Senedd Cymru | Welsh Parliament
Ymateb gan: Acanthophyllum Books | Evidence from: Acanthophyllum Books
I wish to comment on one particular unintended consequence of the TCA, namely the new customs arrangements regarding the export of books to the EU. I am an antiquarian bookseller listing books for sale online on platforms such as AABEbooks, Binlio and my own web site.
Compared with the regulations that apply to books sent to customers in the USA, which are free of duty if valued at up to $700, charges are incurred for books sent to customers in the EU regardless of value. In some cases the durty payable exceeds the value of the book , which is ludicrous.
This is not the main problem, however. In many cases the package is returned to the sender marked “failed electronic checks” or similar, often after a delay of some weeks.
No specific advice is offered as to which checks have been failed nor indeed which regulations have been unwittingly breached. This causes intense annoyance on the part of our EU-based customers as well as extra expense to the seller on having to re-send the item in question.
I would hope that this review will come up with changes to the regulations that will ensure that books travel freely from country to country, without delay and without being held in customs awaiting oayment of piffling sums of money by the recipient. The administrative cost of current arrangements must greatly exceed the revenue raised,and one wonders whether the implications were ever considered by those who drafted the current regulations.
John Edmondson
Acanthophyllum Books