not necessarily intentional and are often nothing more than carelessness. The question in such cases is … whether it is possible to amend the customs declaration retrospectively and how. Whereas it is accepted it is possible to go back and correct particulars about the goods and their value, the customs administration has generally not allowed the customs declarant to be amended in this way. Among the reasons cited is that the relevant court judgements have also rejected such an amendment. We now have two recent judgements which deal with this question of the retrospective amendment of the customs declarant. How helpful are these judgements in practice?

EU Member States import a significant amount of timber, timber products, and sawn timber from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Therefore, the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union … in a recent case, in which the issue of tariff classification of sawn timber (boards) was examined, may be relevant for many businesses.

Customs valuation of goods imported into Ukraine is one of the most challenging stages of cross-border trade operations. It is relatively easy to determine the customs value of goods; however, … it is almost impossible to convince the customs that the value is accurate and based on the actual price. Hence, there are many court appeals against customs decisions to adjust the customs value. The statistics of court proceedings on such cases are not in favour of customs. Thus, in cases involving Ukrainian customs, 80% (2330 out of 2917 considered over 11 months of 2020) of court decisions were made in favour of plaintiffs (importers, declarants, etc.).

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) examined a case regarding the determination of the customs value of imported goods (technical sulfuric acid). The question was raised whether … customs authorities were entitled to add transport costs to the transaction price if, under the Incoterms DAF terms agreed between the parties, the transport costs were already included in the transaction price but actually exceeded it.

In this article, we review the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in which the goods relevant at this time of year are examined, namely tariff classification of spot-on … solution for cats against fleas and ticks. One of the questions raised was whether permission to place a product on the market as a veterinary medicinal product means that the product should be classified as a medicinal product in the Combined Nomenclature.

Is the banknote validator classified as an office machine or as a measuring or checking instrument? The situation is interesting in that two Binding Tariff Information (hereinafter – BTI) decisions … have been taken on identical goods. According to one of them, this product falls in CN heading 8472 (office machines), while according to the second decision, it is CN heading 9031 (measuring or checking instruments). The Commission classified the product under heading 8472 of the CN by means of an Implementing Regulation. Is such classification correct and valid? The Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter – CJEU) answered the question and provided clarification.

This article introduces a contemporary framework for managing compliance in the customs context that fully integrates the principal elements of customs risk and compliance management. In doing … so, it explores the manifold resources that have been developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and other parties that may be used by administrations to support implementation of the framework. The integrated model draws together the author’s contribution to the literature over several years and provides practitioners with a logical and inclusive methodology for managing compliance at a strategic or operational level.

We, Milda Stravinskė and Monika Bielskienė, met to discuss the broader international context of our day-to-day customs activities. First and foremost, customs law is a 'companion' to international … trade, so the international context and cooperation, common rules, agreements, and approaches, are inevitable. No importer or customs authority operates in isolation. The need to reconcile many spheres and interests leads to an abundance of international agreements and requirements. While preparing the courses for customs brokers, we both saw the need to disclose this context to our future colleagues. The easiest way to do this is by sharing personal experiences. So we talked about it.

Get to know more about WCOTradeTools.org and watch a video with some practical applications on the platform. Benefit also from a promotional code on the purchase of your subscription!

Sources of European Union (EU) law can be classified according to their binding nature. 'Hard law' defines binding legislation, and 'soft law' includes non-obligatory guidelines, recommendations, … opinions. Andrius Košel has published an excellent article on soft law and here we will examine hierarchy and types of hard law, as well as opportunities in its application.

In tax disputes with customs authorities, the question often arises as to whether a person in respect of whom a customs debt is calculated can be regarded as a customs debtor. This issue is particularly … evident in cases where the person concerned did not import the taxable goods himself, but only indirectly or directly contributed to their importation. While in the European Union (EU) such issues are mainly regulated and covered by the Union Customs Code, in practice the implementation of EU customs law differs in various EU Member States, which sometimes even adopt their own national laws in this area. With this in mind, the article discusses the latest practice in Lithuania and the position of its national courts whether such an expansive interpretation of the concept of customs debtor is possible and in which cases.

‘The aircraft tractor’ hauls an undamaged vehicle - the rate of the duty is higher than it hauls a broken-down vehicle! The correct classification of goods is important for the proper and correct … payment of customs duties.

In the European governance the EU legislation distinguishes between the so called “formal law” and the “informal law”. The latter also known as measures of soft law. Formal law compromises regulations, … directives and decisions, whereby recommendations and opinions, as well as other methods of developing policy: e.g. policy guidelines are considered soft law. Practical examples of informal law in the field of customs are the Guidelines for Customs Valuation of Goods, the Customs Valuation Compendium, the Transit Guide. What is the significance of these documents in practice?

Continuing the overview launched a year ago, we present a review of the AEO Compendium 2020 published by the World Customs Organization (WCO). There was in the previous review mentioned that, … following Brexit, the EU and the United Kingdom are likely to sign an agreement on the mutual recognition of AEO programmes (which has already been signed) and that the AEO certificate will become even more desirable. We are after Brexit and before the VAT changes on low-value consignments entry in force - the number of businesses facing customs formalities is growing, as is the number of companies planning to apply for AEO status, so the topic of AEO remains important. What do we learn by reading the AEO Compendium? The compendium presents how the AEO programme has been developed in various countries over the past year, what mutual agreements have been concluded between the countries and the benefits for businesses with AEO status.

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.

In the EU, the “simplification for the determination of amounts being part of the Customs value of the goods” under the transaction value method allows operators to avoid the burden of a two-step … declaration – i.e. a simplified declaration followed by a supplementary declaration – and to finalise Customs valuation declarations without delay in situations where there is no risk for the collection of import duties. Such simplifications are becoming increasingly relevant given the growing number of value elements, such as royalties or commissions, that cannot be quantified at the time of importation.