- “There's actually a lot of time, uh, invested in, in this coordination. But then the results would also hopefully, uh, have an impact in terms of application of the Digital Services Act. Um, and, uh, we hope that, um, in close coordination between the different services on the commission side grow with their responsibility on on market surveillance. Connect with their responsibility for the DSA and us now coming with more figures. Uh, we can we can strengthen the case. First of all, we are having now these reinforced controls. But then hopefully we also have some consequences under the, uh, different sectoral sectoral legislations, which I mentioned. There was a question by Mr. Schwab on, on, on the very detailed findings, which are only relevant in concrete cases. Um, and that is absolutely true. But, um, uh, we expect that there will be a scaling up, uh, scaling up by making the data hub functional, but then also, uh, scaling up through the warehousing model as soon as you have, uh, more and more of the consignments going through the warehouse. You facilitate to a great extent the control at warehouse level controls in bulk, and we would then basically move away from the from the problem, which has been rightly spotted by, by Mr. Schwab. Thank you. Chair.”
EU rules on digital competition · Liability for online marketplaces · EU Single Market harmonisation
- “The details are under discussion. Uh, the moment when all this will, um, fall into place, the amounts which we will put in place, etc.. But, um, I think you need to look at the, at at this from a from an overall perspective, we're absolutely clear that, uh, the main issue is with China. We take it up, by the way, in our bilateral contacts with the Chinese, uh, we are putting in place, uh, a regular exchange on, on e-commerce, but we do not have the illusion that this will be sufficient. And, uh, therefore we have, uh, all the various elements which I've just, uh, which I've just mentioned. Um, if we look at the figures, we see that, uh, China is leading, uh, the US and the UK are behind, but not so much behind. If we look at the overall figures, especially in terms of small consignments, we see that really China is the issue. And uh, the the bulk of these small consignments actually comes from very few platforms from China. And, uh, this is definitely something which we are closely looking at in the in the context of the, the priority control areas, uh, uh, on which I cannot say much here because it's an ongoing activity, but it is a closely coordinated with the market surveillance authorities.”
Trade relations with China · Liability for online marketplaces · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “The report, which I'm presenting today is focusing entirely on the second dimension. It's focusing only on the customs, uh, aspects. Uh, indeed, customs authorities, uh, have a strategic position. Um, are responsible, as you know, uh, for upholding the EU rules in a wide array of policy areas. The so-called prohibitions and restrictions. And we have quite a number of them, uh, as you know, very much, uh, chair, from the discussion we are having in the context of the of the customs reform. I give you some examples to make it a bit to illustrate a bit, the customs Cosmetics Products Regulation, the Toy Safety Directive, Medical Devices Regulation, Machinery Directive, etc., etc.. Um, we have uh around one 140 EU legislations, um, And the product compliance controls. Look into the, uh, the, the uh, uh, the, uh, the checks which are taking place at the border with regard to, uh, these different rules and the follow up work, which is then also undertaken by customs in close cooperation with the market surveillance authorities. Um, product compliance controls cover all types of releases for free circulation. Um, they cover both the traditional transitional bulk consignments, uh, but also the small, uh, and low value consignments, especially e-commerce chair. You were referring to the uh, own initiative report by Mr. Di Maio, uh, of the European Parliament, as customs authorities are not specialists on each of these legislation, product compliance controls require, as I said, a strong cooperation Between MSAs and customs.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “And what we detect, um, in the area of e-commerce is, is relatively low. It is a very, very marginal yellow figure. So, uh, what does this mean? Uh, it means that, um, we have to improve overall. Um, we also see between the different member states huge discrepancies, uh, control rates, which are relatively high in some member states and quite solid and also quite low in other member states. We are, uh, in contact with the not so well performing member states. We have asked them to come up with action plans and to design a more proactive control policy. We obviously also look at things, um, more generally, especially in the context of our regulations. As you know, we have the customs reform, um, discussion, which is ongoing. Uh, we had the communication in the context of the communication. We have announced coordinated controls, especially the priority control areas, uh, which are ongoing. We have, uh, had a first priority control area, and we are continuing with this activity, and we obviously expect now a quick conclusion of the customs reform discussion, because this is essential to be able to act as one by the creation of the two key enablers. First, obviously, the new authority, but then also, um, the data hub, which will make better data available to customers and thereby allow a more effective risk management at the level of the customs authorities. Thank you very much.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · VAT harmonisation · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “Um, um, you remember you you mentioned the question of the of the deemed importer. I think we are pretty optimistic that we will have responsibility, especially for the platforms. And the notion of deemed importer will figure in our, in our text. Um, I think we have found, um, a good, a good solution for this between, um, between the institutions. Um, it needs to come together with, uh, the different other elements which we're also discussing. Um, the abolition of the de minimis threshold, which is important, which is urgently requested by the member states, um, by the business community in order to provide a level playing field. Uh, we are discussing, um, a warehousing model, um, where, uh, we would incentivize, um, the creation of, of warehouses, uh, through the, uh, the installation of a handling fee. There would be a handling fee. Um, uh, and we would more specifically, uh, uh, uh, have a distinction between, um, uh, products coming in through warehouses and going to the, to the end consumer directly without going through a, through a warehouse. And, uh, the trick in order to incentivize is indeed, um, a distinction between different levels of of of handling fee.”
Liability for online marketplaces · VAT harmonisation · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “Thank you chair. Indeed. Um, this is, as I said, an improved report with regard to data, but we don't have the full data yet. So we will we still want to improve further. And with regard to, um, the the statistical element you've just mentioned, we don't have it. Uh, we don't have it today, but we will request it and we will, um, obviously on the basis of, uh, especially of the data hub, uh, availability, get get a better overview of the situation and, uh, and, and be in a better position to identify, um, what what is happening and in which way, uh, the cooperation between, uh, customs and market surveillance authorities can be further improved. We expect, uh, already an important impact, um, from from the from the data hub in this regard. Um, concerning. Well, Mr. Schwab is not here, but I can wait a bit. Maybe he comes back before I reply. Um, uh, maybe, um, first the the other questions which came from um manufactured we are we are with this report only focusing on the manufactured goods. We're not looking at agriculture. Yeah. Um, so you won't find anything about agricultural products in this report? Um, you've mentioned, um, the question of, of of, uh, of sectoral policies. Well, the sectoral policies, we, um, we identify the classification, but then, uh, obviously, um, the customs implement on the basis of, uh, of this classification, which is, which is available.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “Okay, well, we have here, first of all, um, the blue box, uh, with the overall customs intervention, we then have the import suspensions in an orange box. And we have ultimately also the refusals, the red box. And you see that the number of refusals is relatively limited. It is more important than last year. That is good. But, um, if we directly go maybe also then to the next slide and the key findings, you will see that it has to be seen in the wider context of the surge of imports which we are observing, especially with regard to electronic commerce. And here you see that while customs is controlling more, uh, considering the increase of the traffic. It is finding still more, but in percentage points less of the overall traffic. So I think, um, there is a positive trend, but seen in the perspective of the surge, especially of small consignments, um, we see that we find, um, relatively, um, less and uh, we can look at the decline more concretely, um, 20, 82 items controlled per million imports, 51 items suspended per million, imports 13 items per million. Eventually refused for non-compliance or serious risk. So this is not so impressive, huh? Um, we have on the next slide the different categories. I spare you this. This is a bit technical. Looking into the detail here, you see that, um, customs controls very effectively, um, on the basis of the covering of the standard customs declaration, especially traditional imports such as containers and bulk.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “We obviously do not want to share this more widely in order not to reveal, uh, the relevant information, uh, also to the fraudsters who could take advantage of it in order to figure out what are the the most convenient entry points into this customs union. Now I have some slides, and let's maybe go through the through the different slides. Um, um, the overall structure of my, uh, my presentation is looking first at the general principles of market surveillance, product compliance controls and the global statistical data for last year. Um, I will then present the key findings of the report, including, uh, the several types of refusals. And I will at the end highlight about the, uh, the the follow up work which is taking place. Let's let's look at the slides on page three, please, where we, um, see that the report follows the objective of, uh, the market Surveillance Regulation. The full title market surveillance and compliance of products. Um, the colleagues from DG grow who are responsible, uh, for this regulation are here with us, uh, from DG Tuxford today. And, uh, um, the aim of this regulation is to improve the functioning of the internal market and to ensure that only products respecting a high level of protection of public interests, especially health, safety and protection of consumers, protection of the environment and other public interests are made available on the EU market. Obviously, um, the market surveillance regulation covers then also two dimensions. Uh, the checks within the single market. These are checks which are done by the market surveillance authorities, the MSAs and the customs controls at the EU external border.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “Let's go to the next slide, please. And you see here a description of the control process, which is as as follows. Custom starts the work with the targeting of products, which is the second box on the screen. Um, this targeting should primarily be based on risk analysis, with the purpose of identifying suspicious products for products selected for control. This is the third box. Customs intervene in three different forms physical inspection, document verification, or even laboratory testing. And in case of a suspicion of non-compliance or a serious risk, they are suspending the import of the product. This is the fourth box and immediately notify this to the MSAs and um, as customs authorities are tasked with the enforcement of a vast range of non customs legal acts. They may not be experts and then they require obviously the feedback from the experts at the level of the MSAs, where the MSAs conclude that a product shall be prohibited from being placed on the market due to non-compliance or a serious risk of non-compliance. They require the customs authorities not to release it for free circulation. This is the fifth box. And in such a case, the non-compliant or dangerous products are either destroyed, rendered compliant or re-exported. This overview of the control process allows to grasp the three important moments of the product compliance controls, the interventions, the suspensions and the refusals. And what we are now going to look at in the next slide is exactly, um, making the distinction between these three categories.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports
- “Thank you very much, chair. Um, good to be able to present the report on controls on products entering the EU market. The product compliance reports to you. We are going to look a bit into the data which we have collected from Member States customs. Um, it is essentially a report based on the figures of last year, 24, and it is the first time we are actually, um, making this report publicly available. Uh, we did similar reports. Uh, the findings of which we have shared with member states in the last years. We were not totally sure about the figures. We wanted to be, uh, really reassured about the, uh, the solidity of the findings. And that's why we, uh, uh, were not publishing over the last years, but we are now, uh, going public. Um, and, uh, those of you who have, uh, looked at the press at the end of August have listened to their radio stations, uh, may have heard reports about this report. It was actually published at the end of August. And I think we had quite a complete, quite good, uh, media coverage, uh, concerning the findings of, of the report. Uh, the report is not in what I'm going to present today, going into the details per member state. Um, we have, uh, a further, um, classified document for this, uh, which will be, uh, you will be able to, uh, look at in, in a reading room under a specific, um, under a specific, um, uh, procedure, um, which is allowing you as members to have access, uh, to, to the more confidential information.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards · EU policy on custom fee on non-EU imports