News

Defined the list of goods whose import needs the presentation of sanitary certificates//permits released by USMAF offices

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 14:38

With comunication Prot. 27413/RU of 24 February 2009, the custom agency notifies operators that - in accordance to the Reg. (EC) n. 882/2004 of European Parliament and the Council of 29 April 2004, on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law,
animal health and animal welfare rules - the Tax Management Unit (office for the customs tariff) of he Agency, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Policies, has indicated the goods whose import is subject to the presentation of a sanitary certificate or permit released by the USMAF (Offices of Maritime, Air and Frontier Sanity).

Steel products: export refunds confirmed

Tuesday, 24 February 2009 15:15

Law n. 639 of 5^th July 1964, on "Refund of customs duties and other inland indirect taxes other than the IGE with regard to some exported industrial goods", initially repealed by the D.L. 112/2008 (converted into law n. 133 of 06/08/2008), and then re-introduced by the D.L. 22 December 2008 n. 200 (see our comments), has been now definitively reactivated, being the above D.L n. 200/2008 converted into law 18 February 2009, n. 9. Accordingly, national operators currently maintain the possibility to require export refunds for commodities indicated by law 639/1964, that are used in the manufacturing process of some products of the national mechanical industry, provided that the latter have acquired the non preferentian Italian origin.

(continues ... in Italian)

EU approves anti-crisis measures against the recession of global trade

Friday, 20 February 2009 11:15

To react to the global recession of the economy, the European Union has formally started its anti-crisis plan through the granting of a series of aids to the export for products such as butter, cheese, whole milk and skimmed milk powder.

In the Official Journal of the European Union L 49 of 20 February 2009 four new Regulations have been published, fixing, respectively:

the amount of refunds to the export of milk and milf products (Commission Regulation (EC) n. 140/2009 of 19 February 2009);
of the maximum export refund for butter (Commission Regulation (EC) n. 141/2009 of 19 February 2009);
of the maximum export refund for skimmed milk powder (Commission Regulation (EC) n. 142/2009 of 19 February 2009);
of the refunds applicable to milk and milk products exported in the form of goods not covered by Annex I to the Treaty(Commission Regulation (EC) n. 144/2009 of 19 February 2009).

(continues ... in Italian)

"Buy american" and Stimulus bill

Wednesday, 18 February 2009 16:54

The US Congress has recently passed a law, named “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”, (so-called “Stimulus Bill”), that introduces a huge tax intervention based on a mix of public expenditure and tax reduction measures for a total spending of $ 787 billions. Section 1605 of this law sets a particular tie to the use of these funds, that can be used only for projects of construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or for other public works, where iron, steel, and manufactured goods exclusively produced in the United States are used. There are anyway some limited exceptions to this rule, such as in cases where its application is inconsistent with the public interest; or where iron, steel, and the relevant manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and are of a satisfactory quality; or in the case where the use of iron, steel, and manufactured goods produced in the United States would increase the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent.

This provision has proven to be controversial also in the US, where many companies fear that their trading partners abroad will retaliate with similar “buy domestic” provisions, so thwarting their investiments in Europe and Asia. To avoid this effect, Section 1605 introduces to the subsection d) a "safeguard" clause establishing that the "buy american" provisions shall be applied in a manner consistent with U.S. international trade obligations.

Sodium glutamate for food use supplies subject to the 20% VAT rate

Wednesday, 18 February 2009 10:40

The clarification comes from Internal Revenue Agency, that after a consultation with the Customs Agency on the proper tariff qualification of such a product, issued the Resolution n. 39/E of 17 February 2009, in response to a ruling of a company producing and selling this good. Doubts arose from the nature and composition of the glutamate, a very common compound used in the majority of daily-consumed food products (es. cheese, bouillon cubes, frozen food, cold cuts, canned food, etc.).

The applicant, in his request of ruling, asked if it is correct to apply the odinary VAT rate to the supply of glutamate. Even though the ruling was inadmissible, the Internal Revenue Agency provided some explainations, highlighting that the above product must be classified with the CN code 2922 4200, corresponding to the heading 29 23 750 of the customs tariff. Accordingly, the VAT rate to be applied to the glutamate supplies must be the ordinary VAT rate (20%), as this good does not hold the characteristics for the application of a reduced VAT rate (4% and 10%) set forth by Dpr 633/1972 with regard to goods listed in Annex A/2 and A/3 of the decree.