Games fans face loss of duty free booze

Thousands of passengers transiting at EU airports as they return from the Olympic Games will have any duty-free liquids bought at Chinese airports flushed down the sink, the bloc's executive said.

Passengers who buy alcohol or other liquids such as perfume at any of China's airports will have to give them up when changing planes in the 27-member bloc, even if the items have been purchased after security checkpoints.

"We do not have any third-country agreement with China, so yes, any duty-free liquids will taken off any passengers returning from the Olympics and destroyed," a Commission spokesman told a daily news conference.

Every year millions of euros worth of duty-free items bought at airports outside the EU become a casualty of security rules under which air passengers must carry small containers of liquids or gels in sealed plastic bags on board planes.

Last year, Brussels said it would exempt passengers travelling from outside the bloc from handing over liquid products -- if they were purchased in countries with airport security standards that match those of the EU.

However, today Croatia became only the second country after Singapore to reach such an agreement since the new measures were adopted just over 12 months ago.

"The agreement with Croatia is just a drop in the ocean," Keith Spinks, secretary-general of the European Travel Retail Council told Reuters.

"The problems that will be faced by transfer passengers arriving in the EU from China during the Olympics is symptomatic of a much broader problem."

"Growing the list of countries with EU recognition agreement needs to become an immediate priority as several applications for such agreements are still outstanding."

The ETRC, which represents tax- and duty-free shops across Europe, estimates that duty-free sales worldwide have fallen over 40 percent in the past two years due to the EU rules.