The Customs Compliance Burden?

RGR has become more important post Brexit - evidence of original export is required - however some customs authorities (the UK for example) allow this evidence to be held centrally rather than provided for each individual import. This requires pre-authorization.

They key is automating the mundane and ensuring checks are risk based.

Very difficult question – without a network like KPMG, it is difficult to keep on top of differences in law and interpretation. We provide a retainer/helpline arrangement for many clients to cover these knowledge gaps.

We're seeing an absolute increase in the level of audit activity from the customs authorities - with the increase in the volume and complexity of declarations, this is not a surprise.

Accessing MSS data is a good step to take - this provides declaration data direct from HMRC.

UK perspective:
There are no 'Licensed' agents like in the US. It's indeed difficult to manage what the brokers do. Penalty clauses in your service level agreements with them can be a way to ensure more correctness. It's a commercial issue that you have to force the broker to do what you want them to do, but there is a stick from the government to hit them with if they go wrong. On the www.gov.uk site is an option to amend your export declarations online. There are also online versions of a) the ability to recover overpaid duty and b) to declare an underpayment of duty based on a declaration error.

EU perspective:
It's indeed difficult to get rectifications done in a timely manner but key point here is to have a tracking in place and it should be taken up in the SLAs and the vendor satisfaction discussions with your customs agents. Automation is the best answer to all human errors. For more information on customs automation, please reach out to us.

Have a view on your own customs profile. Check who is doing the declarations on your behalf. MSS data in the UK or PLDA data in Belgium can show you which business partners are filing on your behalf. Have ownership of your data, and once again, MSS data and our Data Analytics tool provides visibility over your entries and who is filing on your behalf. Another way is CAS, with this customs automation tool, you can do self-filing and have more ownership and visibility of your supply chain.

The overall time limit is 3 years - this is the time period in which a customs debt remains live in both EU and UK legislation, and as such declaration "amendments" are acceptable/required. How the mechanics of "live" declaration amendments are processed depend on the countries involved.

The important point is to understand what your client is doing with your goods. If they're using your goods as inputs for manufacturing other goods, then – even if the duty rate is zero - they may need your statement on origin (effectively acting as a "supplier's declaration") to export their goods to countries where preferential treatment applies (for example for the purpose of cumulation).

The audit process works in terms of the import authority asking the export authority to verify that the statement on origin is correctly issued.

Regardless of what the supplier declares at export, it's always the importer's responsibility to declare the correct commodity code at import.

Yes - a version of MSS will be available - at the moment it is unclear when the data will be provided free of charge.

This is a very difficulot question. With prepayed shipments you have no contractual relatinship with the courier. If mistakes are being made, they need to be made clear to HMRC as many couriers carry AEO accreditation.