BOISmag n°220

Peril for tropical decking: customs invoke “Vogel”

 

For several months now, a change in the customs tariff classification of decking boards has been roiling French wood-sector professionals. The cause? A 2021 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, now known as the Vogel ruling (after a Belgian importer), holds that smooth-profile, round-edged wooden decking boards should no longer be classified under heading 4409, “planed wood,” but under heading 4407, “sawn wood, even if planed.” Far from trivial, this reclassification of exotic-wood decking could have disastrous consequences for importers and distributors, who are sounding the alarm.

 

While the authorities justify this abrupt shift by citing the aftermath of the “Vogel case” and the explanatory notes for classifying goods in the Harmonized System (HS), Spain, Denmark, and Italy have so far escaped this across-the-board reassessment. France has not. “Exotic-wood decking boards have always belonged to heading 4409, which exempted them from customs duties,” stresses Arnaud Hétroit, director of the association Le Commerce du Bois. “Today, with this reassignment, the stakes are critical for companies across the sector, and enormous sums are on the line for importers.”

 

For several weeks, targeted inspections have been taking place in France’s main ports, and the first official reports are being issued. From Dunkirk to Fos-sur-Mer, via Le Havre and La Rochelle, customs regularizations provide for a 2% levy on the value of products to cover “shortfalls in customs duties,” backdated five years! This is impossible for many professionals, who would be forced to pay sums totaling hundreds of thousands of euros. Unthinkable for exotic-wood importers—some of whom are already considering shutting down. Unacceptable for the entire sector, which, through LCB members and its president François Larresche, has sent a registered letter to the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, in an attempt to defuse the situation.

 

Beyond the ambiguity of tariff classifications—which opens the door to arbitrary decisions—this measure also threatens to tax products on which the added value will in fact be created in France! While, for now, some professionals we attempted to contact prefer not to speak publicly on this sensitive topic, BOISmag will of course follow the matter closely and invites all of you to share your testimony in our upcoming issues so your voices are heard and the sector’s interests are defended.

 

Adèle Cazier