WTO panel finds EC customs operations “complicated”

WTO panel finds EC customs operations “complicated”

WTO panel finds EC customs operations “complicated”

   A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel report released on Friday criticized the European Community for the lack of uniform administration of customs laws among its 25 country members.
   The report comes in a dispute brought by the United States in March 2005. In the dispute, the United States said the EC customs system lacked uniform procedures, particularly for reconciling differences in classification and valuation of imports, a violation of the EC’s WTO obligations.
   The WTO panel found the EC’s customs system to be “complicated, and at times, opaque and confusing.”
   “A system of customs administration that varies from region to region across the territory of a WTO member makes the world trading system less efficient and is especially vexing to small traders,” said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter F. Allgeier, in a statement.
   “If each of the 50 U.S. states administered U.S. customs law through a separate agency, with no central authority to ensure uniformity, there would be no end to the complaints by other WTO members,” he added. “The EC, as a WTO member in its own right, must be held to no less a standard.”