Professor's presentation

In today's Europe, there are no obstacles to goods and people moving freely from one country to another, provided they travel through the territory of the states belonging to the European Union.

Goods can be transported from, for example, Portugal to France via Spain, without any of these three nations being able to restrict this movement.

This means that existing trade borders within the European Union have been eliminated and a single Union Customs Territory has been created, comprising all member countries of the Union. In other words, all goods and people carrying luggage within this territory can travel from one state to another without having to pay anything to cross from one country to another, regardless of the quantity and type of goods transported. It is one of the consequences of the existence, since 1993, of the Single European Market. This Single Market guarantees the 4 basic freedoms within the EU: free movement of goods, people, services and capital.

Another consequence, complementary to the previous one and akin to the other side of the same coin, is that the entry or exit of products from or to countries outside the European Union will always have to follow the same commercial and administrative treatment, regardless of the Union State receiving or sending these products.

There is, therefore, a single border between the European Union and the rest of the world, which provides a single system for trade between the countries belonging to the European Union and the rest of the world.

Customs offices are the places where procedures and operations are carried out to authorize the exchange of goods between a country within the European Union and one outside it.

At customs, documentation is presented declaring the items that are going to be imported (when they are brought into the territory of the European Union) or exported (when they are sent to third countries).

Goods are deposited there and inspected by customs authorities to ensure they correspond to the declared values and comply with the European Union's established trade policy measures.

It is the moment in which, if so indicated in the regulations governing foreign trade, the payment of duties and other taxes (VAT and Special Taxes) must be made for importing the items in question.

Once all these operations have been completed, the deposited items are authorized for disposal (known as "release of goods") for free movement within the European Union (in the case of imports) or for export to third countries (in the case of exports).

Smuggling occurs when all these controls are circumvented in the exchange of goods.

This may occur because the substances or items are prohibited, such as drugs or weapons. In drugs or narcotics, this is what is known as drug trafficking.

Smuggling also occurs when people try to bring specially protected goods into or out of a country. We must remember here the illegal trafficking of works of art and endangered animals and plants.

Finally, another form of smuggling is failing to declare the trade of items that, while permitted, are restricted and subject to special customs duties, as is the case with tobacco and alcoholic beverages.

Customs authorities also monitor that counterfeit branded goods (counterfeit toys, counterfeit handbags, etc.) or pirated goods (computer programs, etc.) do not enter Customs.

Finally, it is necessary to comment on a type of crime that, although not exclusively, originates in illicit trafficking: "money laundering."

"Black money," or "slush money," refers to capital generated outside the control of the Tax Administration through undeclared transactions that make up what has been dubbed the "shadow economy." "Money laundering" involves attempting to convert the profits from criminal or irregular activities into legal currency through purchases, investments, and financial transactions that bring such profits into the legal economy.

To try to prevent "money laundering," the laws establish certain controls that banks and other financial institutions must follow regarding their clients and the origin of the deposits they receive.