UK asked to pay €2 billion over Chinese shoe import - leatherbiz: Lea Leatherbiz

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UK asked to pay €2 billion over Chinese shoe import fraud

09/03/2017
UK asked to pay €2 billion over Chinese shoe import fraud
The European Commission has made public the findings of a customs investigation that has concluded companies in the UK committed “large-scale fraud” by declaring false prices for footwear imports from China.

This investigation concluded in September 2016, but the Commission only released details on March 7 in the context of the ongoing debate about the terms under which the UK will leave the European Union.

Its specialist anti-fraud office, OLAF, said it had uncovered organised criminal networks with high levels of knowledge of logistics and of false invoice systems bringing shoes into the UK from China, undervaluing them at customs and then moving them into other EU markets.

OLAF said it had calculated a loss of almost €2 billion to the EU budget in terms of lost customs duties between 2013 and 2016. It also said that the scam was continuing and that the final bill from this investigation for the UK may be higher.

Government authorities in the UK said they would challenge the findings of the investigation.



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