Travellers told to pay more on imports from new Member States

Date: 10/11/04

EU citizens stocking up on cheap cigarettes and alcohol in eight of the ten new member states have been told they must pay extra duties when they return home or have their purchases confiscated by customs guards.

Graham Watson, leader of the liberal group ALDE in the European Parliament, said customs officials in Britain were "discriminating against travellers" returning from all of the new member states barring Cyprus and Malta.

But Frits Bolkestein, the outgoing commissioner for the internal market, said Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Sweden and the UK were well within their rights in insisting upon extra top-up duties on all imports above relatively small "travellers' allowances".

He said this was because the eight new member states have duty rates that are lower than the minimum levels stipulated by EU rules.

He added that the low duty levels had been permitted for the next few years as part of the countries' EU accession deals. All imports that are not for personal use are subject to full duties at the rate applicable in the destination country. The "travellers' allowances" are smaller than the amounts that a UK tourist would be allowed to import from France or any other country of the "old" EU-15.

The Commission has already taken the UK to the European Court of Justice to quell allegedly over-zealous customs and excise officials seizing cars and vans at British ports.

The authorities claim this involved vehicles carrying products that were destined for resale or barter. The Commission believes goods for legitimate uses, such as weddings and funerals, could also have been unfairly implicated. Duties in France and Belgium are far lower than in the UK - offering big incentives for bargain-hunting travellers.

But the Commission is not taking such a citizen-friendly line with those importing cigarettes and alcohol from central Europe.

Article reports on common practice in several EU-15 Member States to insist upon extra top-up duties on all imports of alcohol and cigarettes from new Member States (except Cyprus and Malta) which are above relatively small 'travellers' allowances'. Member States are entitled to do so as long as excise duties are lower in new Member States. This was a concession that had been granted in the Accession Treaty.