AWR fall convention looks into current issues of the European customs and foreign trade legislation

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According to Fritz Esterer, Chairman of WTS AG, “there is a growing uncertainty about customs regulations for imports and exports in many businesses. The players are confronted with a number of amendments and changes of the substantial and procedural provisions of customs and foreign trade law in the EU.“ At the same time, he added, trade with third countries is increasing. “There are constantly new challenges in customs law and a large number of doubtful issues.“

How can businesses ensure that they are in conformity with the rules and regulations of export controls? The European customs and foreign trade law is an extremely formal law. Even minor violations of the formal requirements might entail considerable financial consequences – under certain circumstances, fines or even criminal proceedings. This risk is particularly high since this field of law is a rampant thicket of community and national regulations and court rulings existing in parallel.

An essential component of community trade policies are the rules of origin of the EU, in particular with respect to the specific assignment of a good to the economy of a certain country or region and the resulting legal consequences.
“Customs law is of high relevance to the entire German export and import industry, therefore WTS AG Steuerberatungsgesellschaft can offer comprehensive and individual advice to their clients owing to their special skills and knowledge in the field of customs law. Uwe Reimer, Germany’s first specialist consultant for customs and excise duties, for instance, is an employee of WTS AG. We explicitly support the aims of AWR and are hence sponsoring the convention, says Fritz Esterer.

The objective of the fall convention is to give way to an exchange of ideas and experience across industries. In addition to the AWR members representatives from administration, in particular of the German customs authorities, will participate in this meeting. AWR members are specialists dealing with customs, excise and VAT legislation or matters involving foreign trade and market regulation law as well as related fields of law.

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Fritz Esterer, Chairman of WTS AG Steuerberatungsgesellschaft

Press contact

Florian Kestler
Business Development & Marketing
Thomas-Wimmer-Ring 1
80539 Munich
Phone: +49 (0)89 286 46-1565
Fax: +49 (0)89 286 46-2323
Email: presse@wts.de

AUSSENWIRTSCHAFTSRUNDE e.V.
c/o Foreign Trade Consult Grosskopf
Lahnstraße 21
D-65239 Hochheim/Main
Germany

Phone: +49 6146/9046815
Fax: +49 6146/907657

Information on Aussenwirtschaftsrunde e.V.
Verein Außenwirtschaftsrunde e. V. - founded 20 years ago - has more than 180 members today. AWR is a network of customs specialists from industry and representatives from administration. The association is a forum for all matters relating to European customs law. The focus is in particular on the development of the customs code, the harmonization of excise duties as well as export controls. Chairman of Außenwirtschaftsrunde e.V. is Diplom Finanzwirt Frank Grosskopf – like many other members - a former customs officer in the higher intermediate service. This underlines the close networking of customs and industry.

Information about WTS
WTS is an international consulting company with the divisions “Tax” and “Consulting”. The focus of the tax division lies on tax consulting for multinational corporations, national and international medium-sized companies as well as private individuals and non-profit organizations. In the business fields Investment Tax Law, M&A, Private Clients and Non-Profit Organizations, WTS has recently been able to expand the range of our services significantly. With regard to the consulting division, WTS specializes particularly in financial advisory as well as national and international accounting services. Employing more than 400 people and having representations in over 90 countries, WTS ranks among the major international tax consulting companies. WTS solely offers tax and business services consulting without auditing services in order to avoid any conflict of interest between consultancy and audit.