On 19 April 2023, the European Parliament adopted the final text of a new EU Regulation aimed at tackling deforestation and forest degradation (the “Deforestation Regulation”) requiring companies to undertake due diligence into the source of a wide range of commodities, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm-oil, rubber, soya and wood, to ensure that they have not been obtained as a result of deforestation. Once in force, obligated will have 18 months to implement the new…
Baker McKenzie’s Global Compliance Blog published “Belgium: New tax reporting obligations for payment service providers as of 2024,” which can be viewed here.
In November we reported that the European Commission announced plans to include binding valuation information (“BVI”) decisions in its customs legislation. The Commission has published the draft Delegated Regulation and obtained feedback from a public consultation, which ended on 18 January 2023. The Commission describes this move as the completion of an already well-established legal and operational framework for issuing decisions relating to binding tariff classification information (“BTI”) and binding origin information (“BOI”). The aim…
Baker McKenzie’s International Commercial & Trade Blog published “European Union: Six months on from the entry into force of Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 rules for placing fertilisers products on the EU market,” which can be viewed here.
The UK’s trade remedies body, the Trade Remedies Authority (“TRA”) announced on 22 February that it has begun a reconsideration of its recommendation in Case AD0012, concerning imports of certain aluminium extrusions originating in China (here). Notably, this was the TRA’s first anti-dumping investigation in response to an application from UK industry. A reconsideration application is a request for the TRA to review its findings in a concluded investigation. The applicant, a UK producer in Case AD0012, alleges that the TRA erred in its…
The United Kingdom has agreed with the European Union a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland which seeks to significantly reduce the number of checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework would create two ‘lanes’ for goods which are arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain: Some product bans currently in place for goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain (for example on chilled sausages) will also be removed,…
In line with what we previously reported[1] regarding the expanded obligation to maintain electronic registers, a series of new rules were rolled out on 13 February 2023 which will make the taxation of alcohol, tobacco and energy products fully paperless across the EU. They are part of a wider expansion of the common excise duty provisions in the EU. The aim of this new standardised electronic system is to alleviate some of the rigorous procedures…
On 6 February 2023, the European Council published Council Regulation (EU) 2023/246 on the exchange of information in electronic registers in the Official Journal of the European Union. The (recast) regulation extends the obligation to maintain electronic registers relating to economic operators who move excise goods between Member States for commercial purposes from 13 February 2023. Prior to the amendment, Member States were obligated to maintain electronic registers of authorisations of economic operators and warehouses…
Requests for preliminary rulings made by courts of EU Member States have always been dealt with by the European Court of Justice (CJEU). National courts refer requests for preliminary rulings in cases where they require clarity on the interpretation of EU law. As such they play an important role in shaping EU customs law. Over the years the CJEU handled numerous customs cases on tariff classification, customs valuation, origin and procedural customs law. Due to…
Baker McKenzie’s Global Compliance News Blog published “New EU foreign subsidies regime will impact many large businesses operating in Europe – preparing to minimise that impact is now urgent,” which can be viewed here.