Customs Compliance & Risk Management

Dear Reader,

What is the most exciting thing about your work for you? For me, it's the fact that in our field we have to constantly stretch our brains. The same sentence of a law that seemed crystal clear one day can be completely unclear the next. In many cases, one cannot be sure that what one reads will be understood in the same way by the law makers, the customs and the courts. For example, UCC Art. 163 “The supporting documents … shall be in the declarant's possession … at the time when the customs declaration is lodged.” What if the supporting documents are not correct at that time? Can they be replaced later with the correct supporting documents? Or will the correct documents not be accepted because they were not "in possession" at the time of clearance? This question will be addressed in the next issues of the CCRM. 

In this issue, we invite you to join the CJEU in finding answers to these questions: What is the definition of furniture, i.e. is a cat scratching post a piece of furniture for the purposes of tariff classification? Can undeclared goods that you discovered after clearance be included in a customs declaration for that shipment (by amending the declaration)? 

We also go into a specific area - customs valuation - and discuss some of the issues there. For example: Does the fact that you are sourcing the goods from a non-market economy (e.g. China) affect the transaction value? Should advertising costs be included in the customs value or not? What about transfer pricing and transaction value for branches that are not separate legal entities? What about the application of retroactive discounts and customs valuation? Of course, there are many more aspects that need to be considered, starting with the fact that it might appear that the Customs Valuation Agreement (“Agreement on Implementation of Article 7”) is an extension of Article 7, however, there are fundamental differences between the two – “actual value” vs. “actual price” being one of the key ones. 

No one will probably dispute the statement that the legal requirements are becoming more and more complex not only due to problems of interpretation but also due to increasing regulation (e.g. 11^th sanctions against Russia and Belarus package) and constant updates (the long list of legal changes in the EU law news). In addition, customs controls are becoming increasingly strict, with specific national rules and guidelines (e.g. in Lithuania), which traders need to be aware of. What's more, the cost of errors in customs declarations is rising, as the article on rising interest rates reveals. The value of compliance is therefore constantly increasing.

Comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge is needed to manage the many risks that can become very costly problems. How can this - risk management - be done in an appropriate and efficient way? We invite you to look at one part of the risk management process, namely internal audits, and put yourself in the shoes of a customs auditor. Because, as mentioned at the beginning, the other perspective can be invaluable in showing you aspects you have not thought of and changing your view of a particular legal norm or, as in the case of internal audit, of the process.

In this issue, you'll find even more topics: free zones, EU's blocking statute against extraterritorial legislation, the importance of customs brokers, etc. We hope you enjoy this reading and learning experience. And if you feel you are missing discussions with like-minded peers, consider joining the CPD programme.

Best regards,
Enrika Naujoke
Member of Editorial Board