Brussels, 09/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - In order to avoid a conflict with the European Commission over reforming the Customs Code, Ministers at the March 15 Internal Market Council meeting looked amenable to making European importers partly liable for repaying customs duties from which their goods had been wrongly exempted.
A few months ago, as the Council was preparing to unanimously approve a compromise draft reform of the Customs Code, the Commission had threatened to withdraw its proposal (cf Europe, December 4, p. 10). It felt the Council modifications meant that the revised Code would no longer provide sufficient measures for dealing with fraudulent declarations of the country of origin of goods imported into the Community.
The conflict between the two institutions hinged on the degree of liability of a European importer selling products in the EU which have benefited from preferential customs duties as a result of false certificates of origin. The Council wanted to exempt importers from liability as a matter of course when false certificates are knowingly issued by customs authorities in third countries.
In response to the Commission's misgivings, the Council agreed to soften its position. Permanent Representatives recently unanimously approved a compromise incorporating a regulation on an importer's "good faith". Importers would have to prove they acted in good faith in cases of fraudulent declarations to avoid paying EU customs duties. Importers would not be able to invoke this good faith clause where the European Commission had published doubts on whether a country benefiting from preferential customs duties was properly applying the regime.
The new measure seems to satisfy the European Commission and political agreement is expected to be reached at the March 16 meeting of the Internal Market Council.