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ASH Daily News

24 October 2001

Headlines

EC warns HM Customs

Full Text

EC warns HM Customs

The UK government is being warned that it may be breaking European rules by stopping people bringing cigarettes and alcohol into Britain.

The BBC reports that the European Commission is taking its first legal steps after receiving complaints from travellers.

Travellers can bring in as much alcohol and tobacco as they wish as long as they can substantiate that the goods are for personal consumption and not commercial use. Currently, HM Customs officers follow EC guidelines , which suggest levels for personal use should be 90 litres of table wine, 110 litres of beer, 10 litres of spirits, one kilogram of tobacco and 800 cigarettes.

However, Jonothan Todd, who speaks for the commission on the internal market, said UK customs officials may be enforcing too harshly EU guidelines on the amounts people can bring in.

He told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are concerned that people should not be stopped from bringing in larger quantities than the guideline levels simply because it is over the indicative guidelines.”

Tobacco smuggling alone in the UK is costing the government £3 billion a year in lost revenue. It is estimated that one in three cigarettes smoked in the UK is contraband and up to a quarter of all illicit trade in tobacco occurs through individuals ‘shopping’ across the channel in countries like France and Belgium. According to a recent report customs staff have seized 7,000 cars because they judged the owners to be carrying excessive amounts of cigarettes and alcohol.

A spokeswoman for HM Customs earlier this year said: “There are cases where an individual explains that they are bringing in large quantities for a particular reason and if they can prove it, we accept it.”

The EC is to ask HM Customs to justify its methods. The EC is warning that if it receives no satisfactory reply within two months, it will formally request a change in it’s practices.

Mr Todd said that is the commission is then still not satisfied, it could take the government to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.


ASH response to the EC warning: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/press/011024.html

Source: BBC Online, 24 October 2001
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1616000/1616714.stm




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