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Traffic Manual

VII.8.7. Examples of situations in the investigation procedure

If the transit operation remains unfinished at the end of the investigation procedure, the competent authority of the country of departure may find the following case examples helpful in determining the competent authority to collect the debt:

Transit operation in which no customs office is involved (purely internal operation in a Contracting Party to the Convention).

Such a situation may only arise in the case of a Union transit operation within its territory or in a transit operation limited to the territory of one of the other Contracting Parties (an operation not involving common transit).

Example: 
ÇDenmark, Germany, France, SpainÇ

The competent authority of the country of destination (i.e. the authority of the same Contracting Party or the same country) may not provide any evidence of the presentation of the goods at destination.
The shipment has “disappeared” somewhere in the Contracting Party/country.

Transit operation involving customs offices of the same Contracting Party at the exit and entry point (crossing one or more third countries, with the exception of common transit countries).

In practice, only the EU can be involved in such an operation.

Example:
ÇPoland, Ukraine, RomaniaÇ

The competent authority of the country of destination cannot provide any evidence of the presentation of the goods at the destination and: 

  1. Message IE118 has been sent from Customs at entry (re-entry) to the Contracting Party concerned (Romania):
    the consignment has been reintroduced into the Contracting Party and has subsequently "disappeared".

  2. Message IE118 has been sent from the customs office at the exit of the Contracting Party concerned (Poland) and not from the customs office at the entry (re-entry) to this same Contracting Party (Romania):
    The shipment has "disappeared" between the two customs offices in the third country (Ukraine).

  3. No IE118 message has been sent, neither on departure from the Contracting Party (Poland) nor on entry (re-entry) to the same Contracting Party (Romania): The consignment has not left the Contracting Party concerned and has "disappeared" between the customs office of exit and the first customs office it passes through after exit.

Transit operation involving only transit customs offices (at entry) at the borders between the Contracting Parties.

Example:
ÇPoland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, FranceÇ

    1. Message IE118 was not sent from the last customs office you passed through (at the entrance to France), but from the previous customs office you passed through (at the entrance to Switzerland):
      The shipment has arrived in Switzerland, but has "disappeared" between the customs office at the entrance to Switzerland and the customs office at the entrance to France;

    2. IE118 messages were not sent:
      the consignment has not left the Contracting Party of departure and has "disappeared".

Transit operation involving customs offices between the Contracting Parties and third countries.

      Example:
      [Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland]

      This situation is specified in case b). The situations and solutions will therefore be similar, with the necessary modifications (mutatis mutandis)