Illegal Trade Round-up

In this round-up: New measures in revised F-gas Regulation 2024/573 together with the EU Single Window Environment for Customs will help combat illegal trade.  In addition to seizures at EU borders, international co-ordinated action resulted in record seizures of Montreal Protocol related substances. The first prosecution in the United States include charges for the importation of HFCs, related to the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act).

In the EU, use the anonymous European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) Fraud Notification System to report illicit HFC activity, see Home - Fluorocarbons and https://fns.olaf.europa.eu/  , anybody with information on illegal trade can provide information to OLAF.

F-Gas Regulation 2024/573 came into force on 11 March 2024, with new measures to help combat illegal trade in Article 24  Measures to monitor illegal trade, and a complementary requirement set out in Article 23 Trade Controls para 5 to enter into force from 3 March 2025:  Where relevant, customs authorities shall communicate information regarding the customs clearance of goods to the F-gas Portal via the EU Single Window Environment for Customs. And para 13: Member States shall designate or approve customs offices or other places and shall specify the route to those offices and places, in accordance with Articles 135 and 267 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, for the presentation to customs authorities of the fluorinated greenhouse gases listed in Annex I to, and of the products and equipment referred to in Article 19 of this Regulation, at their entry into or at their exit from the customs territory of the Union. Controls shall be carried out by customs office personnel or by other authorised persons in accordance with national rules, who are knowledgeable about matters related to the prevention of illegal activities covered by this Regulation and have access to suitable equipment to carry out the relevant physical controls based on risk analysis. Under Article 24 On the basis of regular monitoring of trade in fluorinated greenhouse gases and assessment of the potential risks of illegal trade linked to the movements of fluorinated greenhouse gases, and products and equipment containing those gases or whose functioning relies upon those gases, the Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts. The EU Single Window Environment for Customs, enables customs authorities to automatically verify the legitimacy of F-Gas imports at the border, confirming whether importers are legally registered and have sufficient quota for the import of their goods. Measures set out in Article 11 para 3, further restrict non-refillable containers, which are typically used for illegal imports: the import, any subsequent supply or making available to other persons within the Union for payment or free of charge, use or export of non-refillable containers for fluorinated greenhouse gases …. empty, or fully or partially filled, shall be prohibited. This restriction also applies to containers which could be refilled but are imported or placed on the market without provision having been made for their return for refilling.

Seizures of HFCs have been recently reported in Bulgaria, Italy and Romania.  Bulgaria: A shipment of nearly one tonne of smuggled HFC refrigerants in disposable cylinders have been seized by Bulgarian customs officials (see Cooling Post). Italy: Customs officers at the port of Naples report the interception and seizure of 150 tons of HFC refrigerants (see Cooling Post). Romania: Authorities in Romania have blocked the importation of over 4,000 cylinders of R134a refrigerant from China at the Black Sea port of Constanta (see Cooling Post).

Refrigerant analysers: To support customs authorities in Romania: In an effort to crack down on illegal imports, the newly-established Association of F-Gas Companies Romania has supplied refrigerant analysers and offered training to customs authorities in Romania (see Cooling Post).

Record number of Montreal Protocol-related seizures under WCO’s Global Customs Operation DEMETER IX: This operation was led by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Secretariat, financially backed by China Customs, and technically supported by the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia/Pacific (RILO A/P). International partners included UNEP OzonAction, Basel Convention Secretariat, European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), UNODC Unwaste Project, INTERPOL, European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL), and the WCO RILO network. All WCO Member States were invited to join the operation. A record number of customs agencies – 106 – from both Article 5 and non-Article 5 countries participated in this edition of DEMETER, whose operational phase took place between 1-31 October 2023. Based on preliminary findings, national customs agencies seized almost 70 tonnes of substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol and 6,046 pieces of pre-charged equipment (unweighed). Most of the seizures concerned HFCs, but there were also ODS such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and even chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).  The WCO reports: “There was a significant increase in illegal trade cases involving Montreal Protocol substances and related equipment (over 250% compared to the previous edition). See UNEP.

USA: California man arrested for smuggling potent greenhouse gases into the United States. This is the first prosecution in the United States to include charges related to the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act). The AIM Act prohibits the importation of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), commonly used as refrigerants, without allowances issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (see EPA). EPA announced a settlement, for the attempted illegal import of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which is the latest in a series of enforcement actions EPA has taken recently against importers of HFCs (see EPA).