Customs Declaration System (CDS)

Customs Declaration System (CDS)

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had stated that the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) will replace the existing Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system over three phases. During this period there will be dual running between the operation of CHIEF and CDS. The purpose of dual running was to minimise the impact on businesses, whilst reducing the volumes via CHIEF. The dual running of the declaration processing would stop when all importers/agents were on the CDS platform.

It now appears that HMRC plan is to continue with dual running until the department is confident that the new system is fully developed, stable and tested. This is good news after the UK Government confirmed plans to introduce border controls for all EU goods at the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020 (Brexit). This will require traders in the EU and GB to submit customs declarations and be liable to goods’ checks. To-date there have been concerns that the new CDS solution would not be able to handle all these additional customs entries in addition to replacing the CHIEF system.

HMRC have stated the following:

CHIEF is one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated electronic services for managing customs declaration processes, but it’s nearly 25 years old and can’t be easily adapted to new requirements.

The decision to replace CHIEF with CDS was made before the EU referendum, however CDS will be scaled to handle any potential increases in the volume of declarations that may result from the UK’s exit from the EU.

If you use an agent for customs declarations you may need to give them more information because of the changes required by CDS. 

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

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