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The Union Customs Code – it’s a mystery, say warehousemen
[ February 3, 2016 // Chris ]The UK Warehousing Association warns that the new Union Customs Code (UCC) will usher in radical new ways in which customs facilities operate when it comes into force in May this year.
It will have a significant effect on the way some of Britain’s customs warehouses operate, says trade body UKWA. Honorary advisers on customs issues, Barbara Scott of commented: “The UCC is intended to standardize more practices within the Community, which means that not only must more control come from Brussels, but also that procedures and communication systems must be aligned within the member states to ensure that traders have access to the same facilities.
“But, logistics service providers who operate in more than one member state will know how very different the processes are and how this is ideology will be difficult to achieve”
The three major changes are that customs warehouse facilities must be re-authorised by May 2019; mandatory guarantees to cover the potential duty on the goods stored in the warehouse; and the need for import supplementary declarations to be made to HMRC will be removed from May this year.
But as with so much legislation of this nature, the possible consequences is shrouded in ambiguity, Barbara Scott explains: “The reduction in import supplementary reporting to HMRC certainly sounds like great news. However, the business system must still be populated with the customs data and Customs Freight Simplified Procedures (CFSP) providers currently expect that traders will continue to have to update their systems as they do at present but the data will simply not be sent to CHIEF.”
UKWA warns that there could well be other change not fully understood yet that could impact on customs warehouse operators. “We are still waiting for guidance from Customs on a number of issues but HMRC itself is waiting for explanations from the Commission,” says Barbara Scott.
Third party warehouse operators can learn more about the various ways in which the UCC is likely affect their business at www.ukwa.org.uk or by contacting commercial manager, Shoaib Vakil, on 0207 636 8856.