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The French Customs & Excise Service is a Department reporting to the Minister of Finance, Economy and Industry. It is managed by a Commissioner (directeur général) nominated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the President. The Department consists of some 20,000 staff, employed at the Paris headquarters (direction générale) and in the Outfield (services extérieurs).

The Headquarters Organization

Internal Audit

COMMISSIONER

Public Relations

DIVISION A Personnel & Finance	A/1 Human Resources Policy A/2 Human Resources Management A/3 Departmental Budget & Accounting
DIVISION B Organization & Outfield	B/1 Organization B/2 Preventive Branch B/3 Real Property Management & Operating Supplies
DIVISION C Information Systems, Economics & Statistics	C/1 Statistics & Economic Studies C/2 Information Systems Policy C/3 Information Systems Management
DIVISION D Litigation, Legal Services & Enforcement	D/1 Legal Services D/2 Litigation D/3 Enforcement & Customs Control Policy
DIVISION E Customs Union & International Cooperation	E/1 International Cooperation & Relations 2/2 Common Agricultural Policy & Commercial Policy E/3 Customs Procedures & Technical Rules E/4 Tariff Classification/Origin/Valuation
DIVISION F Excise	F/1 Taxation & Transportation F/2 Hydrocarbon Oil & Finance Acts F/3 Excise

The responsibility for Customs & Excise policy lies with the headquarters unit, located 23 bis, rue de l’ Université, in Paris (7th district). The Commissioner is assisted by a Deputy Commissioner (adjoint du directeur général) as well as by six Assistant Commissioners (sous- directeurs), each one being responsible for an administrative Division:

- Personnel and Finance (Division A);
- Organization and Outfield (Division B);
- Information Systems, Economics and Statistics (Division C);
- Litigation, Legal Services and Enforcement (Division D);
- European Customs Union and International Cooperation (Division E);
- Excise (Division F).

Each Division (sous-direction) is divided into a number of Branches (bureaux).

The Commissioner is also assisted by a Private Office headed by a Chief of Staff (chef de cabinet), by an Internal Audit Office (inspection des services) and by a Public Relations Bureau (bureau de l’information et de la communication). A specific unit responsible for the coordination of European Affairs (bureau de coordination des affaires européennes) has been set up under the authority of the Deputy Commissioner.

Within the headquarters is also located the secretariat of the Eurocustoms (Eurodouane) Consortium. This structure has been created by the 15 Customs Services of the European Community with a view to providing technical assistance to other Customs administrations, in particular but not exclusively to those of Central and Eastern Europe.

The Outfield

The vast majority of the staff are employed in the Outfield, i.e. in the 40 Collections (directions régionales) and in 6 National Operational and Support Units (directions nationales). A number of Customs & Excise representatives are also posted abroad (conseillers, attachés and officiers de liaison).

The National Operational and Support Units

- the National Intelligence and Investigation Service (direction nationale du renseignement et des enquêtes douanières or D. N. R. E. D.), located in Paris (with 12 offices in the field), is responsible for the collection, analysis and dissemination of intelligence as well as for major investigations into matters arising through the entire French territory from the main businesses of the Department (Customs, Excise, some aspects of VAT);

- the National Foreign Trade Statistics Service (D. N. S. C. E. or direction nationale des statistiques du commerce extérieur), based in Toulouse, is responsible for producing, on a monthly basis, the country’s foreign trade statistics;

- the National Recruitment and Training Service (direction nationale du recrutement et de la formation professionnelle or D. N. R. F. P.), located in Neuilly (near Paris), has responsibility for organizing entrance examinations into the Customs Departmental Classes (Administrative Class-inspecteurs des douanes-, Executive Class-contrôleurs des douanes-, and Clerical Class-agents de constatation des douanes) and the selection tests for the promotion to supervisory and management posts (such as inspecteur principal des douanes) as well as for training, both general (after entry into the Customs Service), and vocational (investigators, pilots, Marine Branch staff, canine enforcement officers, computer specialists, accountants, laboratory chemists and research scientists, etc.). The Service is supported by three Customs Academies (Neuilly, La Rochelle, Rouen) and by Training Liaison Officers in the Collections;

- the Automated Customs Clearance Center (centre informatique douanier or C. I. D.), based at Osny (near Paris), operates and maintains the French Customs Automated Commercial System known as "S. O. F. I." (système d’ordinateurs de fret international);

- the Import and Export Permits Bureau (service des titres du commerce extérieur or SE. TI. CE.), in Paris, issues most Import and Export Permits required under French legislation;

- the National Hallmark Service (direction nationale de la garantie et des services industriels or D. N. G. S. I. ), also in Paris (with a number of offices in the field), is responsible for stamping French official marks on precious metals and for assessing the accuracy of and for certifying a variety of metrological instruments.

The Collections

The 290 ports of entry, 417 Preventive Branch units and the 815 Excise offices are distributed among 40 Collections (directions régionales), including those located in the Overseas "départements" of Guadeloupe, Guiana, Martinique and Réunion. Those 40 Collections, each headed by a District Commissioner (directeur régional), operate within 10 Regions (interrégions). The Region is under the authority of a Regional Commissioner (directeur interrégional). The Regional Commissioner-who is also in charge of a Collection-is entrusted with some specific responsibilities in the Region with respect to the allocation of some financial resources to Collections, enforcement activities (his Deputy is the Head of the Regional office of the National Intelligence and Investigation Service) and, where applicable, the management of the Regional Aviation and Marine branches. Each Region also houses a Customs & Excise Laboratory.

The 10 Regions are:

- Antilles-Guyane (Fort-de-France, Martinique, FWI): districts of Guadeloupe, Guiana and Martinique;
- Bordeaux: districts of Bayonne, Bordeaux and Toulouse;
- Burgundy (Dijon): districts of Besançon, Dijon and Orléans;
- Île-de-France (Greater Paris): districts of Downtown Paris, Eastern Paris, Western Paris, Orly and Roissy (CDG-Airport);
- Lille: districts of Amiens, Dunkerque, Lille and Valenciennes;
- Lyons: districts of Annecy, Chambéry, Clermond-Ferrand and Lyons;
- Méditerranée (Marseilles): districts of Aix-en-Provence , Ajaccio, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nice and Perpignan;
- Metz: districts of Metz, Mulhouse, Nancy, Reims and Strasbourg;
- Pays-de-la-Loire (Nantes): districts of Nantes, Poitiers and Rennes;
- Rouen: districts of Caen, Le Havre and Rouen.

The Réunion Collection is not part of a Customs & Excise Region. There are distinct Customs & Excise Services in the Overseas Territories and Territorial Collectivities of the French Republic: French Polynesia (Tahiti), Mayotte, New Caledonia, Saint-Pierre & Miquelon, Wallis & Futuna.

The French Customs & Excise Counselors, Attachés and Liaison Officers

They represent the French Customs and Excise Service in the country or countries where they have been officially accredited. They are all posted with French Embassies, Permanent Representations or Consulates General:

- Berlin (Germany): attaché responsible for Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden;
- Brussels (Belgium): counselor responsible for the European Union (E.U.) and the World Customs Organization (W.C.O.);
- Bucarest (Romania): liaison officer for Bulgaria, Moldavia and Romania; - Buenos Aires (Argentina): attaché responsible for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela;
- Istanbul (Turkey): attaché responsible for Armenia, Azerbajian, Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine;
- London (Great Britain): attaché responsible for Ireland and the U.K.;
- Madrid (Spain): attaché responsible for Andorra, Portugal and Spain;
- Miami (U.S.A.): liaison officer responsible for Mexico and the U.S.;
- Prague (Czech Republic): liaison officer responsible for the Czech Republic (cooperation);
- Rome (Italy): counselor responsible for Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta;
- Santafé de Bogotá (Colombia): liaison officer responsible for Colombia and Venezuela;
- The Hague (The Netherlands): attaché responsible for Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands;
- Tokyo (Japan): attaché responsible for Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea;
- Vienna (Austria): attaché responsible for Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the FYR of Macedonia, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland;
- Warsaw (Poland): liaison officer responsible for Poland;
- Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.): counselor responsible for Canada, Mexico and the U.S. and for the coordination of French Customs & Excise activities in the Western Hemisphere.

Furthermore, French Customs officers have been seconded with Europol (in the Hague), the Joint Intelligence Office (J.I.O.) of the W.C.O. (World Customs Organization) and the Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (C.C.L.E.C.), in San Juan, PR, the W.C.O. European Regional Intelligence Liaison Office in Cologne (Germany), the C.C.L.E.C. Permanent Secretariat in Castries (St Lucia, WI) and the Project Management Office (P.M.O.) for Maritime Co-operation and Related Law Enforcement Training Projects established by the European Union in Bridgetown, Barbados.

ORGANIZATION CHART

MINISTRY OF ECONOMY,
FINANCE & INDUSTRY
Ministère de l'économie, des finances et de l'industrie(1)

HEADQUARTERS
Direction Générale(2)