European Union Customs Code

The long-awaited modernisation of the European Union's Community Customs Code (CCC) of 1992 remains entangled in technical difficulties, and the very complex CCC, with its unsignposted and seemingly unrelated provisions, remains in force. Yet it is the contention of the internationally respected author of this enormously useful book that identifiable and immutable principles of taxation and administration are at the heart of customs procedures and practices and determine the broad framework of customs legislation generally. Accordingly, in extraordinarily precise and meticulously organised detail, the book demonstrates how these principles are enshrined in European customs law and how they work in practice.

Taking into account the full spectrum of laws interwoven with EU customs law -- EU treaty provisions, CJEU case law, international conventions, and national laws from constitutional to criminal -- as well as attendant authoritative commentaries, the book covers every practical topic and issue stemming from the CCC, including the following:

• import and export procedures;
• authorised economic operators;
• customs valuation rules;
• customs classification rules;
• preferential tariff treatment;
• free zone and customs warehousing facilities;
• inward and outward processing and processing under customs control;
• legal structure of the Common Customs Tariff (CCT);
• reliefs from import and export duties;
• incurrence of customs debt and persons liable;
• customs decisions and appeal procedure; and
• jurisprudence of the CJEU governing the CCC.

The presentation shows definitively how the individual legal components interface and fuse with each other, the order in which they do so, and to what legal effect within Member States' legal systems. Without a doubt the reader has here the maximum amount of legal materials and authoritative interpretations available. Extensive cross-referencing notes to each CCC provision lead directly to all related provisions.

Customs law is of paramount importance because it plays a key role in the monitoring and management of international trade. For this reason this book will quickly become a cornerstone resource for anyone concerned with such matters as the globalisation of trade, fraud, the threat from terrorism through the international supply chain, the increased volume of trade and just-in-time delivery, and the growth of electronic commerce -- whether from a business, legal, administrative, or academic perspective