PURPOSE : to make technical amendments to the
Union Customs Code (UCC) to ensure that the Code meets its
objectives of improving the competitiveness of European businesses,
but also better protecting the financial and economic interests of
the Union and the Member States and the safety and security of EU
consumers.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament
and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European
Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative
procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: following the entry into force of the new
substantial provisions of the Regulation
(EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council
laying down Union Customs Code (UCC) in May 2016, the process of
regular consultation with Member States and business has resulted
in the identification of errors and technical anomalies that need
to be corrected in order to ensure legal certainty and
consistency.
The Commission has therefore prepared this proposal to
amend the UCC with a view to correcting these technical errors and
omissions, including the alignment of the UCC with an international
agreement that was not in force at the time of adoption of the UCC,
namely, the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
(CETA).
The proposal also aims at addressing a request from
Italy to include the municipality of Campione d'Italia and the
Italian waters of Lake Lugano in the EU customs
territory.
CONTENT: the proposal provides for the following
amendments to the provisions of the UCC:
- amend the definition of the customs territory of the
Union to include the Italian municipality of Campione d'Italia
and the Italian waters of Lake Lugano within its scope. The
inclusion of these territories in the customs territory of the
Union should apply from 1 January 2019;
- specify that the holder of a binding tariff
information (BTI) decision may use that decision for up to six
months after the decision has been revoked if the revocation
results from the fact that the decision was not in conformity with
customs legislation or that the conditions laid down for issuing
the decision were not or no longer fulfilled;
- add temporary storage to the list of customs
formalities covered by the provision that extinguishes a debt due
to non-compliance in cases where there was no significant negative
effect, no attempt at deception and the situation was subsequently
regularised;
- clarify that, where customs authorities must
invalidate an entry summary declaration due to the fact that the
goods covered by the declaration have not been brought into the
customs territory of the Union, the entry summary declaration
should be invalidated without delay 200 days after the
declaration was lodged rather than within 200 days as that is
the period within which the goods must be brought into the customs
territory of the Union;
- clarify that economic operators provide them with
pre-arrival data concerning non-Union goods in the form of an
entry summary declaration. Where an entry summary
declaration has not been lodged before the arrival of the goods and
the obligation to lodge it has not been waived, economic operators
should submit the data normally included in entry summary
declarations in their customs declarations or temporary storage
declarations;
- clarify that, in cases where customs authorities have
to invalidate a temporary storage declaration due to
non-presentation of the relevant goods, the invalidation must
happen once 30 days have elapsed since the declaration was
lodged rather than "within" the period of 30 days;
- clarify that, in cases where customs authorities have
to invalidate an exit summary declaration or reexport notification
due to the non-export of the relevant goods, the invalidation must
happen once 150 days have elapsed since the declaration or
notification was lodged rather than "within" the period of 150
days;
- add a new provision in order
to provide total relief from import duty for goods that
have been repaired or altered under the outward processing
procedure in a country with which the Union has concluded a
preferential agreement (like CETA with Canada) providing for such
relief.