EU: Customs Authorities, Traders Must Work More Closely to Catch Illegal Trade
New guidance released this week by the European Commission calls on EU customs authorities and traders to increase information sharing, which it said will help the bloc better detect illegal trade, drug trafficking and organized crime.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The commission said EU member states’ customs agencies should sign memorandums of understanding with “trusted traders” to share information and data through secure channels, and the agencies should also create a “24/7 alert system” for companies to quickly ask authorities to intervene in a shipment. Those agencies, along with EU businesses, should also set up a way for whistleblowers to submit anonymous tips about possible trade violations or suspicious activities.
The EU said it issued the guidance because it continues to see high levels of illegal trade, including weapons or drug smuggling. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, in a 2023 report, estimated that cross-border customs tax fraud led to around 11.5 billion euros (about $13.5 billion) in damages to the EU budget that year, the guidance said.
Customs enforcement is “rather challenging and requires enormous resources,” the EU said, adding that EU traders, “as primary stakeholders in the movement of goods, possess valuable first-hand information regarding the goods entering and leaving the Customs Union.”
Although several member states have already created programs to increase cooperation between their customs agents and shippers, “these efforts are valuable but insufficient on their own.” The EU said a “more coordinated and comprehensive response at the EU level is necessary to effectively counter them.”
The guidance lists a range of suspicious activities at logistics facilities, ports or as part of a transaction that companies should share with customs authorities, including:
- vehicles turning aimlessly or stopping in unusual places
- people examining trucks, ships, containers or facilities
- people taking photographs of a premises’ infrastructure or people on the premises
- suspicious transactions, such as undervaluation or overvaluation, or cash payments
- customers who know almost nothing about the products they want to import
- unknown people online requesting specific information about the shipment for no apparent reason
- an open container in the wrong or unusual place
- "illogical" logistics decisions
- a member of staff who "suddenly has a very high standard of living for no reason"
- staff members performing duties outside their ordinary job
The EU said companies should notify customs authorities as soon as possible if they notice suspicious activities. They should provide a description of the ”irregular transaction, suspicious activity or unauthorised handling of goods”; the place, date and time it occurred; the parties involved, or descriptions of the parties if they’re not known; the means of transport; and any other relevant details.