Services


Services offered

  • Support to clients in case of difficulties with the administration in customs, import/export matters
    • Submissions under the right to be heard
    • Lodging and justifying appeals
    • Negotiating settlements
    • Preparing voluntary disclosures
  • Representation before German and EU Courts in customs, VAT or excise matters
  • Advice to clients on:
    • the Union Customs Code and related legislation (e.g. customs tariff, duty relief)
    • customs and import/export processes and procedures
    • applications for autonomous tariff suspensions and tariff quotas
    • applications for authorizations/certificates (e.g. inward or outward processing, customs warehousing, AEO, centralized clearance)
    • tariff classification, including requests for binding tariff information
    • customs value
    • preferential and non-preferential origin of goods
    • customs, VAT, and excise compliance
    • anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard proceedings
    • applications under the trade barriers Regulation
    • protection against the import of goods infringing intellectual property rights
    • prohibitions and restrictions on import and export
    • legal developments, including Brexit
    • the improvement of standard operating procedures
  • Training and coaching on the above-mentioned issues
  • Studies and audits on customs, import and export processes and procedures
  • Legal lobbying, requests and complaints to the EU Commission

Examples of services provided to companies, governments and international organisations over the last 5 years

  • Studies
    • compatibility of national measures or practices with international or EU law (China, France, Greece, Ireland, Nigeria, ECOWAS, EAC)
    • facilitation of transport corridors (Senegal, Mali)
    • implementation of the Common ECOWAS Tariff (Nigeria)
    • improvement of practices of trade surveillance authorities (China)
    • implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (several countries and customs unions)
    • import clearance of express consignments (Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia)
  • Legal advice / opinions / applications concerning
    • import in different EU Member States of small consignments ordered through online-shops (customs, VAT, excise aspects)
    • import of wine in different Member States
    • obstacles to the movement of goods in the EU single market
    • treatment of royalties and assists for the customs value
    • consequences of wrong preferential/non-preferential certificates of origin
    • consequences of errors leading to the incurrence of a customs and VAT debt
    • clarification of standard operating procedures following the detection of incompliance
    • requests for a refund of import duties
    • tariff classification of specific products (inter alia drinks, food, tobacco and chemical products
    • application for a single authorization
    • excise duties on a newly developed tobacco product
    • representation of importers/exporters or manufacturers before the EU Commission in anti-dumping proceedings, including refund requests
    • application for MET status of a Chinese exporter
    • inward processing, including the use of equivalent Union goods
    • end-use
    • consequences of the Brexit for companies trading in or with the UK
    • averting the confiscation of goods due to claims that they infringe intellectual property rights
    • damage claim before the European Court
    • complaints to the EU Commission due to incorrect implementation of EU law by Member States
    • requests for access to documents held by EU institutions
    • voluntary disclosure in case of irregularities in order to avert criminal proceedings
    • defence in criminal and administrative sanctions proceedings in Germany
  • Audits with regards to compliance and efficient organisation for
    • a logistics company
    • a manufacturer subject to customs and excise duties
    • a company producing and testing pharmaceutical substances
  • Support to IT service providers
    • customs-related projects
    • AEO
  • Training and coaching
    • in-house and external training and coaching for economic operators, inter alia on the transition to the Union Customs Code, customs procedures, the application for authorisations, the calculation of comprehensive guarantees, the customs tariff,, origin, customs value, anti-dumping, VAT and excise duty with regard to imports and exports
    • lectures for customs and trade officials and students, inter alia on the following subjects: creation of a customs union or free trade area, accession to the EU, customs tariff, customs procedures, trade facilitation, international customs and foreign trade law, anti-dumping law, the Union Customs Code, the Harmonized System, Brexit