EU takes action on import racket

The EU launched legal action against Britain on Thursday to recover €2.7bn in lost customs duties.

The EU launched legal action against Britain on Thursday to recover €2.7bn in lost customs duties after London allegedly ignored an imports scam.

The bloc’s fraud watchdog said in 2017 that Britain turned a blind eye to the rampant use of fake invoices and customs claims by Chinese importers for textiles and footwear.

The launch of the so-called infringement action threatens to inflame tense negotiations between Britain and the EU on their trade and customs relations after Brexit in 2019.

“Today, the European Commission decided to send a letter of formal notice to the UK because it refuses to make customs duties available to the EU budget, as required by EU law,” the commission said. Britain now has the right to reply to the allegations by the European Commission, the 28-nation EU’s executive and enforcement arm. If Brussels is still not satisfied, it can eventually take the case to the European Court of Justice.

The EU said the March 2017 report by its antifraud office revealed that importers had “evaded a large amount of customs duties by using fictitious and false invoices and incorrect customs value declarations.

“Further inspections brought to light a dramatic increase of that undervaluation fraud scheme operating through the hub in the UK between 2011 and 2017,” it said. But Britain failed to take action “despite having been informed of the risks”.