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Cross-Border Transport

Volume 205: debated on Monday 9 March 1992

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To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what customs and excise arrangements for cross-border transport will prevail after 1 January 1993.

In the United Kingdom frontier formalities will be removed for EC traffic from 1 January 1993. Regulatory and fiscal controls such as import licensing and the collection of duties and taxes will not be conducted at the frontier. The extensive documentation required for commercial importations of goods will therefore be abolished. However, customs will continue to conduct sharply focused anti-smuggling spot checks to detect illicit drugs and other serious threats to society. These measures, conducted on the basis of risk assessment, intelligence and profiling, will remain an essential part of an integrated law enforcement effort throughout the United Kingdom. This will apply to the Northern Ireland land boundary as well as to all other intra-EC points of entry to and exit from the United Kingdom.