EU Takes Up New Rules to Establish Single Customs Window
The EU on Oct. 24 adopted new rules to ease digital collaboration between customs and partner competent authorities to create a single window for customs, the European Council announced. With the new rules, businesses no longer will need to submit documents to several authorities via different portals because the single window will allow customs authorities to automatically verify that the relevant goods comply with EU requirements and that the necessary formalities have been completed, the council said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
"It will make trading with the EU a lot easier," said Czechia's finance minister, Zbynek Stanjura. "All relevant authorities at the EU’s external borders will be able to access the relevant data electronically and collaborate more easily on border checks. We will be able to enforce our high European standards in areas such as health and safety, environment, agriculture or international heritage more easily," he said. "I am confident that the single window will make goods clearance a lot faster. This will affect hundreds of millions of movements of goods each year."
The regulation instructs member states and the European Commission to "establish and make operational a framework of single window services that provide for a seamless flow of data between economic operators and customs authorities, between customs authorities and the Commission, between customs authorities and other administrations or agencies, and between one customs system and another throughout the Union." Member states and the commission are instructed to set up a "single channel" that could be used to communicate with customs authorities.