Post-Brexit agreement and customs consequences
At the beginning of this new year, the divorce between United Kingdom and Europe has been definitively finalized: For the first time in almost 50 years, goods moving between these two territories will no longer benefit from the single market.
A spate of new regulations
The « No deal » was narrowly avoided, but the impacts of this exit from the customs union remain numerous. Customs controls will be more frequent and administrative procedures more tedious. For instance, some companies will have to pay inspection fees and apply for import licenses.
In addition, it will now be necessary to always submit a customs declaration when trading goods between the EU and the United Kingdom in order to find out which taxes and measures apply to them. The British government estimates that there will be an additional 215 million customs declarations per year, or nearly 600,000 per day.
Smart Border and controls
In order to overcome these new measures and to be able to cope with this increase in declarations, a new system (smart border) has been developed to make import and export flows more fluid. The importer has 30 days prior to the physical arrival of the truck at the port to make its advance declaration. It will have to be presented by the driver at the time of pairing.
The driver will pass the British immigration and customs controls and will then be allowed to board the truck.
At this moment, the declarant will receive a notification of embarkation, and will be able to validate his anticipated declaration. It is imperative to validate his declaration before disembarking. A risk analysis is carried out during the transit of the goods and will determine the direction of the flows on disembarkation:
– green line for transits not SIVEP (veterinary and phytosanitary inspection service at the borders), for empty trucks not submitted to control and routing orders.
– orange line for SIVEP transits, non-validated declarations, those subject to controls.
