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Jaap Huenges Wajer

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Jaap Huenges Wajer is an associate in the Indirect Tax Team in Baker McKenzie’s Amsterdam office. His practice is focused on advising national and international companies in all value added tax, customs and excise duty related matters. More specific, the emphasis for his advising role regards structuring of international sale and supply chains, optimizing inbound transactions in respect to customs, the litigation in value added tax, customs and excise duty matters. He advises clients across a number of sectors including pharmaceuticals, technology, manufacturing, energy and consumer goods. Furthermore, he advises various real estate projects, ranging from single building blocks, including offices and residential, to larger international real estate portfolios.

On Monday 31 October 2022 the European Commission published the updated Combined Nomenclature (CN) for 2023. The declaration of goods upon import, export, or when subject to intra-Community trade statistics between EU Member States is based on the CN. This sets the customs duty rate that is applicable as well as determines how the products are handled for statistical purposes. Thus, the CN is an essential working instrument for industry and the customs departments of the EU Member States.

EU flag in front of parliament

The European Union made the decision to establish a single window for customs (or its official designation: “EU Single Window Environment for Customs”) in order to facilitate international trade, speed up the customs clearance process, and lower the likelihood of fraud. On 24 October 2022, the Council of the European Union enacted a new regulation that establishes the necessary framework for digital cooperation between customs and associated competent authorities.

On 17 May 2022 the German Federal Fiscal Court – which is the Highest court for tax related matters in Germany – gave its final judgement in the (in)famous Hamamatsu case. This proceeding is part of the referral to the European Court of Justice that resulted in a startling – albeit unclear – decision by the ECJ that retroactive TP-adjustments (whether upwards or downwards) are not to be considered in the determination of the customs value.

The Trade Specialised Committee on Customs Cooperation and Rules of Origin (the “Committee“) is scheduled to meet for the first time on Thursday 7 October. The joint EU/UK Committee was established by the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (“TCA“) with the role of monitoring and reviewing the consistency in implementation of the TCA Rules of Origin across the EU and the UK as well as related enforcement, and to provide a joint forum for discussing related technical issues.

On March 23, 2020, Dutch Customs Authorities updated their last revised communique from November 18, 2019. The communique from November 18, 2019 stated that as of April 1, 2020 only EU-established entities can be mentioned as exporter on the customs declaration for exports from the Netherlands. In line with the…