Brussels, 01/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - László Kovács, the European Commissioner with responsibility for the customs union and taxation issues, and his Chinese counterpart Mu Xinsheng, have agreed on the need to develop an action plan on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), during a visit to China of a delegation of the European Commission. “The action plan will include clear commitments on both sides to reinforce cooperation on the protection of IPR, but the details are still under discussion”, said Mr Kovács, speaking after the third joint EU/China customs cooperation committee, as reported by the Chinese press agency Xinhua. The partners also discussed the trade security dossier and the introduction of customs facilitation measures for accredited economic operators. They voiced their concerns regarding American legislation which will require all scanners entering the United States by maritime transport to be checked by scanner on entry (see EUROPE 9380).
In Hong-Kong, Mr Kovács held exploratory discussions on the possibility of Hong Kong applying equivalent measures to European rules on the taxation of savings revenue (directive 2003/48/EC). Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore are the three Asian financial centres with which the Commission was mandated by the Council in 2006 to hold exploratory discussions in this field, in line with a request made by third countries such as Switzerland as a condition for their participation in the European system of taxation on savings revenue (see EUROPE 9294). The objective of the European delegation was to explain the functioning of the European directive to the Hong Kong authorities, which have, as yet, taken no commitments regarding Hong Kong's possible participation in the system in place.
Later this year, the Commission is to present a report on the three first years of application of directive 2003/48/EC, which will, amongst other things, examine problems with the legislation and propose solutions to remedy these. Last November, Mr Kovács identified areas for reflection, with a view to improving the rules in force (EUROPE 9545). The requirements for identification coming under the “tax on savings” and “combating money-laundering” directives could be clarified, as could provisions on investment funds, in order to favour fair treatment. The Commission estimates that €250 million have been transferred from Europe to Asian financial centres, due to the application of European rules on the taxation of savings revenue. (M.B.)