Valérian Fabry becomes an FNRS candidate
His research project questions EU customs law in the context of e-commerce.
Can you tell us more about your research project?
My research project aims to identify the rights and obligations of taxpayers under customs law in the context of B2C e-commerce. Concretely, as soon as goods enter the European Union, customs duties must, most of the time, be paid. Given the exponential growth of e-commerce and the age of certain customs law rules - in Belgium, certain rules still applicable today date back to 1822 - it is necessary to study whether the current regulatory framework is adapted to this new reality or whether, on the contrary, it needs to be reviewed.
In addition to its age, the regulatory framework in customs law is characterized by the existence of several "layers of rules" that apply simultaneously: there are international rules, European rules, and also national rules. This characteristic leads us to question the existence (or not) of harmony in the administration of customs duties within the different member states of the European Union. The ambition is therefore to make a comparative study of four customs regulatory frameworks: Belgian, Dutch, German and French.
How did you become interested in this subject?
Customs law is at the crossroads of European Union law and tax law, two disciplines I am particularly fond of. Moreover, customs law has so far received very little attention from researchers. However, I quickly realized, in discussions with some practitioners, that there was a real need for research in this area. There are many unknowns that need to be addressed.
The need to study customs law is all the more urgent as the giant Alibaba has set up its logistics headquarters at Liège Airport. The flow of e-commerce from countries outside the European Union will continue to increase in Liege. In this context, the geographical location of the University of Liège is optimal to conduct research in the field of customs law applied to e-commerce.
What could be the concrete impacts of your research?
The objective of the research is to increase the readability of customs rules. Anyone who orders goods from outside the European Union on an Internet site is likely to have to pay customs duties. Every time an online order is placed, each actor in international trade (buyer, seller, intermediary, etc.) must know - or at least be able to know - the extent of his rights and obligations in customs matters
The concrete questions are very simple and basic, but that doesn't mean that the answers are either. Who will have to pay the tariffs? How much will they be? What if the customs administration does not agree with the amount of customs duties initially foreseen? What recourse does the taxpayer have? What are the risks (fines, imprisonment, increase of customs duties...) that the actors support when an online order of goods is placed? So many questions that my research project aims to answer!
In a more indirect way, it is obviously necessary, in the interests of fiscal justice, to ensure the correct collection of customs duties. It is not socially acceptable for some people to escape paying customs duties; customs duty fraud is a scourge for the European Union's budget, which is used to finance European policies. In addition to fraud, which must be combated, customs duties are sometimes unpaid for the simple reason that international trade actors are not familiar with, let alone master, customs regulations. By increasing the readability of these regulations, we can hope to limit the hypotheses of non-payment of customs duties.
What are the next steps for your research?
The next step of the project is to study in depth the technical rules of customs law, as well as to understand the different variants in the functioning of e-commerce (dropshipping...). In order to do so, I will follow the courses of the complementary master in tax law, focused on customs duties. This complementary master is offered by the University of Liege. At the same time, I will consolidate the state of the art that I was already able to realize within the framework of the project submission to the FNRS.
Once the theoretical knowledge is acquired, I will then be able to explore the different national regulations of the Member States I plan to compare.
His background
Valérian holds a Master's degree in Law from the University of Liège, obtained in June 2021. He joined the EU Legal Studies Institute in September 2021, as an assistant to Professor Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel. His research focused on internal market law and customs law. As of October1, 2022, he will become an FNRS candidate to conduct his research project under the supervision of Prof. Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel (EU Legal Studies) and Prof. Marc Bourgeois (Tax Institute).
Valérian Faby
