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Thomas Kukanza (Belgium)

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Customs and FTAs week: key trending customs and compliance developments

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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),…

EU – CJEU given another chance at clarifying the customs treatment of retroactive price adjustments

By and 2 Mins Read

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…

Business consequences and recommendations on the tightened import ban on iron and steel imposed by the EU

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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.…

The WCO Symposium on E-Commerce and Customs Valuation Highlights Key Challenges

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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…

The EU Releases Draft Act to Introduce Binding Valuation Decisions

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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…

Here’s the latest – all excise duty transactions in the EU moved to a fully electronic system on 13 February 2023[1]

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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…

It’s here – Expansion of obligation to maintain electronic registers of authorisations of economic operators and warehouses extends beyond goods moved under duty suspension

By and 2 Mins Read

On 6 February 2023, the European Council published Council Regulation (EU) 2023/246 on the exchange of information in electronic registers in the Official Journal of the European Union. The (recast) regulation extends the obligation to maintain electronic registers relating to economic operators who move excise goods between Member States for commercial purposes from 13 February 2023. Prior to the amendment, Member States were obligated to maintain electronic registers of authorisations of economic operators and warehouses…

European Court of Justice issues judgement setting a precedent on the liability for indirect representatives for import VAT

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Brexit has given rise to a significant increase in customs representation in the EU and more particularly for non-EU established entities. Many UK companies, who no longer qualify as established in the EU, were required to appoint indirect representatives to import goods on their behalf into the EU market. Indirect representation means that the party clearing the goods and submitting the declaration is jointly liable for the content of the declaration and the customs debt…