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63rd Customs-Railways Joint Meeting takes place at CIT Headquarters

The 63rd Customs-Railways Joint Meeting was held on 25 and 26 May 2023, this time hosted by CIT in Bern. This annual meeting is the platform to discuss all customs-related matters that arise during rail freight transport and require coordination with the authorities involved: the European Commission (DG TAXUD) and customs administrations of the EU Member States as well as the countries of the Common Transit Convention. This with the aim of developing appropriate – and if possible, rail-dedicated – laws and regulations, procedures, processes and systems. Transport law and regulations are also examined, in particular CIM, SMGS and the related manuals. After all, transport and customs law must be well balanced, especially in case of rail cargo transport.

As the chairman of the Customs Working Group of the CER, Wessel Sijl (customs manager at DB Cargo Nederland) stated during and at the end of the meeting that the organisation of CIT was as versatile as a Swiss army knife and as precise as a Swiss watch. This was confirmed by the participating customs authorities and the many members of the CER Customs Working Group. Apart from the good preparations by CIT (particularly Erik Evtimov, Nicolas Keller and Loïc Gioria), the hospitality offered, and the important agenda topics, the meeting was a success partly due to the hybrid format (in-person and online), which meant that the number of participants was very high this time, with the result that the important topics on the agenda received wide attention.

Important agenda topics were:

• The transfer of the (paper based) rail transit procedure to NCTS (New Computerized Transit System) release 5, in such a way that it matches well with rail cargo transport;

• The new Import Control System – version 2, release 3 – which is especially important for rail carriers that are actively involved in the entry of EU cross-border transport;

• Ukraine's accession to the Common Transit Convention and related new customs formalities;

• A radical reorganisation of Swiss customs, with new customs processes and systems, and how this relates to rail cargo transport to, from and through Switzerland.

Furthermore, brief attention was devoted to a very major revision of the Union Customs Code, which will be completed from 2028.

Many practical points were also discussed. One of these is the announced revision of Article 305 of the Implementing Act of the Union Customs Code, which is very useful for the rail sector. In short, it means that the transshipment of intermodal transport units between different transport modes will no longer be considered as an incident.

Finally, attention was paid to Brexit and how this relates to rail freight transport via the Channel Tunnel. A major point of attention is building the facilities required for phytosanitary and veterinary controls and ensuring they are also suitable for rail cargo transport production purposes.

CIT can look back with satisfaction on this successful meeting, in fruitful cooperation with CER.

wessel.sijl(at)deutschebahn.com