EU's Uncommon Market – a revealing practical experience !

Dear Joan Marc,

I really wonder where you got this idea that there were still customs duties within the UE. Surely you must be ill-informed. There might well be some excise duties on alcoholic beverages sold in Belgium (and the Belgian customs may well be in charge of levying, not only customs duties, but also excise duties, as it is the case in many European countries), and which have to be paid in the country of final consumption.

The aim of this rule, which is the result European Directives on the harmonisation of excise duties, is there to safeguard the fiscal autonomy of Member States, otherwise everybody in Belgium would go and buy alcohol where the taxes are lower, thus undermining the competences of each MS, by a snide race to the bottom, which surely isn't the aim of federalists.

The rule re excise duties is a lot more stingent than the rule on VAT because taxes on alcohol, petrol or tobacco (excise duties) are very often much higher the rule on consumption (VAT), thus leading to a higher degree of tax fraud.

So, as long as we do not have total harmonisation of excise duties, the current system is bound to remain in place, but these are clearly not customs duties, and unless you think that a common market implies total tax harmonisation, I do not see how it could ever be different.

One of the EU's greatest achievement is the total and unqualified abolition of ALL customs duties within it, so let us not propagate those EU myths.

EU's Uncommon Market – a revealing practical experience !

Joan-Marc,

You say : « Then you have the customs, which is something that would somehow be expected to disappear in a common market. Applying an interesting formula it resulted that every litre of wine imported into Belgium is going to be taxed with 0,54 cents. In order for imports to pay off you should not import less than 500 litres… you can calculate how much is added to the price consumers pay… »

Don't you confuse customs duties and excise duties which are not the same ? Excise duties are chargeable in numerous Member States even if there is no movement of good. Excise duty is not a tax on import-export ! That's a big difference with customs duties... Concerning trade within the EC, Directive 92/12/EC provides a system of reimbursement to avoid double taxation while Directive 92/84/EC sets a minimum rate for excise duty (there remains variations between member states).

In sum : If you look for a single rate, excise duty raises the same problem as VAT...

EU's Uncommon Market – a revealing practical experience ! - commentaires

EU's Uncommon Market – a revealing practical experience !

EU's Uncommon Market – a revealing practical experience !