Brussels, 20/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 20 March, the European Commission adopted a proposal to extend the scope of application of the 1990 customs agreement between the EU and Switzerland in order to bring it in line with the new Community security measures on goods transport. The proposed agreement will waive the obligation for traders to provide customs with advance electronic information for security purposes in the bilateral trade between Switzerland and the EU. Meanwhile, in trade with third countries, Switzerland will implement customs security measures equivalent to those in the EU. This will ensure both smooth trade flows between Switzerland and the EU and a high level of security in the supply chain. The proposal needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers and by the Swiss Federal Council before signature, which is expected by 1 July 2009.
In recent years, an average of 23,000 lorries and 4,400 train wagons per day have crossed the borders between Switzerland and its EU neighbours - Germany, Italy, Austria and France. In 2007, a total of 1,026,900 lorries used the border crossing at Basel/Weil-Autoroute, one of the most important customs offices at the Swiss/German border. Some 1,200-2,000 lorries crossed the border every day in the North-South direction and some 1,900-3,000 lorries in the opposite direction. This involved 402,400 customs declarations at import, 492,500 export declarations and 685,600 transit operations. In addition to the traffic of goods, the traffic of passengers represented that year a total volume of 11 million cars, i.e. 31,000 vehicles per day or one vehicle every 3 seconds. For further information on the proposed agreement, go to: http: //ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/common/legislation/proposals/customs/index_en.htm (L.C./transl.rt)