The Customs Union And The European Union

The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political partnership between 28 different countries. It consists of about half a billion citizens, and its combined economy represents about 20 percent of the world’s total economy (Briney, 2015). Today The European Union works as a single market, with free movement of people, goods and services from one country to another. There is a standard system of laws to be followed, and since 1999 many countries share a single currency called the Euro (Europa.eu, 2015). This essay will explore the background history of the European Union and the benefits and drawbacks of the European Union.

from imports, so sometimes a tariff is applied. A tariff is a tax that is charged on imported goods.

The roots of the European Union can be traced back to the early 1950’s when a small number of countries made a decision to join together as a way to resolve any potential conflict nurture economic growth and common values across the continent. There was a desire to promote common values and membership was opened to all European countries. Since the inception the number of members has grown from a founding six countries to what we now know as the modern day EU with a current total of 28 countries with a further 8 countries under application review. In 1992, what was then a group of twelve countries, joined together to form the Customs Community Code which was eventually introduced in January 1993. The code effectively merged the individual customs regulations in to a single customs union.

Eurosceptics on the other hand, would argue the EU is not ‘The United States of Europe.’ However, they fear it is close to becoming that. The main reason for this belief is that the Council of Ministers holds the executive power, not parliament. Nevertheless their main prerogative remains gaining access to the world largest single market through accession into the EU (Gamble 470). In tandem they appear to be similar, but ‘The United States of Europe’ is still in formation, which is why Britain is best in their current position where they could possible exceed if they lose any sovereignty they have left.

Formed from 28 Member States, the EU has developed an internal single market which enabled it to control what happens in the Member States. The context in which the EU has developed has caused it to be unique in comparison to all the others and through this essay I will demonstrate how the characteristics and functions of the EU are found to be those only associated with the EU.

In the aftermath of the 1957 Treaty , the European Economic Community (EEC) was established and customs barriers between the member states have been abolished. Member States throughout the Community, can “promote a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increased stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between them”. Therefore, in order for a common market to be established between Member States, the Community enacted some legislative provisions which aimed to a true harmonization of laws; incorporate different legal systems under a basic legal framework. The main issue arising is whether these legal provisions in accordance with the case law, ensured the free movement of goods within this market.

The European Union (EU) does not have an unlimited power to act. The limits of Union competences are governed by the principle of conferral. Under the principle of conferral, the Union shall act within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States (MS) in the Treaties. The central debate about competence is with regard to the principle that the EC operates within the confines of attributed powers tends to be obscured by an open-handed reading of the matter in practice. The Articles of EC are broadly worded, with little restrictions. For example, Article 95 EC provides the Council the power to pass directives and regulations so as to facilitate harmonization of the internal market. It is a residual provision that operates, “save where otherwise provided in this Treaty”. This could be translated as a general power of regulating the market. Also Article 308 EC empowers the Community to legislate where it is “necessary to attain, in the course of the operation of the common market, one of the objectives of the Community and this Treaty has not provided necessary powers”. These broadly framed Articles can be dangerous because it becomes impossible to have a clear conceptual outer limit to the residual provisions. In addition, subsidiarity and proportionality have not performed well as devices for restraining the political desire to exercise a competence once granted. The malady is captured by the catchphrase competence creep.

Europe has opened its markets to all imports from the world’s poorest countries, and works actively to help developing countries build the capacity to take advantage of trade. They also use the trade policy to reinforce other important international goals (European Commission 2017).

Due to the fact that the internal integration of good trade was accomplished with the creation of the customs union, the Common Commercial Policy was used in order to formulate general rules concerning all aspects of external good trade. In order to avoid the distortion of internal trade or competiveness conditions, it has become imperative that the CCP extended to all directives concerning trading of good with other states, like border evaluation and customs duties, and these needed to be interpreted in such a way that the intra-EU commerce would not be disturbed. Needless to say, the European Union represents all its member states within GATT and has been singing important commercial bilateral agreements with other states. Once the World Trade Organization was created in 1995, the rules of international trade changed significantly, and therefore, the CCP had to change as well. WTO has brought about a far more rigorous institutional framework for international good trade and has set international rules concerning services and intellectual property right. Thus, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) became one with GATT and all the WTO members were required to subscribe to all three of them. The Lisbon Treaty signed in December 2007

The european union is a economic as well as a political partnership between 28 different countries located in Europe (Euabc). The Creation of the European union was caused due to the disruption of the Second World War. The Treaty of Rome was the initial treaty introducing the EEC, Its main aim was to create economic cooperation between many of the states so that the countries could trade interdependently and create the least possibility of conflict between the different countries. The result was the creation of the European Economic community aka EEC which was created in 1958 which had created economic cooperation between Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Since then this has grown into interdependent economic cooperation between many countries and potentially looking to increase its cooperation with other countries located in Europe. One of the EU’s goals include the promotion of human rights. The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 enforces the core values of Human dignity, democracy, freedom etc. These aspects are minded together as the basic law for Human rights. Today the main aims of the EU include as such: The promotion of Peace and well being of the unions citizens, The are of freedom, security and justice, Sustainable development, a social market economy and a free single market. (Euabc)

One of the main objectives of the European Union (EU) is the establishment of the internal market, which shall consist of “area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured. The internal market is based upon a customs union achieved through the abolition of the imposition of customs duties and charges having an equivalent effect and the prohibition of discriminatory taxes on intra-EU imports. The internal market is enhanced by the provisions on free movement of workers, freedom of establishment, free movement of services, and free movement of capital. Whereas Articles 28 to 30 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provide for the establishment of an EU common external tariff and the elimination of customs duties, Articles 34 and 35 of the TFEU (with exceptions under Article 36) go further, and prohibit quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect. Taken together, Articles 28 to 32 and 34 to 36 serve to ensure the free movement of goods within the EU and to facilitate the operation of the internal market.

The European Union (EU) was established in order to prevent the horrors of modern warfare, experienced by most of Europe during the World Wars of the 20th century, from ever ensuing again, by aiming to create an environment of trust with the countries of Europe cooperating in areas such as commerce, research and trade (Adams, 2001). The EU has evolved into an economic, trade, political and monetary alliance between twenty-eight European Member States. While not all Member States are in monetary union (i.e. share the currency of the euro), those that are form the ‘Euro-zone’ (Dinan, 2006). The EU can pass a number of types of legislation, with a regulation, act, or law, being the most powerful. Its ‘tricameral’ (European Union, 2007)

With the effect of the Single European Act on 1st July 1987, the emergence of European Union (EU) as a common market has essentially been created. The benefits of this act are substantial to European firms, economies, and workers. It eliminates conflicting national regulations and trade barriers, as well as offering firms opportunity to sell their goods to all other EU members (Griffin & Pustay 2005).

The first two ways of integration deal with movements of goods and services across borders and WTO commitments. So, to be clear, it is only the FTAs and Customs Unions towards which WTO rules are addressed. The WTO has certain commitments that members agree to, surrounding these preferential trade agreements. On an FTA, where the FTA and customs union are treated under art. XXIV of the GATT, the commitments under the agreements are required that the restrictions on non-members cannot be increased. You can eliminate the barriers among your buddies, but you cannot increase the tariffs on non-members. With the customs union, since there will be a common policy towards non-members, there could be some instances where some good’s tariffs go up for a particular member and down for another. So, it is looking at policies as a whole. There will be a requirement for compensation as such.

Thus three gradually higher levels of integration can be illustrious. The first level involves modest integration by means of an agreement to apply symmetric special treatment of imports and allocate supporting purposes and instruments to mutually operated institutions. Examples would be NAFTA’s assurance to remove tariffs among its members, its dispute settlement provisions, and the various working groups and agencies that serve to facilitate trade and investment among the three partners. In the case of a EU, the agreement would additionally include a common external tariff related to non-members, which, in turn, requires an understanding on how to allocate among the partners the tariff