In a series of articles, the authors present the current situation regarding the operation of Free Customs Zones in Poland and their relationship with logistics activities. They draw attention to the missed opportunities for increasing the volume of logistics work resulting from the current legal status regarding the collection of customs duties and VAT, and also point out possibilities for improvement and potential benefits for enterprises
and the economy.
The regulations currently in force in Poland regarding VAT collection cause the stream of goods flowing
between enterprises operating in the European Community market and their business partners
in Eastern European countries and Asia to move through our country largely under the transit procedure, and it is only to a small extent
taken over in terms of logistics services by logistics operators operating in Poland. Leaving aside the atypical
Free Customs Zone (in the departure zone at Okęcie Airport in Warsaw, serving travelers leaving the EU area this way as a place
for cheap retail purchases), the remaining Polish Free Customs Zones do not accumulate the amount of goods that statistics on trade between the European Union and the rest of Europe and the world would suggest. Stagnation is particularly visible in the Mszczonów area, where two economic zones are developing dynamically, in which logistics operators are active. A third one, prepared for operation as a free customs zone, does not enjoy similar interest from these investors and users. The specificity of this type of trade causes it to be accompanied by a significant number of logistics operations:
warehousing, consolidation and distribution of goods, repacking, and finally transport, often over long distances. Unlike internal flows, there is also the collection of customs duties. The need to rationalize costs associated with the export and import
of goods encourages importers and exporters to look for places where these costs are the lowest. Polish Free Customs Zones,
through no fault of their own, do not meet this criterion.
Potential benefits resulting from the relationship between a Free Customs Zone and a logistics center
In the current legal state, Polish Free Customs Zones are not attractive to exporters and importers cooperating with enterprises beyond the eastern border of the European Union2. This is confirmed by both the opinions of their creators and the analysis of their performance results. The reasons for this state of affairs were diagnosed in previous articles3. If Polish FCZs were made competitive
and properly promoted, they could make a fundamental change in the flow of goods through Poland – temporarily stop
the existing transit, two-way stream of goods in our country and generate a large potential for logistics tasks associated with this stopover. It should also be noted that the trade exchange generating the need for logistics services in the discussed direction of goods flow is gaining momentum, especially through growing turnover between Europe and Russia; it is to be further strengthened by the import of Chinese goods, estimated at approx. 250,000 containers per year, transported to Europe by
rail.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2006.