CustomsAny company which is involved in international trade operations necessarily has to deal with customs issues. Customs tariffs have a direct impact on costs and profits. Therefore, professional assistance is essential in order to minimize costs and to reduce risks relating to the non-compliance with customs legislation, Whenever goods are imported into the European Union, it is necessary to determine the customs duty or treatment applicable to them. Applying duties or other customs treatment requires that several steps in customs administration be undertaken. First, since duties are applicable to specific products, administering customs formalities requires the classification of the products in the Combined Nomenclature. In order to be able to correctly classify specific products, profound knowledge of the EU classification legislation, practice and developments is required. Secondly, given that duties are generally expressed in the form of a percentage of the import’s value, it is necessary to determine with precision the value of imported goods. Finally, as duties vary depending on the origin of the product, it is also necessary to determine the customs origin of the product on the basis of the applicable legislation on preferential and non-preferential origin. Over the years, Van Bael & Bellis has developed an extensive practice advising multinational clients ranging from multinationals, governments and trade associations in various industry sectors. We understand our clients customs’ needs and we advise them on all aspects of EU customs law. Van Bael & Bellis is one of the few European law firms to have a specialized team of customs lawyers. Due to the multinational character of our team and our established network of contacts we are able to deal efficiently with customs matters throughout the EU. We assist our clients in resolving tariff classification, customs valuation, and preferential and non-preferential origin issues, and we have successfully litigated such matters before the European and national courts in the EU. We have a particular experience in providing assistance to multinational manufacturers of technology products involved in classification and origin disputes before the Member States' customs authorities, the EU Commission's Customs Code Committee, its anti-fraud office OLAF, the World Customs Organisation and the World Trade Organisation. We also help clients in obtaining a repayment or remission of import duties and Binding Tariff Informations to provide them with legal certainty regarding the tariff classification. In addition, we frequently advise on the impact of customs valuation rules on the operational structure of our clients and we also help our clients to optimise benefits available under preferential tariff arrangements (such as the Generalised System of Preferences regime), inward and outward processing, duty suspensions, and tariff quotas. Our other areas of expertise include origin marking, export controls and counterfeiting. Click to view our customs brochure. |
