The EU Customs Union currently deals with trade worth €4.3 trillion ($4.9 trillion) a year (about 14 percent of global trade). In 2024, 2,140 customs offices across the trading bloc collected almost €27 billion ($31 billion) in customs duties and dealt with 1.37 billion items.
“Today’s agreement marks the greatest reform since the creation of the Customs Union in 1968,” said Makis Keravnos, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Cyprus, in a press release on March 26. “The new Union customs code will allow us to deal with the multiple challenges prompted by the new geopolitical realities, while ensuring economic security. Once adopted, this modern toolbox will facilitate trade and ensure the proper collection of duties, in a simplified manner, and with the required legal certainty.”
