free trade agreement
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2024 a New Year of customs challenges
The 2023 has been an year very rich in customs news which will impat on the custom operations and compliance. We would list the following topics already published in our website: CBAM carbon border adjustments mechanism for which it is required to: 1) take into account HS codes;2) supply chain management; 3) special regimes; 4) made in/non-preferential origin; 5) customs value; The European regulantion on f-gases import; The due diligence on some goods (cattle,cocoa,palm oil, rubber, soya, wood,coffee) with specific focus on “deforestation and forest degradation”; The ecodesign, recycle and second life for batteries manufactured and imported into the EU; The free trade agreement with the New Zealand; The free…
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EAC, Kenya and EU: Economic Partnership Agreement with a specific focus on sustainable development
On 8 December 2023, Eu Commission published the draft of the “Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union, of the one part, and the Republic of Kenya, Member of the East African Community, of the other part” by means of the interinstitutional Files 2023/0337 (NLE) and 2023/0338 (NLE). This agreement will cover the following topics: (a) general provisions; (b) trade in goods; (c) fisheries; (d) agriculture; (e) economic and development cooperation; (f) institutional provisions; (g) dispute avoidance and settlement; (h) general exceptions; (i) general and final provisions; and (j) Annexes, Protocols and Joint Statements. Before going deeper with the short check of the available documents, it is useful to recall…
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PEM an update
One of the more important FTA of the EU is, of course, the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) Convention on preferential rules of origin. This agreement established: a) a common framework of rules of origin; b) cumulation. It involves from a side the EU and from the other one the following PEM Contracting parties: the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtestein, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Israel, Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Türkiye, the Faroe Islands, the Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania. On 7 December 2023, the PEM Joint Committee adopted the new and modernised rules of origin that aims…
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European artificial intelligence act and customs implications
On 9 December 2023 the European Commission published a press release on the “political agreement on Artificial Intelligence Act”. According to this document: “…The new rules will be applied directly in the same way across all Member States, based on a future-proof definition of AI….” By following a risk-based approach for which there are two main categories of risks: Minimal risk: “…The vast majority of AI systems fall into the category of minimal risk. Minimal risk applications such as AI-enabled recommender systems or spam filters will benefit from a free-pass and absence of obligations, as these systems present only minimal or no risk for citizens’ rights or safety. On a…
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EU,UK,TCA electric accumulators and electrified vehicles
The proposal (COM/2023/950 final) for a Council decision “…on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union in the Partnership Council established by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part as regards the transitional product-specific rules for electric accumulators and electrified vehicles…” has been published. In particular, the decision aims to adopt of a decision to amend the transitional product-specific rules for electric accumulators and electrified vehicles in Annex 5 of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) to: extend the…
- accise e imposte di consumo, circular economy, compliance e AEO, energie rinnovabili, free trade agreement
EU-Chile modernized free trade agreement
On 4 December 2023, the European Council adopted: Advanced Framework Agreement (AFA) about: health, the environment, climate change, ocean governance, energy, tax, education and culture, labour, employment and social affairs, science and technology and transport; interim Trade Agreement (iTA) on raw materials and clean fuel such as lithium, copper and hydrogen, which are crucial for the transition to the green economy. Both the agreements with Chile constitute an updated version of the EU-Chile Association Agreement currently in place. Nadia Calviño declared: “…The EU-Chile Trade Agreement will reinforce the EU’s open strategic autonomy and economic security, strengthening the resilience of supply chains and diversifying imports of key inputs for the green…
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Free trade agreement New Zealand-EU approved by European Parliament
On 22 November 2023 the European Parliament approved the free trade agreement between the EU and New Zealand. Now, before entering into force, this agreement should be approved by all the Member states parliaments. As declared: “…“Today is a good day for the EU and global rule-based trade. Our vote is a very clear signal of our commitment to negotiating new EU free trade agreements, of which we have seen too few in this parliamentary term. While we live at different ends of the world, the EU and New Zealand are close, trusted, reliable and like-minded partners. Together, we are driving global rules-based trade forward against the backdrop of a…
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The preferential origin, free trade agreements and customs compliance: an up-to-date overview
The judgment of the IV Chamber of the European Court of Justice C‑653/22 released on 23 November 2023 recalls that the origin is an obligation of the importer/economic operator which is required to managet it by taking a specific and professional care. The customs origin could be non-preferential and preferential one. The mentioned case law gives us the chance to go deeper with an up-to-date overview of the preferential origin. The preferential origin is an important “status” (quality) of the goods which are imported or exported from/to the European Union. For this reason, it is important to share and explain some points of the European Union Guidance on the preferential…
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L’origine preferenziale, l’AEO e accordi di libero scambio
L’origine preferenziale, viene attribuita in virtù di accordi di libero scambio che, nei propri “protocolli d’origine”, dispongono le regole per attribuire lo status di prodotti originari qualora non siano interamente ottenuti nei territori dei paesi accordatari; v’è, infine, l’ipotesi per cui l’origine preferenziale viene può essere accordata dall’Unione europea unilateralmente, al di fuori dei casi di prodotti interamente ottenuti. Come per quella commerciale, l’origine preferenziale può riferirsi tanto a beni interamente ottenuti quanto a quelli ricavati a partire anche da materiali provenienti da diversi paesi non rientranti nell’accordo di libero scambio e, pertanto, da definire come “non originari”. Nella prima ipotesi, ci si riferisce essenzialmente alle seguenti categorie merceologiche: “…a)…
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MERCOSUR and EU: again troubles about environmental safeguards
MERCOSUR was reached in 2019 after two decades of negotiations but has been on hold due to environmental concerns. In 2023 the EU presented Mercosur with an addendum to the agreement that included environmental safeguards to address reservations by many EU member states. Mercosur led by Brazilian Presidency has still to provide with a feedback