Further details of the UK’s post-Brexit Customs Declaration Service (CDS) have been given by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
CDS is scheduled to be phased in between this August and early 2019 and will replace the existing Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system which processes declarations to facilitate the international movement of goods between the UK and non-EU countries.
From early 2019, all declarations made by businesses importing or exporting goods outside the EU will be made using the CDS.
Initially, the CDS will run alongside CHIEF, in an arrangement that HMRC anticipates will aid the transition to the new service. Importers, exporters and agents will be informed by their software provider when they need to provide the additional information required in order to start making declarations on the CDS.
That additional information will be required for declarations in order to align with the World Customs Organization (WCO) Kyoto Convention, currently being implemented in the UK through the Union Customs Code (UCC).
Businesses will have to supply: an audit trail of previous document IDs; additional party types, such as the buyer and seller; and possible additional commercial references or tracking numbers. There will also be changes between “Header” and “Item” for some data items.
To align UK customs data with international standards, there will need to be other changes, including: location of goods identification; the warehouse type code list; item tax lines; the way customs procedures are quoted and the number of items on a declaration.
For traders importing or exporting goods outside the EU, they or their agent will need to sign into the CDS on the GOV.UK website through a Government Gateway account.
HMRC says that an updated tariff manual will be available in April 2018.
