Originally Posted by
ESpen36
But those countries just seem to take your word for it, most of the time.
Like the US.
Originally Posted by ESpen36
The EU airports I've visited have not had any officers "sizing you up" as you walk out of the Green (nothing to declare) line.
Apparently then one would have to conclude that you must not have flown from the US to any EU airports at any point in the past ten years. That, or you have made a blanket claim that is inaccurate despite flying to the same airports where actions take place despite some passengers being unaware of the customs actions being taken in this regard at those airports.
Originally Posted by ESpen36
How do they know you're telling the truth if they're not even trying actively to catch smugglers?
They are actively trying to catch smugglers and do catch them -- and they catch them at every airport that is a hub for an EU airline that has commercial passenger flights to the US and is part of one of the three big global airline alliances. And every EU airport with scheduled passenger flights from the US or elsewhere in the Americas also have customs doing that which your "if" statement suggests they are not doing.