Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
An analysis of the proposed EU legislation on supply chain security
Jason Chuah*
The EU has recently proposed to introduce a law to grant a special status, called the secure operator status, to commercial operators in the transport supply chain. The status is granted to any operator in the supply chain who meets certain security requirements laid down by the proposed Regulation. Secure operators are then guaranteed a more relaxed security regime for goods and transit clearance. This article examines the legal implications the proposed law causes for other transit and transportation schemes under pre-existing EU and international Customs procedures. It proves that as far as the law is concerned, there will be a significant degree of unwelcome overlapping between the different regimes
.
In the light of the increased threat of terrorism, transport security has been placed very high on the EU legislative agenda. The evidence of this trend is clearly seen in the measures taken by the EU to provide for aviation and airport security,1
and maritime and port facility security.2
Another area singled out by the Commission for specific legislation is chain supply security. In 2003, the Commission published a Communication highlighting the need for enhanced security in land freight transport.3
There are no specific rules for the European land transport supply chain in its entirety. Whilst individual Member States may have legal and administrative measures in place dealing with aspects of any land transport supply chain operating within or through their territory, there are no harmonized EU rules in place. It might be noted that, as far as the Commission is concerned, the supply chain has been defined by the Commission as including all the transport and transport related operations and processes from the place where the cargo is produced or consolidated to the place of destination.4
The 2003 Communication makes it plain that there is an urgent
need to put in place legal measures to enhance and protect the supply chain from possible terrorist attacks.5
However, it is equally important that any measure introduced should not impede the free movement of goods.6
* Reader in Commercial Law, University of Westminster. I am grateful to M Herrett of HM Revenue and Customs, who in his personal
capacity, gave me some very helpful comments on a draft of this article. I would also like to record my thanks to Professor Dr Eric Van Hooydonk of Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium, for his help with this article. I must, naturally, assume responsibility for any errors or omissions.
1. See, eg, Regulation 2320/2002 (OJ L 355 p 1) (30 December 2002)
2. See Regulation 725/2004 (OJ L 129 p 6) (29 April 2004) and the more recent Directive 65/2005 (OJ L 310 p 28) (25 November 2005) on specific security measures for seaports.
3. COMN (2003) 229 final (16 May 2003); the proposed Regulation has had its first reading in the European Parliament and a response from the European Parliament is pending.
4. See generally para 1.5, Communication on Enhancing Supply Chain Security COM (2006) 79 (27 February 2006)
5. Para 2.1, ibid
.
6. Para 2.4, ibid
.
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