Brazil-China Customs Agreement in Force

Written by | Tax and Customs

On 30 October 2018, Federal Decree 9,542/2018 was published in the official gazette. The Brazil-China Agreement on Mutual Administrative and Customs Matters was signed by the parties on 21 June 2012. The publication was the last step required for the Agreement to come into force in Brazil.

The Agreement aims for the Customs Authorities of each country to assist the other on application of customs laws – and this includes the “prevention, investigation and repression of customs infringements”. To this end, the parties may (upon request or otherwise) exchange information relating to:

  • the recovery of customs-related rights and customs valuations;
  • compliance with bans, preferential taxes and tax exemption measures relating to the import, export, transit of goods and two other customs regimes;
  • rules of origin;
  • the prevention and repression of customs infringements and drug trafficking.

Importantly, the Customs Authorities must communicate to each other with or without being requested to do so from the other party “any information available relating to”:

  • new proven enforcement tactics;
  • new tendencies, means or methods to evade customs laws;
  • merchandise known to be involved in customs infringements, as well as storage and transportation methods used for the merchandise;
  • persons known or suspected to be involved in customs infringements; and
  • “any other data that may assist the other Customs Authority with risk evaluation for the purposes of controls and facilitation”.

Upon request, the Customs Authority must supply information whenever requested by the other Authority if there are any doubts in relation to the information provided to them. This includes the customs procedures applied to the merchandise.

Moreover, the Customs Authority of each country must furnish information to the other when there are reasonable suspicions to believe that a customs infringement has been or will be committed in the other country. The Authorities must also immediately assist each other whenever there may be “substantial risks to the economy, public health, public safety (including international trade logistic chain or other vital interests” of either country.

The Agreement envisages that the parties assist each other to “guarantee the logistics chain in international commerce”. Whenever requested to do so by the other, the receiving Authority must, “to the extent possible, keep especial vigilance” and inform the other party about:

  • merchandise, locations means of transport used or suspected to be used to commit customs infringements in the territory of the requesting party;
  • activities that could be linked to drug trafficking

Finally, when requested by its counterpart, a Customs Authority must supply, to the extent possible, information about persons who have committed or are suspected to having committed customs infringements in the requesting party’s territory.

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Last modified: November 19, 2018