The European Commission has announced that on 15 July 2016, the General Administration of China Customs and Hong Kong Customs joined the customs authorities of eight EU Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom) and the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission, DG TAXUD in Phase 3 of the Smart and Secure Trade Lanes (SSTL) pilot project. Seven additional Member States (Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia) as well as the WCO take part as observers.