Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's been some time since the last edition of our Trade News. In the meantime - on 1 December 2009 to be precise - the Treaty of Lisbon came into force, which starts a new phase in the European integration process.

There are several changes associated with the effective date of the Treaty (for instance the introduction of a permanent Council President and the appointment of a representative for foreign affairs). As far as the terminology is concerned, we will just have to get accustomed to the fact that the European Communities have now finally been absorbed into the European Union.

In the future we will no longer refer to Community law but comprehensively to Union law. Aside from these fundamental changes, it is imperative that we report in this edition of Trade News about some practical aspects of the changes in customs and excise tax law. Also, export controls will continue to gain importance; in this connection it is not only important to observe the regulations of the German external trade legislation and the EEC dual use directive, but the US export control provisions might also create extensive obligations in terms of conduct.

Finally, in the past few months the European Court of Justice declared itself in several rulings on customs and market regulation issues which are of general interest. In this respect the rulings in the law of origin regarding the interpretation of Art. 24 Customs Code and in the export refund legislation regarding the statute of limitations for restitution claims are of particular importance.

The Trade News will end with some information about us. We are pleased that the Juve Manual of Business Law Firms 2009/2010 again confirmed our top position in foreign trade law, and finally we will provide some information about staff changes, in particular additions to our team.
We wish you an interesting perusal.

Your foreign trade law team
Dr. Klaus Landry, Dr. Lothar Harings, Marian Niestedt, Dr. Kirsa Steinke, Fabian Eckard