1. Statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States shall cover dispatches and arrivals of goods.

National legislation shall make provision for the lodging and registering or checking of the goods declaration and supporting documents prior to the arrival of the goods.

Getting this information in advance will allow our customs officers to make informed decisions before the arrival of goods and people, thus facilitating the movement of legitimate travellers and goods.

However, in order to limit the main dangers of distortion of competition arising from differences in VAT rates during the transitional period, the rate applied would be that of the country of destination for: - 2 - - purchases of new private vehicles (cars and motorcycles), which would be taxed in the country of registration; - purchases made from companies specializing in mail-order sales, which would be taxed in the country of destination (b) For transactions between taxable persons (generally firms), the transitional arrangements would take the following form: - delivery of goods to another Community country would be exempt from VAT; ...[+++] - purchase of goods in the country of destination would be subject to VAT and the tax would be payable by the purchaser.

The concepts of importation and exportation in intra-Community trade would thus no longer exist and the crossing of a frontier would cease to be the event giving rise to a tax obligation: - 5 - (a) For individuals, this would mean freedom to purchase goods in the Member State of their choice (with those goods being taxed according to the conditions applicable in that Member State) and to use them without restriction in their Member State of residence; as a result, travellers' allowances would have to be scrapped (cf. point III). However, in order to limit during the transitional period the main risks of distortion of competition arising ...[+++] from the differences in VAT rates, the rate applied would be that of the country of destination for: - purchases of new private vehicles (cars and motorcycles), which would be taxed in the country of registration; - purchases from companies specializing in mail-order sales, which would be taxed in the country of destination; (b) For transactions between taxable persons (generally speaking, firms), the transitional arrangements would take the following form: - delivery of goods to another Community country would be exempt from VAT; - purchase of goods in the country of destination would be subject to VAT and the tax would be payable by the purchaser.

Armed in advance with this information, our customs officers will be able to make enlightened decisions prior to the arrival of shipments and passengers, which will facilitate the movement of authorized travelers and goods.