Dear Readers,

In recent days and months, international trade and customs law become more and more important. We can clearly distinguish such developments in case of Covid19 pandemic, closing of state borders for the movement of persons and restricting trade in goods (by applying stricter control measures on the external borders, adopting restrictions to export certain vital goods or vice versa – liberalizing imports of goods, directly important for the protection of health). These unpredicted transformations and, additionally, the growing popularity of protectionist national economic policies and trends worldwide (such as initiation of trade wars, increase in popularity of application of trade defense customs duties), major reforms of customs laws (such as was and is currently implemented in the European Union (EU) after the adoption of Union Customs Code) leads to the need for more detailed insights into these processes and their practical implications.

Therefore, following these trends and developments we kindly invite you to get acknowledged with the new edition of the journal “Customs Compliance & Risk Management”. The journal will be and is dedicated not only to theoretical problems but to the practical issues, reflecting the pulse of international trade business in Europe and all over the World. It will focus on the issues of customs formalities and their regulation in order to provide advice and notifications for businesses engaged in international trade operations and to minimize any potential import tax risks which may arise due to the lack of knowledge about new rules, requirements, and practices.

In this particular new edition, you‘ll find the articles directly related to consequences of Covid19 pandemics and efforts of customs authorities to tackle it (analysis of applicable measures, see comprehensive article “Coronavirus: Customs Response” by Leonardo Macedo which covers international practices of customs authorities in case of pandemics). Secondly, as a major part of work of every customs practitioner and also the basis of customs law is tariff classification of goods, we have dedicated a large part of the articles to these major and always important topics, starting from interpretation of Harmonized System for the classification of goods (by R. R. da Silva), classification of alcoholic beverages in the EU (by dr. D. Savage), electronic consultation systems which simplifies classification (by I. Sakalienė) and my own article which presents the practice of tariff classification of goods in the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia).

Ongoing issues of customs formalities and procedures in the EU Member States are discussed in the article “Fiscal representation in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands” (by J. van Beek). To ensure a broader perspective on the international dimension of customs law and customs practice, this edition of the Journal also includes articles about internationally applicable trade tariff types (by L. Macedo), obligations related to the labeling of products imported to the Russian Federation (by F. Kozlov), export and import procedures in India (by P. Solanki), application of tariff preferences towards certain third countries in the EU (by A. Košel). Besides, the Journal also presents insights about the application of other import taxes, administered by customs authorities, such as import VAT and the reform for the application of import VAT on low-value consignments in the EU since 2021 (by M. Stravinskė). The Journal also provides specific information on the Lithuanian context of the regulation of customs formalities and invites to get familiarized with the report of Lithuanian customs activities in 2019 and changes of the EU law (during January – March of 2020, prepared by I. Valavičienė and E. Naujokė) which are important not only to Lithuanian business but also to other traders operating in the EU.

Having this in mind, I recommend and invite you to familiarize yourself with these new publications and the insights of customs practitioners published in the new edition of the journal “Customs Compliance & Risk Management”!

Sincerely,
Dr. Gediminas Valantiejus
Member of the Editorial Board

EU law news: March 2020