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This article talks about the meaning of “ex” before commodity codes listed under Annex I of the EU Deforestation Regulation. With confusion around the interpretation of these codes, it’s one … of the points that would need to be clarified before the Regulation can be implemented.

In this article, the author outlines the content of his presentation and the subsequent questions and answers session during the meeting of the Council's Customs Union Working Group (CUG) on … 19 September 2024, in Brussels. The author was invited by the Hungarian Presidency as a customs law expert.

News in weeks 45-46: guidance document on deforestation-free products; international cooperation framework for the implementation of EUDR; reference values for importers and producers of HFC; … FAQs on the interpretation of certain provisions on sustainability reporting; amendments to the list of dual-use items; consolidated FAQs on the implementation of sanctions against Russia and Belarus; Council agrees on VAT in the digital age package; EU takes further action in Colombia frozen fries dispute; Italy joins the Centralised Clearance for Import (CCI) system; EU seizes record 152 million fake items worth 3.4 billion EUR in 2023; and more news!

The use of the ‘legislative purpose’ criterion in the classification of goods (i.e. whether the product should be taxed or not) leads to a lack of uniformity and undermines the principle underlying … the HS Convention. Therefore, it is proposed to minimize the use of the ‘legislative purpose’ criterion and to return to the traditional classification rules of the World Customs Organization Harmonized System Convention. The article below is a short version of the full article, which has been published in the World Customs Journal, 2024, Issue 18(2). Publication of the short version with a reference to the full version was approved by the WCJ.

Do EU rules have a retroactive effect? There is no clear answer to this question. It has been the subject of a number of rulings by the Court of Justice of the EU in relation to specific acts … and situations. This article reviews one of the recent CJEU's judgments on this issue. It concerns the retroactive application of anti-dumping duties when they have already been repealed.

New Commission guidelines for cyber-surveillance exporters were published on 16 October 2024. The new guidelines aim to make EU controls “more effective and consistent across Member States”. … The information provided by the Commission is not new but offers a clarification on how controls should be carried out by traders. They assist EU exporters in navigating export controls for cyber-surveillance items by providing a step-by-step approach to transaction screening.

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.

Non-manipulation certificate is a document required when goods of preferential origin are unloaded, stored and/or subjected to treatments necessary to maintain the goods in a third country while … being shipped from the country of dispatch to the country of destination.

Compliance means that a person or organisation complies with the applicable laws and regulations of their own accord or adheres to them. Learn about the international standard definition of compliance … and what customs authorities do to ensure compliance.

An EORI number means an identification number, unique in the customs territory of the European Union, assigned by a customs authority to an economic operator or to another person in order to … register that person for customs purposes.