The speakers pointed out the significance of the digitization of customs procedures in the opening sequence on the Foreign Trade Law Day 2019 of the Central Association of Forwarding and Logistics (ZV) and the Johannes Kepler University. The two-day event was opened on 17 October in Linz. It is dedicated to the topic of storage and safekeeping in the tax law.
For Alexander Friesz, President of Zentralverbandspedition & Logistik, logistics remains the key to economic success. However, service providers from forwarding companies face major challenges, caused by the collaborative worldwide production and trading processes as well as growing e-commerce.
Customs duties and tax issues are essential to the success of a commercial location. But they seldom receive the necessary attention, explained Alexander Friesz. Rethinking this is one of the priority objectives of the Foreign Trade Law Day 2019.
Dr. Walter Summersberger from the Research Institute for Customs and Foreign Trade Law at the JKU Linz emphasized in his remarks the growing importance of the “New Silk Road”. This raises the question of how commodity flows could be represented simply and digitally in the future. However, for this Austria would also need the corresponding logistics centers as well as an extension of the broad gauge railway to the metropolitan area of Vienna.
Karl Hannl, head of the ZV Customs Working Group: “Austria still has considerable room for improvement, especially in the implementation of tax, sales, customs and financial criminal law, and must be careful that we are not losing touch with Europe here. Consequently, a central issue will be how to achieve a sustainable, fair framework as quickly as possible.”
On one point, there was agreement among the speakers: Accordingly, a modern and practicable customs and tax law helps the administration and strengthens the business location Austria!
