When the customs union was born in 1968, the internet did not exist. But despite the fact that the world is very different from 55 years ago, the system in which products are imported in the Twenty-seven has hardly changed. And this is what the European Commission has proposed to do away with, which proposed this Wednesday a far-reaching reform by which it will require platforms such as Amazon or AliExpress to be in charge of ensuring that taxes and VAT are paid at the time of the buys. In addition, it will require that products of less than 150 euros that enter community territory are no longer exempt from customs duties.
More than 73% of all customs declarations come from electronic commerce, according to the European Commission. For this reason, Brussels wants the platforms to become "fundamental agents" when it comes to guaranteeing that the goods that have been purchased online have complied with all customs obligations. Currently this does not happen, since it is the consumers and carriers who pay and can receive “hidden payments” or unexpected excess paperwork upon the arrival of the package.
With the reform, when a consumer buys a product on an online platform, it will be in charge of managing customs duties and collecting VAT to remit it to the national tax authorities. All the information will be transferred to a new data center that will be operational from 2028 and whose use will be mandatory in 2038. The goal is for this data center to replace the current and complex customs infrastructure that exists in each of the states. members, which will save, as calculated by the Commission, 2,000 million euros a year in operating costs.
The Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni considered that the reform, which must still be approved by Parliament and the countries, is the "most ambitious" since the conception of the customs union, while defending that it was time for the Union to Europe adapts to current shopping trends, in which online commerce plays an ever-increasing role.
However, there is also a risk of fraud. According to Gentiloni, 65% of the products imported into the European Union are undervalued, which causes a loss of 1,500 million revenue. Faced with this situation, Brussels proposes to eliminate the current threshold, by which goods valued at less than 150 euros are exempt from customs duties. "Something very exploited by fraudsters," Gentiloni stressed. With this new measure, it is expected to raise an additional 1,000 million.
Likewise, changes will also be applied in the amount of customs duties on products of lower value, but which are the most purchased outside the EU (around 1,000 million). Of the "thousands" of categories that currently exist, it will only go to four. For example, in the case of toys, a rate of 5% will be applied, and 17% for shoes. Artificial Intelligence will also be used to analyze and predict problems before the goods arrive in the EU, something that ports such as Antwerp have begun to apply.
