Brexit and UK Customs Clearance Requirements

Customs Clearance

Customs has been communicating with UK businesses that currently import from the EU, advocating that after Brexit they should use Transitional Simplified Procedures to make customs clearance as easy as possible. Transitional Simplified Procedures will enable an importer to bring goods into the UK from the EU without having to make a full customs declaration in advance.

However, an importer will still need to submit a customs declaration after their goods have crossed the UK border. The customs procedure can be frustrating, difficult and costly, if you get it wrong. 

For example, you will need the correct commodity codes of the items you are importing to determine any duty payable on your import.

What are commodity codes?

The World Customs Organization (WCO) has developed a multipurpose international product nomenclature known as the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS Codes). The six-digit code is regulated by the WCO and that means the first six digits of the tariff are the same in most countries.

The EU use an eight-digit coding system comprising of the HS codes with further EU subdivisions, this is called the Combined Nomenclature (CN). The CN serves as the EU's common customs tariff and provides statistics for trade inside the EU (intra-EU trade statistics) and between the EU and the rest of the world.

The EU hold commodity codes in a database called the TARIC, or Tariff Intégré Communautaire. This integrated tariff comprises of the eight-digit code Combined Nomenclature, plus two additional digits (TARIC subheadings).

The Integrated Tariff of the UK is based on the Combined Nomenclature (CN) eight-digit coding system for classifying goods. The Integrated Tariff is formatted, with the first two digits of the tariff code representative of the name of the trade tariff chapter, digits three to eight apply to headings within the chapters and numbers nine and ten determine the duties.

Product example:

Code                           Description                                Classification type

64                          Footwear                              Harmonized System (HS) Chapter

64 06                    Parts of footwear                Harmonized System (HS) Heading

6406 10                Shoe uppers                         Harmonized System (HS) Subheading

6406 10 10            Leather                                  Combined Nomenclature (CN) Subheading

6406 10 10 10        Hand-made                         TARIC Subheading

Getting the commodity code wrong!

Incorrectly classifying a product can lead to incorrect duty payments, border delays, non-compliance penalties, seizure of the products and a denial of import privileges.

Unless you are incredibly well versed in customs clearance, you’ll probably be wanting some help and we can help.

If you would like more details, please call +44 (0) 118 932 8447 or email info@icsglobalservices.com

ICS Global Services Limited