WCO FRAMEWORK - AUSTRIAN RESPONSE

UNCLAS VIENNA 002024 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD AU CTM SUBJECT: WCO FRAMEWORK - AUSTRIAN RESPONSE REF: STATE 94927 ¶1. Post conveyed reftel talking points to the Austrian equivalent of a customs director general, Wolfgang Nolz, Section Chief of the Taxation and Customs Section in the Ministry of Finance. We followed up with Alfred Nepf from the Department for Customs Policy and International Customs Relations in the MoF. Nepf will represent the GoA at the June 23-25 WCO session. Nepf said Austria fully supports the adoption of the WCO Framework and wants to implement it as soon as possible. ¶2. Nepf noted that there was still disagreement among governments concerning the legal form the Framework should have. The "traditional" form is a "convention", which national parliaments have to ratify, often entailing a very lengthy process. Nepf opined that EU Member States would most likely support a "recommendation" or a "customs declaration" that governments could implement via a formal obligation without parliamentary involvement. Nepf added that recently, some EU colleagues were floating the idea of implementing the Framework as a "resolution," which would avoid formal implementation procedures. Nepf underlined that the European Commission would ultimately coordinate a common EU position. BROWN#