The Department of Customs and Excise (DAIIEE) is strengthening the equipment of the Customs Laboratories in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville through the Customs Control Equipment Instrument (CCEI) of the European Commission.

The Department of Customs and Excise Taxes (DAIIEE) has added 13 new instruments to the four Spanish customs laboratories financed with the help of CCEI (Customs Control & Equipment Instrument) funds from the European Commission through its DG TAXUD (General Directorate of Taxation and Customs Union).

This incorporation has meant a significant reinforcement of its analytical capacity both in qualitative terms (new techniques) and quantitatively (increased sampling frequency). As an example, it is enough to point out that the acquisition for the Central Laboratory of the new Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer with mass spectrometric detection (ICP-MS) will allow the detection and quantification of ultra-trace levels of metallic elements in any type of matrix (goods), and the bench-top Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) equipment recently installed in the Regional Laboratory of Catalonia will allow the structural elucidation of any organic molecule, especially those that are the object of illegal trafficking in the field of narcotics and substances prohibited or subject to restrictions by current criminal, tax or environmental legislation.

It is also worth highlighting the significant reinforcement of analytical separation techniques such as the classic Gas and Liquid Chromatography, which will allow for the control of the new fiscal Euromarker for diesel and kerosene, as well as the validation and accreditation of the determination of the sugar content in all types of products in the agri-food sector. A final comment deserves the addition of a new Dynamic Viscometer to the Central Laboratory that will allow the determination of this rheological property in all types of products from the Hydrocarbon sector, of critical importance for their tariff classification (diesel fuels, fuels and lubricating oils of mineral origin) and their tax treatment for the purposes of special taxes.