A news release from the Court of Justice of the EU on 8 March advised that in 2007, 2009 and 2015, OLAF sent mutual assistance messages to Member States, informing them in particular of the risk of extreme undervaluation of imports of textiles and footwear from China by shell companies.  The EU claims non-cooperation from the UK resulted in over €2 billion in underpayment of customs duties.  The court upholds the EU Commission’s action in part, ruling, in essence, that the UK has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law by failing to apply effective customs control measures or to enter in the accounts the correct amounts of customs duties and accordingly to make available to the Commission the correct amount of traditional own resources in respect of certain imports of textiles and footwear from China, and by failing to provide the Commission with all the information necessary to calculate the amounts of duty and own resources remaining due.

https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2022-03/cp220042en.pdf

UK FACING SIGNIFICANT REPAYMENTS OVER CHINESE IMPORT FRAUD FAILINGS

On 8 March, The Scotsman reported on the decision of the CJEU.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/uk-facing-significant-eu-customs-repayments-3601605

 

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