Advantages of binding tariff information

The first advantage of the BTI is that it saves time in the customs clearance process. If no binding tariff information is available at the time of clearance, the code numbers matching the goods must first be searched for and found in the electronic customs tariff. This process is not only time-consuming, but if the economic operator classifies the goods incorrectly, it could also lead to costs being higher than previously thought or to required documents possibly being missing.

In the worst case scenario, binding tariff information can even save the trader from criminal or administrative proceedings due to incorrect customs declarations. Because if an economic operator has chosen the wrong customs tariff number, there is a threat of additional payments, fines and criminal proceedings, and this can be very expensive.

We support you with the BTI

The experts at Gerlach Customs will be happy to advise and support you in this matter. In addition, we can apply to the customs authorities for binding tariff information on your behalf.

This provides you with legal certainty and saves you many risks.

Please contact us!

Based on our daily interaction and experience with companies that are about to integrate a Chinese supplier to their portfolio or trade with Chinese companies, we can help you with insights and learnings. Let us share three major ones with you:

1. Involve Customs consultancy at an early stage

A lot of times we experience that customers forget to integrate the costs attached to Customs in their business plan. Thus, best is to involve a Customs consultant like us at very early stage in your business plan development and execution.

If you import goods from China to Sweden, you must submit an import declaration to Swedish Customs Authority Tullverket. Customs duties and other taxes will be charged. Classification and proper commodity code is needed. The customs value is normally based on the price paid to the supplier when they sold the goods to the EU, the cost of transport to the EU border, and the cost of any transport insurance.

2. Be aware of newest regulations

Some Customs related regulations might be impacting your business, but you are not aware of them.

Just a recent example on trade with China: From 1 January 2021 the existing VAT exemption for goods up to 22 € will disappear. In order to allow VAT to be levied, all imports into the EU will have to be declared at the border using an electronic customs declaration.

3. Focus on your core business

As Customs declaration is mandatory in case of importing from China to Sweden and you might not be the expert in that field, it makes more sense for you to focus on your core business and involve the experts in that field – best before you start even considering importing – gain with our Customs consultant the full transparency on your costs. And once decision is made, we can take care of the customs declarations itself.

Consultancy and Trainings are parts of our business. We lecture in Sweden at the Customs High School and are also parts on Forwarding educations. A strength of our business is that we exist and declare in all industries and different companies’ specific handling.

We implement each customer with a personal customs specialist / contact, where the customer feels safe and secure that we take control of the customer’s shipments and ensure that they are declared smoothly without any complications or delays.

Get in touch with your Customs experts in Sweden:
Telefon: +46 709 345 566
E-Mail: info.se@gerlach-customs.com

More transparency and efficiency

„A Customs Control Tower system integrated into business processes offers our customers more compliance through clearly defined processes, more transparency and new possibilities for validating data and practices,“ explains Julia Delevi-Werner, Control Tower Supervisor at Gerlach Customs. Companies that choose Gerlach’s Control Tower solution benefit from improved trade performance thanks to customs performance tracking capabilities as a basis for strategic decisions and continuous improvement. They also benefit from lower operating costs through improved collaboration and new ways to proactively manage potential problems. Ultimately, you bring your products to market faster than ever before.

Get more info: The Gerlach Customs Control Tower

Customs Control Tower systems can collect data along the entire customs pipeline of the supply chain and output it as reports. They monitor defined milestones, identify recurring inconsistencies and help the entire company achieve the highest level of compliance with the authorities. For example, if an accompanying document is missing or does not contain relevant information, the system issues warnings and the Customs Control Tower ensures that the missing data is completed and can be used for customs clearance. Incorrect INCOTERMS or HS codes that have not been agreed are also reported to the customer, for example.

A Control Tower can do more than „just customs”

„The data and findings of a Customs Control Tower not only help our customers with customs issues. The Control Tower evaluation also adds another level of business analysis and opens up new possibilities for retrospective tracking and analysis of data“, says Delevi-Werner. With the help of graphs and tables, companies can identify discrepancies and take proactive measures to ensure compliance and optimise the flow of goods. The Customs Control Tower can support their procurement strategy and help them make informed business decisions based on customs data.

With Gerlach’s Control Tower solutions, companies that value centralised customs responsibilities and customized processes with robust KPIs have a complete overview of their goods flows. Thanks to the international transparency of the values of customs duties and taxes and customs processes that are performed on your behalf, you can make the right strategic decisions to optimise your flows of goods.

The sovereign right over this revenue was initially vested in the respective king. These soon expanded their own customs sovereignty to include national and city customs duties. From the Goths’ empire on the Black Sea, the Gothic concept of customs duty spread in the 4th century as “mota” (toll). In the Franconian Empire in the 5th/6th century, the late Latin term toloneum, abbreviated tol, later Tsol and then changed to Zoll, became generally accepted.

Customs in the Middle Ages

Until the Middle Ages, customs duties were levied at so-called customs collection points as a passport duty for the use of roads, bridges and port facilities or market facilities or as a protective duty for trade.

After the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), the German customs territory was fragmented into approximately 1240 individual areas.

In the 17th/18th century, under the influence of economic policy during the period of absolutism, the idea of financial customs duties became increasingly important as so-called protective tariffs to protect the domestic economy from undesired competition. Due to high customs duties, cheap foreign goods became more expensive and equivalent domestic goods remained competitive in this way.

The German Customs Union

As a result of the Congress of Vienna (1815), Prussia reorganized its economic and financial system in 1818 with the Prussian Customs and Excise Act. The collection of duties was moved to the external borders of Prussia. King Frederick William III of Prussia thereupon ordered Provincial

Set up tax directorates. When the German Customs Union was founded on 1 January 1834, this led to the political diversity of the German Confederation being contrasted with the compact economic unity of a customs state under Prussian leadership. The aim of the Zollverein was to create a single economic market and to unify fiscal and economic conditions. The uniform Vereinszollgesetz of 1869 was transformed into imperial law in 1871.

In 1879, under Bismarck, an intensified protective customs policy, especially against English goods, was introduced again.

Customs from the Third Reich to the present

This practice was replaced in 1939 by the Customs Act, which subsequently applied from 1961 until the introduction of the customs index in 1994, when the European single market was completed. On 1 January 1993, a single economic area was finally created in Europe, without borders for all goods.

The first step towards this was taken on 30 October 1947 under the auspices of the UN with the conclusion of the “General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT”. The aim was to expand the worldwide trade in goods without tariffs and trade barriers.  The GATT of 1947 was only replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 1995. The establishment of a customs union by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany to form the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1968 marked another important step in this direction. At that time, all member states declared their willingness to abolish their national customs duties and to merge them into a single customs tariff for the European Community (EC) vis-à-vis third countries. To ensure that all goods imported into the Community were subject to the same customs treatment, customs legislation had to be amended. An important step was the introduction of a single customs declaration, the so-called “single administrative document”, in 1988. It replaced about 150 (!) documents previously used by the various customs administrations of the Member States. With the reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) with the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on 3 October 1990, the customs territory of the EC was extended to include the former customs territory of the GDR.

Since the completion of the European Single Market on 1 January 1993, trade in the Single Market in the European Union (EU) is no longer subject to customs controls. However, customs still performs its traditional tasks along the entire external border with so-called third countries, ports and airports.

The largest enlargement of the EU took place on 1 May 2004: Ten more states joined the EU.

What is UCC?

UCC, stand for Union Customs Code; it replaced existing Community Customs Code (CCC) as of May 2016. One of the key changes being introduced under UCC is the move towards a paperless Customs environment – allowing all changes of information to be made electronically. The implementation of the required electronic systems is intended to be done by 2020.

One of the new features that are introduced under the UCC is Centralised Clearance.

Centralised Clearance at Import

Centralised Clearance at Import – formerly known as Single Authorisation for Simplified Procedures (SASP) – allows Economic Operators with an AEO status to declare goods on one Member State (supervising Member State) while the goods are imported or exported in a different Member State.

It also allows to centralise the accounting and payment of Customs Duties for all customs transactions in the supervising Member State. This centralisation brings savings in administrative and transaction costs for companies.

However the AEO status is a prerequisite. The value of AEO is strongly upgraded within the Centralised Clearance discussion.

It was intended to start Centralized Clearance by 2020. However, not all member states are ready yet and consequently the implementing phases are moved forward till Q4 2021.

The biggest obstacle for the implementation is the VAT handling, i.e. Enterprises need to have a VAT registration in the member state where import entry takes place or should be represented by a fiscal representative which causes additional cost. Even the difference between treatment of VAT at import in one member state can be different from the other i.e. in the Netherlands the levy of import VAT to the VAT return is possible which saves cash flow; this is not possible in most other EU member states.

We see great simplifications and opportunities coming with the implementation of Centralised Clearance at Import.  As a company in the field of Customs we are following the development in this area very closely, to be able to advise our customers in the best possible way and to make the necessary preparations in our operational set-up.

If you want to know more, please get in touch with us.

We have prepared a free whitepaper for you with the new rules, the most important terms and the changes to the previous version of the Incoterms®. On this page you can find out more: Click here to go to the Incoterms 2020.

Where for usual commercial goods the value and the origin of the goods are relevant, imported foodstuffs must in addition comply with European and German food legislation. Certain foodstuffs even require a license for import into the EU.

It should also be considered that, particularly in the case of land transport of certain foodstuffs, there is a need to declare and check them at certain authorized customs offices.

At DHL Freight Customs and Gerlach, we are always up to date with the latest developments in food legislation and can advise our customers accordingly.

"We follow a holistic approach in FoodLogistics to allow our customers a smooth but at the same time fast transport of their foodstuff."

2. Bio – a trend with high demands

There is no doubt that we are experiencing a strong trend towards bio in the food sector. German consumers are buying more and more bio products. The bio market in Germany grew by 5.5 % in 2018.

Imports are subject to special controls by the customs administration. Bio products must be certified by official control bodies and tracking is secured via the recently implemented control-system named TRACES.

3. Speed, safety and sustainability @FoodLogistics

We follow a holistic approach in FoodLogistics to allow our customers a smooth but at the same time fast transport of their foodstuff. The duration of the transport has a significant influence on the quality of perishable products. The better we plan the logistics the lower are the transport times, less delays occur at borders, the goods arrive faster at the shelf, and thus less waste is produced.

We have therefore developed a systematic four-step approach for our customers:

• Product knowledge: We have built a very comprehensive knowledge about the foodstuff. It is important to know the characteristics of food and how it should be best transported.
• Transport routes: We plan the transport to the last detail, e.g. the shipping quantity and the transport space play an important role in this matter.
• Customs: With our customs knowledge on EU regulations and restrictions we can advise the customer and allow a smooth cross border transfer.
• Bio-Certificate: Even higher requirements are placed on the import and export of bio products. Also in this are we have built our expertise and can best advise our customers.

 Because of the many regularities involved in the transport of food, you need a competent partner at your side. We at DHL Freight Customs and Gerlach can support you with our network and expertise.