Search

On 14 September 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation (Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council banning products made with forced labour on the Union market, COM (2022) 453 final of 14 September 2022, https://eurlex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022PC0453) aimed at banning from the EU market products made with forced labour. The proposal – which concerns both imported products and those manufactured in the Union territory to be destined for internal consumption or export and does not focus on specific types of enterprises, thus also affecting very small ones – will now have to be discussed and approved by the European Union Parliament and Council to become an effective legislative act and will apply after twenty-four months from its entry into force. The Regulation Proposal of the European Commission appears to be wide-ranging, and doesn’t identify – at least in this first phase – specific product categories or certain producer countries, unlike what was decided by other countries (For example, the United States of America, in the framework of the bans on the import of goods made with forced labour, on 21 June 2022 adopted the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which tightens the ban on imports into the USA for products made with forced labour in China, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). The most immediate effect of the desirable approval of the Proposal in question will be represented, for Union economic operators, by the need to carry out even more careful due diligence on supply chains and, more generally, on the reliability of their suppliers, in order to mitigate the risks of placing on the market products obtained by resorting to modern slavery. Forced labour, Regulation, Importer, Exporter, Slavery, Products, Manufactured, Ban, Market, Work conditions

Circular no. 40 of 2021 of the Italian Customs Agency is important, as it addresses a significant problem for non-established economic operators who must carry out import operations into a Member State of the European Union, as it emphasizes the need to have a VAT (Value Added Tax) number and a tax representative who fulfils the formalities connected with the payment of the duties; from the customs point of view, this person is regarded as the importer and therefore able to provide all the information required for the procedure of release for free circulation and will be identified through the EORI (acronym for Economic Operator Registration and Identification) code that will be assigned to them by the customs authority at the time of the first relevant transaction. However, operators not established in the Union territory will be required, in order to be able to submit a customs declaration (in the specific case, of release for free circulation), to assign a mandate without representation to an established subject, in order for the latter to carry out this fulfilment, remaining jointly and severally obliged with its principal for the obligation deriving from the presentation of the declaration for the release for free circulation regime. Importer, non-established, mandate, representation, declaration, person, territory, obligations, duties

On 9 September 2021, Regulation (EU) no. 821/2021, of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 20 May 2021, relating to the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items, i.e., all those products, including software and technologies, which can be used for both civil and military purposes, came into effect. The new Regulation has as its main objective (see in particular ‘Whereas (5)’ in the preamble to the Regulation) that of making the common system for the control of exports of dual-use items even more effective, to ensure compliance with the commitments and responsibilities of the Member States and of the Union, particularly in the fields of non-proliferation, regional peace, security and stability and respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. For these purposes, the definitions of ‘dual-use products’ and ‘exporter’ have been expanded and, moreover, a specific Article (8) is dedicated to the issue of technical assistance, which in the previous Regulation (428/2009) was covered exclusively in certain explanatory notes in the Annexes. The changes in this Regulation also concern the authorizations for the export from the European Union of ‘dual-use’ goods: a whole new ‘large project authorization’ (Article 2 (14) of the Regulation) has been created, which consists of an individual export authorization or a global export authorization granted to one specific exporter for a type or category of dual-use items, which may be valid for exports to one or more specific end-users in one or more specified third countries for the purpose of a specified large-scale project. This permission can relate to intra-group technology transfers and cryptography. Also with regard to the procedures for the export of dual-use items, the European Union decided to make use of the ‘Internal Compliance Programmes’, already present in other legislative sectors of the Union. Dual use export controls, authorizations, civil, military, technologies, compliance, exportation, controls, Regulation

On 15 March 2021, a new import control system for the European Union was launched, called Import Control System 2 (or ICS2): it will guarantee a more efficient and effective import control activity and facilitate communications between economic operators and customs administrations of Member States. However, a gradual adaptation of the information systems will be necessary and, further, different procedures, especially for postal operators and express carriers, who are the first to deal with the new system, will be needed. There are three versions of the new system, the first just entered into effect and the others to be implemented by 2024: Release 1 requires postal operators and express carriers to submit a subset of their Entry Summary Declaration data, for goods transported by air only; Release 2 will require all air carriers, for all goods transported by air, to integrate the subset of data with the other information required for the complete Entry Summary Declaration; Release 3 requires specific functions to submit the complete Entry Summary Declaration for all goods carried by means of transport other than air, and therefore will concern maritime, rail and road operators as well as certain importers and recipients of the goods in the European Union. Declaration, Control, Summary, Transport, Goods, Carriers, Air, Postal, Import

The European Union and the United Kingdom have reached a last-minute broad agreement on their future relations. In the field of trade and customs operations, rules have been defined to facilitate trade in goods, with the provision of total exemption from import duties for goods originating in one of the two Parties on the basis of rules which, for their characteristics, appear to favour products entirely manufactured in the territory of the Union or of the United Kingdom, albeit with some tolerances. Both for the purposes of proving the requirement of preferential origin and in carrying out customs operations, the Agreement follows a very clear line, simplifying obligations for the economic operators, with the aim of keeping the volume of commercial traffic unchanged, as developed over forty-seven years of union under the European flag. Agreement, United Kingdom, Preferential, REX, Protection, Exports, Origin, Duties, Authorized Economic Operator

The European Union and Vietnam have signed a far-reaching Free Trade Agreement, which came into force on 1 August 2020 and represents a turning point in the trade relations that the Union has with third countries. In addition to providing for a substantial reduction in duties, partly with immediate effect and partly over the next few years, the agreement affects non-tariff barriers, substantially simplifying the documentation needed for customs operations (in particular in Vietnam) and the certifications required for certain types of products (for example, for pharmaceuticals). The Agreement also limits the adoption of anti-dumping and countervailing duties, specifying that trade remedies should be enforced in full compliance with the relevant requirements of the World Trade Organization and should be based on a fair and transparent system. The products originating from the two contracting parties will benefit from the duty exemptions and reductions upon production of a proof of preferential origin, represented, up to a value of 6,000 euros, by the exporter’s invoice declaration and, above this amount, by an exporter registered on the REX (Registered EXporter) system. The protection of intellectual property, ‘Made in’ and geographical indications is ensured, with specific provisions aimed at preventing fraud. Along with the Free Trade Agreement, the Union and Vietnam have also signed an Investment Protection Agreement, whose main point is the provision for the creation of an independent and qualified court to settle disputes between investing companies and the state. Agreements, Vietnam, Preferential, REX, protection, investments, ASEAN, Exports, Made in, ICS

Customs criminal and administrative penalties in Italy are considered in the light of the general principles set out in the European Union Treaties and the rulings of the European Court of Justice. The Italian regulatory framework, found mainly in Presidential Decree no. 43/1973, including the Consolidated Act on Customs Laws, in addition to appearing at odds with the basic criteria of proportionality of penalties, is notable – following the decriminalization of numerous cases that in the past constituted a criminal matter – for a paradoxical tendency, that is to punish, in some cases, crimes due to simply negligent conduct in a more serious way than malicious behaviour. Probably due to the apparent need to modify a series of obsolete and unclear regulations, in 2019 the Italian legislative body delegated the Government to draft new national customs regulations, including those pertaining to penalties. This paper also examines the tools available to economic operators to minimize any sanctions and knowingly manage customs activities in Italy. Penalties, Customs, Italian, Proportionality, Smuggling, European, Code, Decriminalization, Declaration, Repentance