EUROPEAN COMMISSION ABANDONS ECJ ACTION AGAINST BRITAIN OVER ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO IMPORT CONTROLS
June 1st, 2006
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BRITISH government has given 'booze cruise' travellers importing cigarettes and alcohol from low duty France a sufficiently easy time for the European Commission to abandon its long-running legal action over the subject. Independent retailers will greet the news warily, worried that border controls are now so light that a black market in excised goods might cause them serious commercial damage. But it has been welcomed by EU taxation Commissioner László Kovács, who praised Britain's "balance...between fighting tax evasion and the ...
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