A network of companies fraudulently importing Chinese tube and pipe fittings via several countries in South East Asia, to evade high EU customs duties, has been uncovered.
Investigations carried out by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and authorities in several EU Member States, in co-operation with Indian and Taiwanese customs, led to the recovery of €9 million in customs duties.
Resultant criminal proceedings in Germany and the UK have led to prison sentences for three of the persons involved.
OLAF investigations into the imports were triggered by information from the EU industry concerned and the customs authorities in several Member States. They had noticed changes in the trade pattern, namely away from the primary sources of tube and pipe fittings in China to unknown suppliers in countries not commonly known as producers of that product.
Imports of goods, claimed to be made in Japan, by a German importer attracted the attention of Belgian Customs because the freight was actually loaded in the port of Dalian in China and then routed via Japan to the EU.
Close co-operation between German, Belgian and Dutch customs quickly led to the detection of further fraudulent imports into the EU from India and Taiwan with false commercial documentation of origin.
The two UK offenders were sentenced to a 12-months’ suspended sentence and two years’ imprisonment respectively. A third faces a financial penalty.
An anti-dumping duty rate of 58.6% on certain Chinese tube and pipe fittings of iron or steel was imposed in 1996. The duty was subsequently extended to include imports from Taiwan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines as a result of circumvention practices identified.
SEPA and IBAN may not mean a great deal to businesses at the moment but MEPs passing a proposal to make cross-border bank transfers faster, cheaper and safer are sure that they will.
The single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Regulation lays down common rules and standards for euro credit and direct debit transactions between banks. It does not apply to personal credit or debit card payments. Requiring banks to comply with SEPA rules will enable their clients to use one bank account to make euro payments to and from all participating countries. To this end, the rules will ensure that euro credit transfers or direct debits that are possible within SEPA countries are also possible across frontiers between them. The legally-binding deadline for banks to migrate to the new standards is 1 February 2014. “All account users stand to gain, because international competition among service providers should drive down prices,” the European Parliament was told. “Increased competition among banks to supply services should also help to cut today’s inflated costs, and where costs are already low, they should remain so.”
SEPA covers payments made in or between the 27 EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Monaco.
Benefits to businesses
Firms will be able to set up cross-border direct debits in euro between two bank accounts anywhere in the Union, enabling them to bill customers regularly across borders. By eliminating multilateral interchange fees on cross-border direct debits as of this year, the regulation will enable businesses to establish their payment centres in any Member State. They could also organise all cross-border euro payments from a single euro account in a country of their choice in order to improve money management and speed up cash flows at lower cost. SEPA payments can be made to or from any euro account that is held with a bank located in the area. It is not necessary that the payer and/or the recipient of the payment have an account in a SEPA country that has already adopted the euro as its national currency. The key point is that the account is denominated in euro.
Businesses will enjoy common standards, faster settlement and simplified processing that will improve cash flow, reduce costs and facilitate access to new markets. There will be a wider choice of payment services providers and faster and more efficient processes, as well as greater transparency. Over the medium term, lower fees can also be expected.
IBAN
SEPA is an initiative of the European banking industry, supported by the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB). The European Payments Council, the banking industry’s decision-making body in relation to SEPA payments, has established rules for SEPA Credit Transfers and SEPA Direct Debits as well as a framework for card payments. Individual banks remain responsible for migrating their customers from existing national payment instruments to the new payment products.
From a consumer viewpoint, the only real requirement for migrating to SEPA is to use IBAN (International Bank Account Number) instead of the domestic bank account number (BBAN) and the domestic bank sort or branch code, when identifying accounts for payment purposes. In addition, for a temporary period, consumers may be asked to provide the BIC (Business Identifier Code). SEPA is an integrated payment system and therefore requires a common method for identifying bank accounts across countries. IBAN is straightforward, being built up in the same way for every Member State. It corresponds to the existing national bank account number and (sometimes) a national bank sort code preceded by two check digits and the international two character ISO (International Standards Organisation) country code (eg GB or DE).
Three directives will be repealed and replaced on 8 May 2012 by one regulation.
Regulation 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling and marking of the fibre composition of textile products will repeal and replace the following directives.
•Directive 2008/121/EC on textile names.
•Directive 96/73/EC on certain methods for the quantitative analysis of binary textile fibre mixtures.
•Directive 73/44/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the quantitative analysis of ternary fibre mixtures.
The information required by the new regulation, available here, concerns the composition of the textile products, which must be provided using harmonised fibre names. The regulation also stipulates methods to check on whether the composition of textile products is in conformity with the information supplied.
A survey of over 8,000 businesses released by the British Chambers of Commerce, shows that exporting activity continues to increase. However, the findings also suggest that providing firms with more training in foreign languages, and increasing their exposure to international companies would encourage more business owners to export. Economic growth relies upon British businesses being able to export more, so the British Chambers of Commerce is calling for more support for firms to help them trade internationally.
Language skills are vital to exporting
Knowledge of other languages is an important skill for exporters. 61% of non-exporters that are likely to consider trading internationally consider a lack of language skills as a barrier to doing so.
However, of those business owners that claim some language knowledge, very few can speak well enough to conduct deals in international markets. French is the most commonly spoken language, with 73% of business owners claiming some knowledge. However, only four percent are able to converse fluently enough in French to conduct business deals. This number drops significantly for those languages spoken in the fastest growing markets. In 2012, the IMF projects that the Chinese economy will grow by 9.5%, but just four percent of business owners claim any knowledge of the language, with less than one percent confident they could converse fluently.
Re-establishing foreign languages as core subjects within the UK national curriculum and in workplace training would mean that the next generation of business owners are ‘born global’ with language skills. The BCC is calling for the National Curriculum to be revised so that studying a foreign language is compulsory until AS level. Businesses could also be helped in training staff in new languages, if the government offered additional financial incentives such as tax credits for small and medium-sized businesses that make a significant investment in language training.
Businesses with stronger international connections are more likely to export
Businesses that do export are more likely to have stronger social connections with overseas markets. When asked what led them to export, the top three reasons cited by current exporters were: collaboration with overseas partners (71%); a chance enquiry from outside the UK (57%); and previous work experience abroad (52%). Those business owners that have lived abroad are more likely to export. 11% of current exporters have lived aboard for five years or more.
The BCC believes that creating opportunities for employees to work in overseas companies could help expose firms to more international opportunities. For example, an international business exchange programme, perhaps modeled on the well-known academic Erasmus scheme would allow employees to complete placements in companies abroad, and bring back their experience to their employer. A scheme that covered BRIC economies, as well as Europe, would mean that businesses could take advantage of fast growing markets as well as the eurozone.
Commenting on the findings of the report, John Longworth, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:
“Exporting is good for Britain, so it is right that we should encourage current and future business owners to develop the necessary skills to trade overseas. We’re encouraged to see the percentage of firms exporting in our survey has increased from 22% in January 2011 to 32% in January 2012. Exports are equivalent to nearly 30% of UK GDP[1], but more can be done to help businesses take the first step to exporting. Encouraging companies to boost foreign language skills with incentives like tax credits is just one way of making sure we continue to export best of British products and services around the world. A renewed focus on language skills at school, as well as helping companies forge new connections overseas, could help ensure that current and future business owners are pre-disposed to thinking internationally.
“We are already the sixth largest trading nation on earth, and the third largest service exporter, but to really secure our future as a leading exporter we need to help companies take advantage of new markets. Giving businesses the opportunity to forge links with international firms, develop employees’ language skills, and providing compulsory education in languages for young people will transform many of the great businesses we have in the UK into success stories overseas.”
The Foreign Office Department of UK Trade and Investment and the University of East Anglia Business School have formed a strategic alliance to explain and support the development of UK businesses both large and small with particular emphasis on international trade.
A series of live interactive video links between the UK and International markets will be streamed to your business location during 2012 examining markets in the USA (Los Angeles), Australia (Sydney), The Nordic countries (Copenhagen) and a range of others. Of particular interest is the different business opportunities being streamed live during the 2012 Olympics.
Please see below information covering the first programme. If the topics covered are not suitable for your business at present, The University of East Anglia Business School can tailor their programmes to your requirements.
Growing high-tech & innovative businesses… this project helps you develop & manage relationships with potential business partners, customers & suppliers in in northern France.
The main aims of the project are to :
To support the growth of bilateral France-England trade amongst high-tech and innovative R&D companies
To develop & utilise an online portal of potential English-French business partners
To help strengthen business partnerships between French & English science parks, business centres and technopoles
The project helps to achieve this through supporting your business undertake the practical steps to build relationships with French partners.
Please see below for further information and how to register your interest.
The A47 need upgrading. Poor infrastructure is slowing down economic growth and the creation of jobs in Norfolk. At a time when our businesses are having to be even more innovative in the way of using technology in their businesses, getting around the county or out of the Norfolk, mainly still necessitates using roads.
The consultant’s report commissioned by Norfolk County Council has now quantified that investment in the A47 could bring 5,000 jobs to Norwich, 3,800 to Yarmouth and more than 700 to Kings Lynn along with £390m a year into the East Anglia economy.
Next Tuesday Brussel’s regulators meet to review the TEN-T regulations which set the status of major roads across the continent. Currently the A47 is classed as part of a “comprehensive network” rather than “core” which has resulted in little invetment to the route over the years.
The economic opportunities for growth and jobs which would be enhanced by improvement to the A47 include the Yarmouth’s Enterprise Zone focused on the growing North Sea energy industry, Yarmouth Outer Harbour, Norwich Research Park, expanding employment around the A47 and A10 south of Kings Lynn and our visitor economy.
The report does talk about a 20 year time scale and we are realistic to be aware that the chances of the Treasury finding the money is remote but it is important that this road is recognised as a catalyst of growth and job creation in Norfolk.
Norfolk Chamber of behalf of its members is writing to Brussels to lobby Norfolk’s case and through the British Chamber of Commerce will ensure Ministers understand the importance to Norfolk businesses of improving the A47.
The Belarusian Chamber of Commerce are organising a Trade Visit to the UK and would like to visit Norfolk. The group will be coming over 10-15th June 2012. Attached is a list of the delegates along with their interests. If anyone interested in meeting the delegation, please could you e-mail [email protected] by 10th May 2012.
Wouldn’t be great if Norfolk could be one of the areas which were given the trial for the new motorway speed limit to 80 mph announced by Roads minister Mike Penning this week.
We are making progress on getting the A11 dual carriageway, the advance work on farm access roads is underway, archaeological works need to be undertaken but the main works will start early 2013 with an expected duration of 20 months so completion by the end of 2014. We may have to wait a little longer to get a motorway
The government is to take forward its proposal for increasing the motorway speed limit to 80mph by trialling the new limit on selected managed motorways.
Roads minister Mike Penning said this week that his department “is carrying out work to assess the potential economic, safety and environmental impacts of trialling 80mph speed limits on motorways where variable limits are currently in place”.
He said it hadn’t yet been decided which stretches of managed motorway would be included in any proposed trial.
“We plan to bring forward detailed proposals and start consultation during the next few months,” he said.
Ministers are also believed to be pressing the police to use a lower enforcement threshold than the current guideline of 10% +2mph that equates to 90mph, which is the reason why motorists aren’t presently stopped for driving a little over 70mph
It was last September, when Philip Hammond was transport secretary, that the government announced it would be consulting on an increase in the speed limit, but it has yet to happen. Mr Penning has said that any proposals would come with an impact assessment that would include research about road safety as well as emission.
Norfolk Chamber will keep you posted on this and all other infrastructure stories which affect Norfolk businesses.
Once again yesterday Norfolk rail commuters suffered a rotten journey to London from Norfolk with 16 Norwich to Liverpool Street services cancelled. Business passengers heading to London were hit by major disruptions. This was due to a line problem close to Liverpool Street which led to a reduced service to and from London with trains delayed or cancelled. The problem was caused by a broken rail and although Network rail started to work to fix the points at 10.30am, services did not return to normal until about 4pm.
Norfolk businesses need better infrastructure if they are to compete and run their businesses effectively. Norfolk Chamber members are playing a significant part in the Norfolk campaign to improve the rail services from Norwich and Kings Lynn as the effective movement of people and goods is key to business growth. So what is currently happening to make a difference?
As you aware, Abellio have taken over the Greater Anglia franchise which will run until summer 2014 when a new franchise will be let. In addition to lobbying government, as to what business wants to see included in the new franchise, Norfolk Chamber is also talking to the rail operators and Ruud Haket MD Greater Anglia will at presenting his thoughts about the future of our railway at the Norfolk Chamber’s Norwich Networking breakfast on 22nd June and listening to what business wants. We would encourage as many businesses as possible to come to this event as the business voice needs to be seen and heard!
Norfolk Chamber is also working with Norfolk County Council on two studies they are undertaking, with other local authorities and partners, looking at the improvements needed to rail services.
One study covers the west of the County including the Norwich to Cambridge line and the King’s Lynn to London line. Consultants have considering passenger demand in the context of housing, jobs growth and improved services. The next stage of the study will be a wider economic benefits study.
The key infrastructure blockage is Ely north junction with a series of single tracks that limit its capacity. An improvement scheme is estimated to be about £25m and Network Rail is carrying out some work to define exactly the extent of the improvement scheme and how and when it might be funded.
The second study is looking into how the agreed journey time reductions and capacity enhancement can be delivered on the Norwich to London line. The Chamber is part of the ‘Norwich in 90’ campaign with partners both public and private and of course our local MPs led by Norwich North MP Chloe Smith.
The news that the UK economy contracted in the first quarter – thereby heralding a technical recession – was unexpected. Here at the Chamber, we were awaiting an unimpressive but positive figure, given the results of our latest Quarterly Economic Survey and also what we hear day in, day out, from Norfolk business in the real economy. The feeling of ‘guarded optimism’ that comes through in conversation with Chamber members, and in most of the business surveys, suggest that the state of the economy may not be quite what the media or the number-crunchers at the Office for National Statistics believe.
That said, however, one thing is clear: whether we’re in technical recession or a period of incredibly weak, zigzag growth, Norfolk’s economy remains fragile, and stagnation is the real threat. This inherent fragility affects both sentiment and investment intentions, meaning that the Chamber’s call for special capital allowances, a stop to business rate rises, and improved access to finance at the time of the Budget looks all the more prescient. We said at the time, that action to support growth was as important as action to cut the deficit – and that remains the case today.
Aside from the GDP figures and the insufferable national media navel-gazing around the Leveson Inquiry, there is some positive news to report. Prompted in part by the work of the Chamber, government ministers renewed their pledge to improve public procurement – and to achieving an ambition of 25% of central government contracts going to small- and medium-sized firms. They’re already more than halfway there, having gone from 6.5% to 13.7% in a short space of time. However this doesn’t yet cover local government, the local NHS or some other bodies, so we are encouraging our local government bodies to follow suit as most of Norfolk’s small businesses cannot take advantage of this change in national government policy.
We will continue to run our Meet the Buyer events giving access to the local public bodies and larger private sector businesses with the next one planned for 20 September in Kings Lynn. The development of Sizewell C may seem a long way off but, as 80% of EDF Energy contracts will be non nuclear, businesses need to register on their supply chain portal www.sizewellcsupplychain.co.uk
Norfolk manufacturers especially those exporting report they are busy especially in the energy sector. Our food manufacturers have been watching the weather like hawks as they monitor the steadily rising grain price, but the recent weather change to rain in Western Europe has made them more optimistic about the future. Our boat builders at the luxury end are seeing a strong order book and the ‘staycation’ trend is encouraging the fleets to order new boats. I guess my message is that although it is not easy out there, Norfolk businesses are up to the challenge. I know that we do need rain but for our sanity and for the benefit of our important Tourism sector I hope we do get a dry sunny bank holiday weekend to recharge our batteries and get our Norfolk economy growing.