“Free movement of goods” refers to regulations that ensure that goods originating or produced in the EU and non-EU goods (for which the duty has already been paid) may be moved within the European Union member states without further customs obligations.
Goods that are subject to high tariffs or importation quotas can be stored temporarily without being cleared or taxed; facilities for these purposes are known as Customs Free Warehouses (or Bonded Warehouses).
Such facilities are administered by private entities and are accessible to all interested parties as they are regarded as public sites. With due permission from the customs authorities, goods may be subject to some modification; for goods in transit (re-shipment within the EU) there are restrictive provisions.
To effect an EU customs clearance all the following requirements must be met:
– To the exporter, the customer notifies a VAT identification number that has been assigned to him from another EU country;
– The exporter must have a VAT identification number in the country of entry of goods into the EU, this must be registered in that country for purposes relating to business taxes; alternatively, the exporter may use the VAT identification number of a tax representative in that country;
– The exporter becomes liable for tax on the turnover value of imports into the country of entry to the EU, i.e. he is treated effectively as an importer.
The Customs Tariff is the inventoried list of all commodities, goods, natural products and raw materials divided into product categories and identified with codes known as “Customs Headings”, which provide details of: – Commodity description; – List of import and export restrictions; – List of taxes and application rates.
The Transit is a customs procedure whereby a bank guarantee is issued as a deposit to cover eventual customs duties. When a shipment under customs control is to be moved from one point to another within the European Union, it is accompanied by a T1 document (External Community transit) or T2 (Internal Community Transit).