European Union Customs Union

European Union Customs Union

The Customs Union of the European Union ( English European Union Customs Union ) - the customs union of the countries of the European Union and several other countries, an important component of the common market.

The creation of the customs union became a priority after the signing of the Rome Treaty and was completed in 1958. The main events were as follows:

• the abolition of all customs duties and restrictions between member countries;
• the introduction of a single external tariff for goods of third countries that is the same for the entire European Community (profit from its collection has become one of the sources for the formation of the Community’s own resources)
• general trade policy as an external aspect of the customs union (at the international level, the Community expresses the common position of all member states).

Joint procedures and rules were brought together in a single administrative document ( English Single Administrative Document ), which replaced all previous regulations. Since 1993, the common market officially began to operate; all traditional checks at internal borders were canceled along with customs formalities. The customs services of member countries have lost the functions of collecting excise taxes, VAT and the accumulation of statistical information.

The union includes all countries - EU members, as well as a candidate for EU membership, Turkey and the dwarf states bordering the EU - Andorra , Monaco and San Marino ^[1] . After the UK exit from the EU (2019), it will nevertheless retain membership in the EU Customs Union on the basis of temporary participation ^{[2] [3]} .