Understanding the EU customs union

European Parliament - EPRS Policy podcasts

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Non-profit, Government & Organizations

4.8 • 13 Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2017

⏱️ 5 minutes

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Summary

The EU customs union has become the world's largest trading bloc. While customs rules are the same across the EU, national customs authorities do not always apply them in a consistent manner. Therefore, the European Commission adopted its long-term plan to strengthen the governance and management of the EU customs union (December 2016). The Commission proposes structural and administrative changes, inter alia, on customs policy monitoring, formulation, and implementation. In addition, the Commission proposes to tackle administrative issues (e.g. application of EU law, competency building for custom officials, aligning new EU-wide IT systems on customs procedures), and border management coordination. Besides governance and administrative issues, the Briefing is also analysing the evolution of the customs union and Intra-EU trade, the new Union Customs Code (UCC) and the arrangements with participating third countries.

Source: © European Union - EP

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on the EU Customs Union.
0:09.0	The EU Customs Union is a unique example of an area where a number of countries apply a common set of rules for handling the import, export and transit of goods.
0:19.0	The rules governing the system were updated
0:21.4	by the Commission in May 2016, resulting in the new Union Customs Code. Let's take a look at it.
0:30.2	The Customs Union is an essential part of the EU's internal market and has been in place since
0:35.2	1968. It's managed by 28 national custom services acting as one.
0:40.5	This means that member states do not charge customs duties between each other,
0:44.6	but a common external tariff is imposed on goods from third countries entering the EU.
0:49.9	So a car produced in Japan or a mobile phone made in China or the US
0:53.6	can circulate freely
0:54.8	inside the EU once they've been cleared by customs in one member state.
0:58.5	That's it. Nothing more to pay and no more checks.
1:01.5	The European Commission proposes the rules and monitors their implementation, but it's the
1:05.6	responsibility of the member states to implement them via their national customs administrations.
1:10.1	The EU has become the world's largest trading bloc. In 2015, the value of the EU's trade
1:15.7	with other countries amounted to €3.5 trillion. This is 15% of global trading goods,
1:22.8	and more than the total yearly retail sales in the EU. So who are we trading with? Well, the main trade
1:28.7	partners are the US, China, Switzerland, Russia and Turkey. In 2016, over 310 million customs
1:36.3	declarations were handled by more than 2,000 EU customs offices working 24 hours a day, 365 days
1:42.9	a year. So it never stops.
1:44.7	No, it doesn't.
1:45.5	And it's getting increasingly complicated.
	...

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