Associations representing shipping agents, customs officers and freight forwarders in La Spezia denounce that the new Customs Code Italian, with the publication in the edition of 3 October of the "Official Gazette" of the legislative decree of 26 September 2024 "National provisions complementary to the Union Customs Code and revision of the system of penalties in excise duties and other indirect taxes on production and consumption", favors the coffers of other EU countries.

Highlighting that the rule introduces "criminal and non-criminal sanctions confiscation of goods, almost certain risk of being also indicted for formal errors that in fact would be equated with the crime of smuggling" associations of the port community of La Spezia underline that this will have "an immediate perverse effect: the hijacking of the largest quantities of goods and products possible on other European customs and therefore also on other European ports, which in the almost all cases continue, even if with a view to aligning all countries with the to apply less penalizing and less radicalized".

"The new Customs Code, which basically deals with only of sanctions since all other customs issues are now attributable to EU legislation - explain the associations of La Spezia operators - "penalizes" in the literal sense of the term, the entire port, logistics and transport, transforming restraints and penalties of a administrative in "smuggling crimes". The consequences will be devastating with a boomerang effect for the state coffers, given that the inevitable flight of loads and of goods to be cleared through customs in other Community Customs, with a less radical approach, will result in the loss of substantial surcharges on the customs duties themselves that will be "given away" to the treasury of other EU countries".

For the La Spezia operators, it will therefore be determined that they are true and their own forms of market distortion with direct penalization of Italian companies, especially in ports and logistics areas such as that of La Spezia which - the associations point out - in a linear and correct relationship with a Customs that is now de facto excluded from litigation and the evaluation of sanctions, had built a less bureaucratic and more functioning system.

"All this - the associations also underline - under the banner of an almost ideological preliminary guilt, according to which the simple error in good faith is transformed into a potential criminal offense (smuggling) with very serious consequences (confiscation of goods), without prejudice to the judges' assessments. Evaluations that, considering that only eight courts in Italy have been set up with limited staff with specific competence relating to customs procedures, it will be difficult to establish them in time and at cost compatible with the needs of logistics chains, ports and import and export flows of the country".