EU Publishes Guidance on Customs Policies After No-Deal Brexit
The European Union recently issued a guidance document on trade and customs procedures for the EU after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom if there is no deal between the EU and U.K, according to a posting on the Malta Customs website. The guidance includes information on country of origin status, entry requirements, special duty-free classification and special procedures including transit, warehousing and inward and outward processing.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Many of the procedures mirror those that the U.K. would apply after Brexit. Importers and exporters with no Economic Operator Registration Identification (EORI) number or one issued by U.K. authorities would have to apply for an EORI from an EU member state to continue trading, the guidance said. The U.K. would become a third country for customs and trade purposes in the case of a no-deal Brexit, and the U.K. would no longer have access to the EU customs IT systems.
EU customs rulings, both for classification and origin, that were issued by the U.K. government would cease to be binding, as would any rulings requested by companies holding U.K. EORIs. Any pending rulings would not be finalized. Ruling holders with U.K. EORIs would be able to request the reissuance of a ruling once they get an EU EORI. Origin rulings would also cease to apply if they rely on the U.K. inputs to confer origin.
For the purposes of origin for the EU’s preferential trade agreements, goods imported into the EU from the U.K. would become non-originating goods on the date any no-deal Brexit occurs, even if they were produced in the EU before Brexit, the EU said. Trade between the EU and third-countries via the U.K. may still qualify if “provisions on direct transport/non-manipulation contained in the origin provisions of the relevant EU preferential arrangements are respected,” it said.
Imports from the U.K. into the EU will require an entry summary after Brexit. That would also apply to goods moving between two points in the EU through the U.K., the guidance said, though a transit declaration may be used to comply with entry summary requirements. Entry summaries filed with the U.K. before Brexit will not remain valid for subsequent entry into the EU after Brexit, and a new entry summary will have to be filed. “Where in those cases the operator could not comply with the respective time-limits, the ENS lodgement should be accepted,” it said.
Goods that may be exported from the U.K. to the EU after Brexit may qualify as duty-free goods returned after Brexit, however. “Where Union goods are brought from the EU27 to the UK before the withdrawal date and where then such goods move back to the EU27 as of the withdrawal date, the provisions on returned goods … should apply if the economic operator can provide evidence that the Union goods … were transported to the UK prior to the withdrawal date,” and “return in an unaltered state.”
See the guidance for more information, including on the use of transit and other special procedures as well as policies for exports after Brexit.