What you need to know to import from 1st October. Just the basics:

The Customs Declaration Service will be implemented from the 1st October 2022, and things will change. Preparations will need to be made in good time, and those preparations will need to be made by different parties within a working importing business.

The business HMRC financial transactions will already be managed to some extent through the CDS portal and Government Gateway account. What will shift substantially is that access to enable declarations will need to move through the same accesses, even if you’re not making the declaration yourselves as a business (non-declarant), but instead are instructing an agent to make the declarations for you.

 Your business will need to enable your declaring agent to make the declaration – and enabling the agent is done through CDS.

The following steps are the basics needed to be in place well before 1st October and prior to an agent arranging the declarations for you.

• Give administration rights to the person giving the import instructions

Whoever it is in the business that gives the instruction to an agent to make an import declaration will need to have Administration Rights set up in CDS. Whoever set up the CDS account in the first instance will have the Admin Rights and will be the ‘Go-to’ to enable access for any person who will be responsible for giving the instructions.

Instructions? What instructions?

Example: If your business is inputting data into a fast parcel operator’s portal to advise on how an import must be handled – this is the person giving the instructions.

• Authorise your agent to make your declarations in CDS by adding their details to your CDS account

The agent that is making the declaration on behalf of your business will not be able to make the declaration without their EORI having been set up against your CDS account. You will need to authorise them via your CDS Account for the agent to use your deferment account or cash account.

Agent? What Agent?

Example: If your business instructs a FPO on how an import is to be managed, the FPO is the declaring agent, and their business must be authorised to make the declaration for you. This authorisation is through CDS.

These are just initial steps that need to be taken.

What’s Really Important – is that CDS needs exacts.  The Risks from the Start

• The detail needed to make a CDS declaration is far greater than needed for CHIEF, the out-going digital method of making a declaration. If you are unable to provide the detail, your import is at risk.
• CDS is “data hungry” and providing instructions to an agent needs to be clear and concise, with CDS there are many new data elements that an agent will not know the answer too that has to come from the importer.
• An agent will become jointly responsible for any regulatory errors on the declaration made on behalf of your business. An agent is unlikely to take the risk of getting your declaration anything other than accurate, if it could cost them in the long run.

There’s no fudging or slurring with CDS. An agent will not be able to guess, and the importer is under regulatory obligation to both understand and implement the tariff requirements.

The rules for making a compliant import aren’t changing. It is the method of making that declaration that will change from October. 

Be ready in good time.

As part of the move from CHIEF to CDS (Customs Declaration Service) for Imports later this year, we are eager to gauge awareness on how far UK Businesses transition plans have progresses? We would be appreciate you taking a minute out of your day to answer our poll. 

CDS Awareness Poll

A Spotlight on Import Declarations in a CDS World

Your introduction to Import Declarations in a CDS World. How traders will need to prepare in readiness for their first entry being submitted to CDS. Register Here