Croatia and Turkey are interested in being invited to accede to the Convention on a Common transit procedure. The 1987 EU-EFTA Conventions on a common transit procedure and the simplification of formalities in trade in goods currently cover the EU, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.
The Commission has set out its strategy to prepare certain candidate countries for accession to the Conventions. The approach of the Commission is that a country only can be invited to accede if it is able to implement the whole of the acquis on common transit and the simplification of formalities in force. This means e.g. that only those countries possessing a computerized transit system that meets the legal, technical and financial requirements of the New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) will be invited.
In order to be able to have the legal basis for the use of the common transit procedure as quickly as possible after assessment has shown that the candidate country complies with the conditions set, the Council Decision should provide the basis of acceptance for these countries.
This Council decision should be the basis for the invitation for accession to Croatia and Turkey, which should be ready to comply with the conditions for accession as soon as the connection to CCN/CSI is establised.
Croatia and Turkey’s accession to the Conventions will create a larger area for common transit operations which will benefit European trade.
More information ? http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0640:FIN:EN:PDF

The Combined Nomenclature is used for the declaration of goods at importation or exportation. It is consulted to determine which rate of customs duty applies. The Combined Nomenclature forms also the basis for Intrastat declarations as it specifies how goods are treated for statistical purposes. The Combined Nomenclature was establised by Council Regulation (EEC) N°2658/87 and is updated every year. It is published as a Commission Regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union. The latest version, which applies from 1 January 2012, is now available as Commission Regulation (EU) N° 1006/2011 in the EU Official Journal L282 of 28 October 2011.

The changes in the 2012 version are mainly driven by the environment and social issues of global concern (eg: coding goods of specific importance to food security and the early warning data system of the United Nations’Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA). The 2012 nomenclature als features new subheadings for specific chemicals controlled under the Rotterdam Convention and/or under the Montreal Protocol. There are also important new provisions related to biodiesel.
The modifications within e.g. Chapter 3 aim at improving the quality and precision of trade data in this chapter.

Amongst other changes heading 03.06 is expanded to cover smoked crustaceans (ex 1605.40). There is now a separate identification of frozen: Norway lobster; Cold-water shrimps and prawns; other shrimps and prawns. The amendments will enable economic trends in species from the Southern hemisphere to be monitored.

Some new subheadings have been created for the identification of certain vegetables, roots, fruits, nuts and cereals (e.g. separate identification in 12.07 of palm nut and kernels, castor oil seeds, safflower seeds and melon seeds).

Related to the Rotterdam Convention there will now be a separate identification of e.g.:
4,6-Dinitro-o-cresol (DNOC(ISO)) and its salt (29.08);
Binapacryl (ISO) (29.16) (HS 2007: mistakenly specified under 2916.36);
Tetramethyl lead and tretraethyl lead;
and Tributyltin compounds.

Related to biodiesel subheading note 5 to Chapter 27 and note 7 to Chapter 38 are relevant.
New provisions are:
* the new subheading 2710.20: Petroleum oils (…) containing biodiesel
* the new subheading 38.26: biodiesel and mixtures thereof, not containing or containing less than 70% by weight of petroleum oils or oils obtained from bituminous minerals.

The European Commission has published a free guide on the impact of the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and South-Korea for European companies. Topics that are covered in the guide are amongst others the tariff elimination for EU’s exports of industrial and agricultural goods, the tackling of non-tariff barriers, the enhanced access to government procurement and the protection of intellectual property rights.

To read through all the relevant information on this FTA, click here.

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and South Korea is an FTA of the new generation. The origin rules in all other EU’s preferential trade arragements contain besides the use of an EUR.1 document also simplified procedures for regular exporters for the issue of proofs of preferential origin. Under those simplified procedures a preferential origin declaration (= statement of origin inserted by the exporter on the invoice or other commercial document) can be used for consignments with a value from € 6.000 or less and exporters known as ‘approved exporters’ who have an authorization from customs can issue invoice declarations for consignments of any value.

What are the benefits from these simplified procedures for the ‘approved exporter’? He doesn’t have to issue the EUR.1 documents and doesn’t need to get an original stamp from customs. The new reciprocal agreement with South Korea provides only the invoice declarations as proof of preferential origin. Exporters in the EU and South Korea are not allowed to issue EUR.1′s. This means that exporters who want to export preferential goods to South Korea with a value > €6.000 have to apply for a customs authorization in order to become an approved exporter. Exporters who are already approved for preferential origin purposes can apply to have the existing authorization extended for South Korea. But a lot of exporters are not familiar with this authorization and the related administration as they are using the EUR.1 certificates. If the criteria are met, perhaps this is an opportunity for these exporters to consider an application for simplified procedures for all their other FTA destinations as well. Of course this will take some effort but for future shipments to FTA destinations the savings on time and money for the not-issuance of EUR.1 documents is the return on investment.
If you want to read more about this FTA with Korea, click here.

A Joint Statement was signed in Brussels on 23 June 2011.

To read the full statement, click here.

We have selected the following in the Joint Statement:

“The EU and the US have the largest bilateral trade relationship and, together, account for about one-third of world trade. Other nations rely on transit through our airports, seaports and land border crossings. The partnership between the EU and the US protects these vital economic ties, sets an example and promotes consensus in other organisations. We commit ourselves to continuing our robust dialogue. Through advance communication, prior to taking action, we can be better prepared to respond efficiently and in unison to new treats as they evolve. We should:

• Develop bilateral, cross-agency cooperation and coordination to achieve better integration of customs security procedures with other border security controls, in order to enhance security and efficiency at a lower cost for trade and public authorities;
• Implement mutual recognition of EU and US trade partnership programmes (AEO and C-TPAT);”