On July 1, 1968, the member countries of the European Union defined all the details that, since then, constitute the Customs Union, defined in Article 28 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The European Customs Union represents a single transit area for citizens and a commercial union in which the free movement, without encumbrances, of all types of raw materials and products, from both the countries of the union and outside of this country is allowed (that is, imported goods that already passed through border control in their day and paid the taxes corresponding to their entry into the EU), and that, of course, are within the law.
The 28 member countries of the European Union, Monaco and the British territories of Acrotiri and Dhekelia (former United Kingdom territories located in Cyprus), Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey are subscribed to this union. Among all these territories, the same system is used for handling imports, exports and transit of goods and merchandise and the same rates apply to products from other countries.
The Customs Union of the European Union has six primary objectives:
- The protection of citizens and the environment against dangerous goods or products harmful to health, and the protection of endangered animal and plant species.
- The fight against piracy and counterfeiting.
- The fight against fraud, organised crime, drug trafficking and terrorism.
- The facilitation of legitimate trade and the improvement of the competitiveness of the EU economy.
- The guarantee of the correct payment of tariffs and taxes that apply to imports into the EU.
- The implementation of common trade policy measures in the EU.
In 2017, more than 300 million customs declarations were made in Europe, both import and export. That is why, every day, more than one hundred thousand professionals work in customs at ports, airports and border crossings, among other spaces, in the European Union, supported by dogs specialised in the detection of illegal and dangerous goods, such as drugs , explosives and food.
In addition to this free movement between EU member territories, it has also signed customs agreements with Andorra (since 1990), San Marino (since 1991) and Turkey (since 1995), consisting of the free movement of goods and the establishment of a common regulation on legislation, both customs and other types (taxation, etc.) and assistance in customs matters.
Over the years Hyland have built up a distribution network of trusted, loyal partners throughout the EU that help us provide your businesses with scalable, efficient and trusted freight forwarding services.
