In the future, the EU also wants to levy tariffs on goods of low value

In the course of the upcoming customs reform, the limit of 150 euros for goods imported from third countries should be dropped, reported the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Monday edition). The Commission expects this to generate additional income of 750 million euros per year. The customs revenue goes directly to the EU budget. Until now, customers within the EU internal market have only paid import sales tax for goods with a value of less than 150 euros, but no customs duties. According to the report, the Commission will present its plans for the change on Wednesday. It is therefore part of a reform that also envisages a new EU customs authority to be created by 2028.

The authority should build, maintain and maintain a new “data hub” so that information flows better between the member states and customs procedures are facilitated, the “SZ” reported, citing the proposed law. This should gradually replace the 27 different IT systems in the Member States with a centralized system.

The aim is “an EU-wide overview of the entire supply chain in real time,” according to “SZ” in the Commission proposal. “The existing customs union administrative framework lacks a clear structure and does not reflect the evolution of customs since 1968.”

The European Customs Union has existed for 55 years. The national customs authorities uniformly apply the same tariffs to goods imported from third countries outside the EU, while they no longer levy customs duties internally. However, not all authorities are informed at the same time about suspicious consignments of goods and illegal imports and the European customs system is very inconsistent. The Commission wants to remedy this with the reform.