Column: Customs and Trade in Italy and Europe: A Last-minute EU-UK Agreement

The European Union and the United Kingdom have reached a last-minute broad agreement on their future relations. In the field of trade and customs operations, rules have been defined to facilitate trade in goods, with the provision of total exemption from import duties for goods originating in one of the two Parties on the basis of rules which, for their characteristics, appear to favour products entirely manufactured in the territory of the Union or of the United Kingdom, albeit with some tolerances. Both for the purposes of proving the requirement of preferential origin and in carrying out customs operations, the Agreement follows a very clear line, simplifying obligations for the economic operators, with the aim of keeping the volume of commercial traffic unchanged, as developed over forty-seven years of union under the European flag.