Qatar Customs Authorities, have issued a new ruling with regard to goods being directly shipped to Qatar from the UK with an EC Certificate of Origin. It is causing some confusion and problems so please be aware of this.
- The Notice states that it is the responsibility of the UK Exporter who is exporting the goods, to raise the relevant EC Certificate of Origin in the UK
- What is actually happening in practice is that the Qatari Customs are refusing to accept EC Certificates of Origin issued in the UK which contain goods of foreign origin. In effect, they are not accepting foreign origin goods from the UK.
Norfolk Chamber has contacted the British Chambers of Commerce for clarification, as we know this will affect many exporters in our region.
They suggest that BEFORE SHIPPING YOUR GOODS, you should raise your EC Certificate of Origin and scan/email to your client and ask them “will this be accepted by your Customs Authority?”
If your client says no, you should then raise an Arab Certificate of Origin but this will cost a lot more to process so please be aware of this. Prices for Arab Certificates can be obtained by calling the International Trade Team on 01603 729712.
For those of you who ship to Qatar by air, please see the Documentation Procedure for Air which outlines everything you need to show on the Invoice and other documents.
As and when we receive any further news on this matter, we will update our website accordingly
