The World Customs Organization (Organisation Mondiale des Dounaes) is an intergovernmental organization of more than 170 Member States that was founded as European Customs Cooperation Council in 1952. This paper gives a brief overview of its history and legal milestones

Many legal advisers, scientists and practitioners know since many years, that the Common External Tariff (CET) of the European Community (EC) is being applied non-uniform from the different national customs services and that the economic operators are using this systematic fault of the EC for...

The World Customs Organization (WCO, Organization Mondiale des Dounaes, OMD) is an intergovernmental organization of more than 170 Member States. It is of tremendous importance for the simplification of international trade and customs procedures; however, its modes of action and decision-making...

The national customs services of the twenty-seven EU Member States are playing a crucial role for the preparation of the admission of further states to the European Union (EU) by helping to build structures and teach the EU Customs Law in order to enable candidate states to apply the acquis...

The World Customs Organization (WCO, Organization Mondiale des Dounaes, OMD) is an intergovernmental organization of 176 Member States that was founded as European Customs Cooperation Council in 1952. The first Kyoto Convention on simplification of customs procedures is one of its most important...

The customs sanctions of the EU-27 are not harmonized - the sanctioning of customs offences is still the task of the twenty-seven Member States and their national legislation. The US has attacked the purely national customs sanctions of the EU as break of the WTO rules in the WTO Dispute...

The Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) status is being introduced around the globe in more and more countries in order to combat terrorism by better security measures in World Trade. This paper gives an overview about existing AEO programmes and new AEO programmes which are about to start in...

The fundamental rules for the classification of goods into a customs tariff which is complying to the Harmonized System for the description and coding of goods (HS) are according to general rule 1 solely the six general rules of classification, the terms of headings and the notes (and according...

The Johannesburg Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters as of 2003 is a crucial breakthrough and important legal tool for the implementation of risk analysis systems by customs authorities governed by The World Customs Organization (WCO) around the globe. However it...

The European Community Customs Code (Council Regulation [EEC] No. 2913/92) was changed in a so-called ‘small Customs Code revision’ by Regulation (EC) No. 648/2005 of the European Parliament and the Council. All changes of this ‘security initiative’ will enter into force after the...