Shadowing Practice: EU tightens rules on e-commerce imports | Vietnam Today - Learn English Speaking with Video
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29 sentences
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Around 6 billion e-commerce parcels entered the European Union last year.
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The rapid growth in volume is putting increasing pressure on customs authorities and raising the risk of non-compliant goods entering the market.
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The Council of the European Union has now approved the bloc's biggest customs reform in decades.
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With one major change, responsibility for goods sold online will shift from consumers to importers
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and e-commerce platforms themselves more from Vietnam today's correspondent in Europe
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every day millions of small parcels are delivered to consumers across
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Europe under the current systems the final buyer can in principle
8
be held responsible even online purchase has not met custom requirements
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or does not comply with EU rules but with such huge volumes that approach is becoming increasingly difficult to enforce.
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I think the main,
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the essential part of the reform is about transferring the liability of the product from the consumer to the importer.
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Under the new rules, non-EU e-commerce platforms selling goods into Europe will be treated as importers.
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That means they will be responsible for custom declarations, duties, and ensuring that products comply with EU standards,
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rather than leaving those obligations to the final consumer it's not the consumers
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that have to pay this fee it's either the sellers
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or the online platforms exactly how they have to pay customs
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duty right now the EU is also significantly strengthening penalties in
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serious cases of non compliance with custom obligations companies could phrase
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up to six per of the total value of goods they imported in the previous year.
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They could also lose some certain custom privileges or face restrictions on access to online platforms.
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From November 1, the EU will also institute an additional EU-wide handling fee on small parcels.
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The European Commission will set the level of the fee before a tax effect.
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The changes will also affect Vietnamese businesses and sellers shipping goods directly to EU consumers through e-commerce, along with potentially higher costs.
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Requirements on custom declarations, product origin and compliance with EU standards are also set to become stricter.
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What the EU is changing is not simply the tax or fee applied to each parcel,
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but the way it manages the entire flow of e-commerce import from outside the block.
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As more responsibilities seep to the seller and platform,
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access to the European market will increasingly depend on compliance from the moment a product is put up for sale.
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Thế Dũng, reporting from Europe for Vietnam today.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “EU tightens rules on e-commerce imports”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: custom, consumer, commerce, goods, platform. This video has 29 sentences and 418 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:04. The speaker talks at a steady 136 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| parcel noun | /ˈpɑɹsəl/ | A package wrapped, as for shipment or transport. |
| importer noun | /ɪmˈpɔː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)/ | One who, or that which, imports: especially a person or company importing goods into a country. |
| compliance noun | /kəmˈplaɪ.əns/ | An act of complying. |
| seller noun | /ˈsɛlɚ/ | Someone who sells; a vendor; a clerk. |
| comply verb | /kəmˈplaɪ/ | To yield assent; to accord; to acquiesce, agree, consent; to adapt oneself, to conform. |
| obligation noun | /ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/ | The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie to someone. |
| import noun | /ˈɪm.pɔɹt/ | Something brought in from an exterior source, especially for sale or trade. |
| declaration noun | /ˌdɛk.ləˈɹeɪ.ʃən/ | An emphatic or formal act of saying, telling or asserting something, by speech or writing; a decisive assertion or proclamation. |
| compliant adjective | /kəmˈplaɪənt/ | Willing to comply; submissive; willing to do what someone wants. |
| cellar noun | /ˈsɛləɹ/ | An enclosed underground space, often under a building, used for storage or shelter. |
| restriction noun | /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/ | The act of restricting, or the state of being restricted. |
| correspondent noun | /ˌkɔɹ.ɪˈspɑn.dənt/ | Something which corresponds with something else; counterpart. |
| enforce verb | /ɪnˈfoɹs/ | To keep up, impose or bring into effect something, not necessarily by force. |
| buyer noun | /ˈbaɪ.əɹ/ | A person who makes one or more purchases. |
| strengthen verb | /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/ | To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are delivered · be held · will be treated |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has now approved · has not met |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: obligation /ˌɑ.blɪˈɡeɪ.ʃn̩/, declaration /ˌdɛk.ləˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, restriction /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: declaration /ˌdɛk.ləˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, correspondent /ˌkɔɹ.ɪˈspɑn.dənt/, liability /laɪəˈbɪlɪti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like parcel, importer, compliance.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.