Business priorities for customs in TTIP

Efficient customs procedures are of crucial importance in creating a truly transatlantic marketplace. Annual trade between the EU and USA already exceed EUR 500 billion. To move towards a more seamless trading environment, BusinessEurope published a position paper detailing the customs priority issues for European business. Among a variety of policy measures, the EU and the USA can improve customs procedures by providing a “single window” framework for submission and discussion of all regulatory documents, developing joint trusted trader programmes, and setting clear standards for releasing goods in order to reduce unnecessary delays and increase predictability in supply. This would cut trade costs and create new market opportunities, particularly for SMEs.