If last week ESC, ECASBA, ESPO, FEPORT and WSC had presented some proposals for the renewal of the Customs Code as part of the ongoing regulatory reform ( of 25 January 2024), in light of last week's speech of the European Commission at the Commission for the Market and the EU Parliament's consumer protection, the same European Shippers' Council (ESC) and the European Association of the Freight Forwarding Industry, logistics and customs services CLECAT, highlighting the 'incredibly ambitious' reform programme of the Union Customs Code, urged MEPs to should not be under any illusions, 'as the advantages of an EU Central Data Hub - they explained - may not materialize, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have the means to become Trust and Check Traders'.

The European Commission's proposal, in fact, provides that with the introduction of the EU Data Hub, the new digital customs centre which will be made available from 2028 for shipments in the field of e-commerce and from 2032 for all other companies, on the basis of the program to certify Economic Operators Authorized Operators (AEOs) are defined as a specific group of operators Trust and Check (T&C) that have the highest transparency of their supply chain and which, among other things, will be empowered to clear all imports through the authorities of the Member State in which they are established, irrespective of where goods enter the European Union, enabling the proposal provides that it may be extended to all operators if a evaluation carried out in 2035 will give a positive result.

Reiterating their repeated support for the overall objectives of the reform of the Code, ESC and CLECAT found that 'a of the key elements of the reform is based on the assumption that the most companies will opt for the new T&C status. which will allow them to release the goods themselves after the have calculated the duties and taxes themselves, without submitting them physically at customs. The T&Cs - specified the two associations - are an improved version of the current status of Authorised Economic Operator, a scheme that is slowly gaining global recognition. However - they have ESC and CLECAT - as it is subject to a rigorous authorisation process and requires a significant structure, today it is used to a limited extent by EU operators. According to the 2023 report of the Court of Auditors, European accounts, in 2022 in the customs territory of the EU were in use 18,210 AEO authorizations. These are - ESC and CLECAT - a very small percentage of European companies involved in foreign trade'.

Specifying that the Commission intends to add further conditions for granting T&C status, such as access to to the operators' IT system and tracking in real-time shipments, ESC and CLECAT expressed doubts about "the ability or willingness of many companies, especially SMEs, to apply for T&C status having neither the IT infrastructure nor the in-house expertise to reap the benefits of the benefits customs duties linked exclusively to T&C status'.

According to ESC and CLECAT, "the reform proposal did not catch the supply chain complexity and capacity of all its actors involved to meet all the new requirements'.

'The assumption underlying the Commission's proposal - the two associations further observed - is that the commercial operators will benefit from facilitations by making available their business data to the EU Data Hub. This assumption overlooks the fact that the information requested also for the simplest customs procedure contain many more data that is readily accessible in enterprise IT systems. Today, most traders, SMEs and large corporations - highlighted ESC and CLECAT - relies on expert expertise customs agents, who often act as an integral part of the Shipping/logistics service that moves goods. The responsibilities are well defined in the form of most commonly used representation, the so-called direct customs representation. The process is clear and strictly regulated: the importer stores and supplies the product- and transaction-specific information, and The customs broker is responsible for their preparation and submission in accordance with customs regulations. It is a system - ESC and CLECAT underlined - that apparently It doesn't need to be fixed: every owner of the data is responsible for their own part, within the safe framework of their Skills. However, the two associations pointed out that the Customs reform proposal states that the accuracy of the data can be be improved by making the importer fully accountable, or entrusting the full responsibility of the importer to the customs broker, who will then be called upon 'indirect representative' means an importer to all effects. With the proposed reform, direct representation becomes limited and, with some of the new concessions, practically abolished. As a further change, it is expected that indirect customs representatives have unrelated competences customs on product safety, emissions of deforestation, child labour, etc., with the full Responsibility for the accuracy of data based on often confidential and multi-level international business transactions, and on production processes. Understandably, customs brokers They are very reluctant to take on these new obligations, not because are not willing to take responsibility, but because cannot guarantee the accuracy of product-specific data and especially not for hundreds of customers from hundreds of different sectors'.

"This," ESC and CLECAT further noted, "leaves companies without customs representation and with the need to to find resources for its authorisations, guarantees, skills and IT systems. Particularly exposed in this SMEs, which are less likely to have the resources to replace the "umbrella" of concessions and infrastructure provided to them by the logistics service provider or by the customs broker, usually in the form of direct representation'.

For ESC and CLECAT, therefore, "the imposition of new obligations on customs representatives are likely to lead to a decrease in their willingness to accept such responsibility. These factors will slow down trade, as companies will struggle to find the resources and resources skills needed. If the only significant benefits are limited to T&C status and only a minority of operators are able to achieve it, the whole concept of customs clearance based on the system is distorted, as most transactions remains transaction-based, which may even slow down flows of goods at the border for those who are beneficiaries of the new concessions. SMEs - concluded the two associations - are the biggest potential losers of the reform, both on the side of logistics service providers and on the side of Trader. Neither the customs brokers of SMEs nor the importers of SMEs are likely to be able to afford the infrastructure needed to meet the new requirements'.