What kind of customs cooperation do you foresee?

Within the framework of the EU’s Customs Code, the envisaged partnership should aim at optimising customs procedures, supervision and controls and facilitating legitimate trade by making use of available facilitative arrangements and technologies, while ensuring that customs authorities can take effective measures at the border. .

Customs authorities must be able to take effective measures at the border to enforce legitimate public policies (protection of health and safety of consumers, protecting businesses, for example regarding enforcement of intellectual property rights) and protect financial interests.

Therefore, the customs cooperation that we envisage achieves, as is the case with our existing free trade agreements, limited facilitation and in any event cannot be described as going in the direction of frictionless trade. Only membership of the Single Market and the Customs Union can ensure such frictionless trade.

Daniel FERRIE