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The Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) concluded its vote on the Customs Reform on Wednesday 22nd February. Following the vote at the upcoming plenary session of the European Parliament at the beginning of March the IMCO report will represent the European Parliament's stance during the initial reading of the reform proposal.

As a significant positive outcome, it is recommended that the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status continue in parallel with the new Trust and Check regime. CLECAT also welcomes the extension of the temporary storage period to 90 days by the IMCO report and the fact that the compromise amendments successfully negotiated the removal of the previously proposed civil access to the new European Data Hub.

On the topic of customs representation, there is no significant change in the IMCO position compared to the Commission´s proposal. The newly added non-fiscal compliance elements are upheld, and the IMCO Committee voted in favour of mandatory trainings as part of the new Trust and Check trader criteria.  This could negatively impact the wider accessibility of the new status for Economic Operators, especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) (as indicated in a recent CLECAT/ESC press release[NvdJ1] ).

CLECAT remains committed to providing expert support to all forthcoming discussions and the continuing work of creating a new legislation that works and maintains that for the successful implementation of the ‘biggest EU Customs Reform since 1968,’ more thorough expert analyses and further revision will be needed in the next stages of the legislative process.

While the IMCO Committee has proposed several amendments to support the smooth transition of SMEs, an in-depth analysis and a broader understanding of the Reform’s actual practical effects on SME-sized companies are still forthcoming. The consequences of the diminished role of customs intermediaries and the reality-check on mandating new importer/exporter level obligations for them were seemingly also overlooked during the unusually fast-paced Committee discussions.

CLECAT fully supports improvements in harmonisation, security and data accuracy, but also argues that well established systems foundational to the current success of the European Customs Union should remain unchanged. Concerns regarding undervaluation and data quality, mainly affecting e-commerce and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) transactions, need to be addressed without bias against legitimate Business-to-Business (B2B) trade within the future supply chain system.