TradeLane

As businesses brace for 2025, the European Union will introduce significant updates to the Harmonized System (HS) of tariff classification, effective 1 January 2025. These changes, encapsulated in the Combined Nomenclature (CN), are vital for companies engaged in international trade to ensure accurate classification and compliance. The upcoming revisions reflect advancements in statistical requirements, commercial policies, and technological developments.

In 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change and went into force in 2016. The agreement aims to hold the earth’s average temperature increase to less than 2°C and make collective efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C against pre-industrial levels.

Medical items being exported from the US to Russia, Belarus, and occupied regions of Ukraine may require an export license. The sanctions set forth under Sections 746.5, 746.6, 746.8, and 746.10 of the Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR Parts 730-774, “EAR”) are designed to include the prohibition of medical item exports that support military involvement in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. There is a policy of denial for The Ministries of Defense of both the Russian Federation and Belarus. However, license applications for health and safety, medical, and humanitarian items destined for civilian facilities are reviewed and may be approved on a case-by-case basis.

Customs Procedures become increasingly attractive to companies with higher exposure to duties as their business grows through expansion or as they try to enter new markets. Customs Procedures can greatly reduce the duty burden on a company, ensuring that duties are paid when goods are sold as opposed to when they are brought into the European Union or simply not paid because a destination outside the Union has been found for the goods.

The introduction of the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program in the European Union in 2008 brought exponential growth in this supply chain security program that has slowed as it has matured and the pool of non-AEO traders has declined. That growth curve is documented in this EU AEO valid Authorizations per year chart.