Improving Dutch Customs' Supervision on the Inward Processing procedure destruction in light of the increase in recycling of residues and waste

Under the Inward Processing (IP) procedure economic operators with an authorisation can carry out various processing operations on non-Union goods. One of the operations is destruction, and then the IP procedure is discharged when the goods placed under this procedure have been destroyed with no waste remaining or when the remaining goods have been placed under a subsequent customs procedure or have left the customs territory of the EU.

Destruction of non-Union goods with no waste or secondary products remaining under the IP procedure is in reality quite challenging to achieve because, in the current economic and circular environment, companies will look for opportunities to increase reusable products that were previously considered waste. Even when goods are thrown into an incinerator, in many cases a residual product is created as steam is captured that is used to generate energy. Another method of destruction where a residual product is often created is the pulverisation of fruit or vegetables that can no longer be sold on the internal market. This is performed so it can be composted and used to produce biogas.

The problem lies in the proper discharge of the IP destruction procedure. Both companies and customs authorities find it difficult to either acknowledge that products after the destruction require further formalities or it is considered unworkable to allocate the secondary processed product to the goods placed under the special procedure. There can be various reasons for this, such as the valuation of fruits and vegetables that have a really low value but remain stuck to valuation based on unit prices, there are not always clear or different CN-codes for processed products, or the destruction process might be unclear for the authorisation holder. Making compliance with formalities more difficult leads to non-compliance and may encourage companies to choose less sustainable destruction routes.

For this reason, the research question focuses on improving Dutch Customs supervision on the discharge of the Inward Processing procedure for destruction in light of the increase in the recycling of residues and waste.